As a physical therapist, you must end and limit physical symptoms including pain and range of motion problems. However, it is essential that you concern yourself with helping patients through the emotional pain of injury and the frustrations and depression that often accompany the physical symptoms. Cognitive and behavioral therapy tools allow therapists to help patients handle challenges such as fearful anticipation, discouraging thoughts and negative emotions.
The top physical therapists understand that psychological support is crucial for helping patients attain their physical therapy goals and cope with their pain and immobility. There are a few tools and techniques that you may employ to help your patients with the emotional pain of injury.
How to Help Your Physical Therapy Patients Well-Being
Education
How a patient learns to deal with their emotions has a significant impact on their long-term physical pain and recovery. Education helps patients work through their challenges. Providing patients with an awareness of the therapy process and online resources are two vital steps toward improved outcomes.
Engagement
Emotional stress is a disruptive feature of physical pain and limited mobility. Emotions range from anxiety, fear, guilt, and depression to anger and frustration. As a physical therapist, you must consider pain’s emotional and sensory aspects for the best outcomes. Provide patients with resources they can use on their own to understand their diagnosis and begin independent home routines.
Conversation
Try to engage your patients in meaningful conversations to help them understand their therapy goals. Engagement is all about interaction, listening, and learning in relationship to another person. Patient engagement begins with you. Meaningful conversation means not getting caught up in charts, diagnosis, and treatment methods to the point that you no longer see patients as emotional beings.
When you listen to patients’ challenges, goals, beliefs and fears, you are in a great position to offer relevant feedback. Feedback will help you connect with a patient to work toward the desired treatment outcome.
Behavior Modification
As good as tools and techniques are, they are worthless without the ability to instill long-term behavior modification. As a PT, you must understand what people go through when trying to develop a new habit or change an old one. Lacking understanding, their therapy plans will fail.
Empowerment
Empowerment is a vital tool to help patients work through their emotional pain and frustration associated with physical pain and limitations. Education, meaningful conversation, engagement, and behavior modification are all tools that will enable patients by providing them with methods to maintain a successful long-term outcome.
Take Care Of Yourself Too!
Emotional well-being is crucial for successfully treating your patients. However, your emotional and mental well-being is essential too. The staff at myPTsolutions can help you find a job that supports your emotional and mental well-being.
