Summer 2020 Alumni Profile
The School of Physiotherapy is very appreciative of its many alumni supporters, whether they support the School through being Clinical Instructors, Lab Demonstrators, Guest Lecturers, Annual Fund Donors, employers of our graduates, or a combination thereof. We want to make sure you are receiving alumni updates, invitations to events and all the latest on what's going on in the world of physiotherapy. To update your contact information please fill in the convenient Dalhousie University Alumni Update Form.
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“What you say matters. An individual’s pain experience can drastically change by what we say, how we say it, and how they interpret it. Building a trusting relationship allows for open dialogue which can minimize confusion, fear, anxiety, and pain."
The Importance of Fostering Strong Therapeutic Alliances
by Lil Crump
Our PT Matters newsletters makes a point of featuring the career paths and passions of our School of Physiotherapy alumni. In this issue we caught up with MScPT Class of 2016 graduate, Tyler Dillman.
Tyler entered the MScPT program with undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Kinesiology. The combination of his volunteer work in a penitentiary psychiatric ward, working as a hospital psychiatric attendant and his interest in exercise and how the human body works, led Tyler to pursue physiotherapy as a career.
As he reflects back on his time in the MScPT program, Tyler remembers how quickly classmates connected. He describes interactions with peers to be less about competition and more about a collaborate effort to get through, what can sometimes be, stressful times. As Tyler puts it, “there is something to be said about how the School of Physiotherapy fosters that learning environment early on, as it becomes critical when you are out practicing and treating people.”
Approach
When it comes to patient care, Tyler understands the importance of forming relationships with the people he serves. “It is something special about our profession – we get to build relationships with many people in order to help them understand and overcome a challenging experience.” Tyler describes his approach as using an “interactor model of care” rather than an “operator model of care”. His approach focuses on pain science, motivational interviewing and active listening. Using this approach, Tyler takes the time to gather a true understanding of how pain impacts his patient’s life, the fears that arise as a result of their pain, their perceived goals of recovery, and how reasonable the goals are to attain. Feeling heard and feeling supported, in Tyler’s experience, is a large an integral part of what patients are looking for.” From what I understand”, Tyler explains, “self-management strategies are key to overcoming and managing chronic pain. Fostering a strong therapeutic alliance with a patient can, in my view, increase the effectiveness of coaching a patient in self-management strategies.”
Adaptation during Covid-19
The arrival of Covid-19, along with consequential physical distancing measures, saw physiotherapists, including Tyler, turning to telehealth as a means of connecting to their patients. With many patience not having access to the type of equipment generally used for physiotherapy treatment, Tyler found himself developing creative ways to help people move and strengthen safely within their home environment. Other challenges requiring an alternate way of thinking and doing include strategies for assessing, questioning, exercise and mobility prescription, and education. “Many patients needed to shift their mindset on how physiotherapy can help them without hands-on contact. For the most part”, Tyler shares, “clients have been receptive to telehealth techniques.” Tyler goes on to explain that quite a few of his patients have mobility and accessibility issues and with the recent introduction of successful telehealth care, patients are seeing telehealth as a viable solution for their future needs.
What advice does Tyler have for current and graduating students?
“What you say matters. An individual’s pain experience can drastically change by what we say, how we say it, and how they interpret it. Building a trusting relationship allows for open dialogue which can minimize confusion, fear, anxiety, and pain. It can be the difference in people leaving your treatment room feeling weak and broke, or strong and resilient, a very big difference in mindset that is important. Look for emotion, confusion, and listen to what the person is saying, not what you are looking for them to say. It is important to know it is okay for you to be confused, pain is confusing and complex, and varies with every person you see. It is our job to help people better understand their issues and help them overcome them, not to fix their problems for them.”
“What you say matters”. Sounds like good advice for us all.