Are Your Patient’s Picking Up On These Psychological Triggers

All right. Welcome everyone to the next episode of The Redefining Physical Therapy Podcast. Happy Monday, everyone.

I hope everyone’s Easter was great and you’re ready to kick butt in the clinic and get your patients better.

And so on that same token today, I’m going to talk a little bit more about the psychology of patient care and different things that you can control that will help your outcomes.

And so a lot of times we think as manual therapists and orthopedic and sports guys that my techniques and just my knowledge is going to get my patients over the hump.

And so these are just a few things I think you need to keep in mind as you begin treating your patients.

So the first thing is the patients don’t really care what you know per se, but they want to know that you care about them. So it all starts with trust.

And so if you can show empathy, you can show trust and listening to them when you’re doing their subjective for that first initial day that you meet them, that’s really going to help develop trust with them.

Another way that you can really develop trust beforehand is if you are an expert, it’s that perceived status of you.

And so that’s why as a doctor of physical therapy, you need to be the go-to expert in your area in town.

You need to be a published author. You need to write for your local newspaper. You need to be writing blog posts.

You need to be writing content on specific things because then when people land on those things, you’re already the expert. You’ve established yourself that the authority, the celebrity, and the expert.

And so they’re already going to be bought in for the most part, but you still need to use good patient efficacy in developing trust and listening to them.

From there, you also need a few other little things that just can make or break you.

And so I was having this conversation with my team the other day. And so one of our providers, was having some of his patients drop off after his initial evaluation, and he’s a good clinician, but there are little things that you can do to develop that buy-in.

And so he wasn’t calling himself, Dr. Kupper. He was saying, hi, my name is Andrew. And so when you go and meet someone, they want to be working with an expert. So you need to be calling yourself, Dr. Gray, Dr. Smith, whatever it is.

So the next thing in line is just dressing for success.

And so if you study any sales books, you study any psychology book, our mind subconsciously is always approving or disproving people.

And so you need to A, be looking sharp, you need to be dressing like a professional, you need to be wearing clothes that a doctor or a professional would wear.

Don’t be wearing khaki pants and polo and gym shoes with your hair barely done, not clean-shaven, and your hair is not dressed or put up. That stuff’s going to affect your outcomes big time.

You may not think so, but it is. And so again, it’s at a subconscious level of these things are happening.

The other side of it is your clinic itself, the experience. And so if your clinic is clean and neat, you’ve got one-on-one rooms with your patients where you can have in-depth conversations versus having just a fold-up table and a curtain, those things again, are going to help you too.

So there are tons of different things that are going on in our patient’s minds, but I do think if you establish yourself and your area as the authority, the celebrity, the expert, you actually take the time to listen to your patients and do a very thorough, subjective and clarifying things.

You are dressing for success.

You’re on time.

And also you’re calling yourself a doctor and having a clean clinic, I think your outcomes are going to go through the roof versus someone who has maybe the same clinical skillset.

You’re going to get people better because of that psychology component. So that’s just my little rant for today. I hope you consider these things and adding them to your clinical practice.