By Ariana Besse (B.Phty Hons)
This is the last blog/video for this mini-series on pain. For this blog, let’s explain what a session with a physio would look like! The main thing we want to do in a session is to become one of your team members – we work with you on the best way to improve your life and achieve your goals. This is sometimes the first conversation we will have with you, “what is it that you can’t do right now that you want to get back to doing?” And from there we can work out where you are right now, what parts you can do, and where can we start. It is like troubleshooting: “have you tried this? Have you tried this?” And we have some insight we can provide for you, through experience and evidence-based practice.
A Team
We are working as a team with you. OUR goal for a physio session is to work out YOUR goals and how best YOU can achieve them. And not every session is going to look the same. We may discuss your beliefs, what you think is going on, any diagnoses you have been given, and then provide you with some education based on evidence-based practice. This is centered around what we have found has worked from our past experience and what research says. In summary, we will tailor it to YOUR needs. No one knows your body like you do, and no one knows the journey you have been on like you do.
Pain Education = Empowerment
A big part of pain science and management is education. This includes a discussion around pain, what makes it better or worse, pain misconceptions, and the importance of understanding the process of pain. EDUCATION = POWER. When you UNDERSTAND why things hurt more on a particular day, it can make more sense to you, remove some fear and give you a sense of confidence. E.g. you have rolled out of bed this morning, this is usually really safe, and today it’s feeling particularly stiff, and you think to yourself, “maybe I’ll just play around with a bit of movement” or do something that changes the input to your body.
PHYSIO & MOVEMENT
And this is what seeing a physiotherapist can really help with: we find key movements that you might be able to use throughout the day to help with your pain. E.g. sitting for 30 mins, and the pain begins to aggravate around 25 mins – we might suggest setting an alarm at 20 mins and getting up and moving around. We can also play around with some different positions that change the input coming in and are non-aggravating.
An important myth buster is there is not actually “a proper way to do something”. If you experience back pain when you go from sitting to standing, it is usually NOT because “you stood up wrong”. But by tweaking things, we are changing some of those inputs and make the brain a little happy. We want to turn the brain to say “ehhhh, I’m a little less concerned about it”.
You are different from anyone we see because YOU are YOU. Hopefully, this gives you an idea of what a session with one of our physiotherapists would look like. You have different goals and different needs, and we will do our best to meet you where you’re at and give you the treatment you need. If you have any questions, you can send us a message on Facebook, Instagram, email (“matt” or “zac” “@auscarephysio.com.au”) or call us (5499 3200). We would love to have a talk about this because we are passionate about helping you get the best information and treatment.
References:
- Butler, D.S., & Moseley, G.L. (2016). Explain pain(2nd [updated] ed.). Noigroup Publications.
- Moseley, G.L., & Butler, D.S. (2017). Explain pain supercharged: the clinician’s manual. Noigroup Publications.
- https://cor-kinetic.com/have-we-ballsed-up-the-biopsychosocial-model/
- https://www.iasp-pain.org/
- https://www.noigroup.com/resources/
- https://cor-kinetic.com/blog/
- http://www.greglehman.ca/blog
For more information, check out the following video of Matt and Zac.
