Top Tips For Clinical Excellence – What Do I Do If My Science Explanation Fails?
Today I’ll lay out clearly what to do if your science explanation fails…
Why Does Your Explanation Fail?
A lot of therapists in the mentorship program and various other groups I coach get frustrated because they see we need to get these pain neuroscience messages out but the reality is that if we give patients these explanations they don’t really process or understand them.
Please don’t take this as ‘pain neuroscience is a waste of time’… It is a very important part of the treatment process but what we can do as clinicians is understand why this process isn’t as effective as it could be.
Building trust
Before you explain anything you need to have built trust, a connection and a sense of authority with your patient. More importantly you need to find a way to explain effectively.
Giving an explanation isn’t something we were taught at university, it’s a skill and it needs practice…
Change Your Mindset
Sacrificing accuracy for understanding is something I do a lot and I’m unapologetic about it. This doesn’t mean sharing false or wrong information. What I do mean is that I am not worrying about being 100% accurate if it means the patient understands what I’m trying to achieve.
A lot of my explanation will go into motor adaptations or movement habits and the elements of pain neuroscience that I share will be simplified. I would explain that the area in pain is actually doing a good job, perhaps the tissues are a little irritated but that is what is sending signals to the higher centres.
What happens here is I have helped the patient understand why the tissues are acting the way they are in the first place. Link that with the patient’s story and it will make more sense to them.
Sacrifice Accuracy For Understanding
Sacrificing accuracy for understanding is something I do a lot and I’m unapologetic about it. This doesn’t mean sharing false or wrong information. What I do mean is that I am not worrying about being 100% accurate if it means the patient understands what I’m trying to achieve.
A lot of my explanation will go into motor adaptations or movement habits and the elements of pain neuroscience that I share will be simplified. I would explain that the area in pain is actually doing a good job, perhaps the tissues are a little irritated but that is what is sending signals to the higher centres.
What happens here is I have helped the patient understand why the tissues are acting the way they are in the first place. Link that with the patient’s story and it will make more sense to them.
Final thoughts
A few things to think about and ask yourself before you next explain pain neuroscience to any patient…
Are you focusing more on challenging their beliefs or are you actually explaining?
Remember, if you don’t have that trust and connection in earlier sessions wait to use your pain science.
Finally, ask yourself, is your patient in the right mindset to hear the explanation?
