How To Rapidly Become A Confident Physio & Get Results With Any Patient That Comes Through The Door

In the Mentorship Program and on my regular strategy calls with therapists from over the world I hear one big challenge everyone is facing and I get asked the same question again and again. 

‘How can I improve my confidence as a therapist? even if i have just graduated’.

Today I’ll share with you just how I got the confidence to help any patient who walks through the door…

Having confidence is the key to success in the physiotherapy world. Once you can understand the key concepts it will focus your mind, give you a clear picture of where you need to go in terms of learning and the actions you need to take.

When I look at confidence I think of three main areas;

• Confidence in yourself as a therapist – This is your overall confidence. If you have confidence in yourself, as soon as a patient walks through the door they’ll hear your tone of voice and feel your presence. This is especially important with complex cases.

• Knowledge – Do you have the knowledge to feel confident? This is something I see a lot of therapists spending a lot of time on but ultimately they’re going in circles. That’s because they overlook the third key to confidence.

• Application – This is simply, your ability to get results.

Each of these tie into each other. Once you have the knowledge and the confidence to apply that knowledge then your confidence as a person will improve. It is a chain reaction…

We see it in mentorship all the time. If you give people the knowledge and the ability to apply the knowledge then their overall confidence grows.

Confidence is clarity in what you’re doing and when you have clarity you have calm. As soon as you have these your confidence as a therapist increases. Your tone of voice, your body language. This all leads you to take simple and effective action.

In the Mentorship we talk about structure a lot, and this is a key to being a confident therapist. When you’re dealing with a unique patient and a unique issue you have to use structure to keep it simple.

The structure gets you from A-B in session 1, so you can go from B-C in session 2, which in the grand scheme of things will take you to Z. 

Whether it is using breathing, or your knowledge of the role of the diaphragm and pelvic floor in depressing the rib cage… All you need is these simple tools to calm the patient and allow them to take action.

When you have a patient come in, you’re not going to be sure of how to get from A to Z but you do see that there are a lot of elephants in the room. Firstly, take care of these… decrease the pain experience, get them moving and then you can deal with what is left over.

You do not have to know everything in the initial assessment… When the patient has made progress the next week it has all calmed down and you can see clearer.

You just need to know where the patient is and where they are going. Once you have clarity on goals, confidence will come and ultimately you’ll get results… And this is exactly the same for your patient.

Of course, your diagnosis is important but it is just another piece of the puzzle. What use is a diagnosis if you can’t get the patient back to where they need to be?

You need to look at the patient in front of you and look at their behaviour. Ultimately all you have to do is undo the behaviours and build a graded exposure plan based on how to get to where your patient needs to be.

Most therapists have a solid foundation of knowledge but the lack of confidence comes from knowing just how to apply that knowledge in the real world. If this sounds like you, click here to learn more about gaining the confidence you need.