The Power of Advice and Education

What is the most powerful tool you have as a physio?

When we think of physiotherapy, a lot of things come to mind.

In the early stages of my life, I remember physio was all about massage and using machines such as TEN’s and Ultrasound’s to reduce the pain.
I also remember the first time I had dry needling, going to school the next day and telling all my friends about it.

Physio for me progressed then from “hands on” modalities curing all injuries, into biomechanics and movement. I remember getting told things like “you’re getting this shoulder pain because your 4th toes muscles aren’t working properly” (Exaggeration)…

Then we jump to, no hands on work is required, all we need is for people to move, be active and exercises. Hands on work is a waste of time…

After experiencing all of this and trying to implement all of these myself, at any given time throughout my career, I have now landed on the fact that there is a time and place for all of these great treatment methods.

But, for all these modalities to work effectively, we as physio’s must deliver the most important treatment of quality advice and education to our patients.

I use the expression often that “it doesn’t matter how good a massage is, if your back hurts with lifting and you lift 40kg by yourself, you’re going to be in pain…”.

By providing the right advice at the appropriate time, while considering the persons specific day to day needs and requirements, and understanding who they are as an individual, we as therapists can make a massive difference to a persons injury and quality of life.

By giving patients the power to understand things such as load management, avoiding aggravating movements where necessary, and promoting safe movement in a controlled way (to name a few), we are able to empower our them to recover and live strong lives, in ways that allow them to manage their pain, and have the tools to understand what to do if a potential problematic situations arise, which may cause a new injury or re-aggravate an old one.

Let me know your thoughts and what you prioritise.