How Challenging Our Identity Can Make Us Better Therapists

I struggled to write this post but decided I would go ahead with it anyways.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have received a couple of scathing emails from someone who unsubscribed from the blog saying that the information on here is misleading, arrogant, disrespectful, has nothing to do with basic massage therapy skills, and is a disservice to the profession.

It’s not the first time I’ve received a message like this, and I’m truly sorry the information we try to spread made someone feel this way.

But then I have to take a step back and ask why?

Why would a couple of articles get someone this upset?

Then I witnessed some discussion on a couple of Facebook threads and there was a word used… this word can incite some pretty big emotions in people.

The word was “cult” (and for the record, I’m not saying any group within our profession is a cult, I was just reading) and for some, this is a word that can incite anger. Especially when we’re referring to different groups within our profession!

According to one source, what makes this word so powerful is the “us vs. them” mentality which is sometimes seen in Facebook group discussions. 

So, I want to use this post to dissect why I think this kind of stuff happens and how we can all grow together.

Challenging Our Identity

I have written an article before that touches on this topic but for those of you who haven’t read it, I’ll give you a little bit of my story.

I was raised in a very religious family by loving well-meaning people. However, as I grew older and got into my teenage years, I started to question things and couldn’t always get an answer that satisfied me. Most of the time when I questioned things, people would get upset because I was questioning the very foundation of their belief system.

As I got into my twenties I started to take more of a step back from my family’s faith, I kind of still had a foot in it, but the rest of me was pretty much out.

Then in my thirties, I got to the point that I had to make a decision. Being involved in the faith didn’t make me happy, but there was genuine concern over leaving it altogether. How would my friends and family react? This was all I had ever known, how do I just leave and start a new life?

It was scary!

My entire identity revolved around being a part of this religion, I was identified by my faith!

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that as scary as that was, I still have supportive parents and family, sometimes we just have to put our differences aside. I realize you may be looking at this and thinking, what does this have to do with massage 오피가격 therapy, so just be patient with me for a minute.

I saw an interesting video the other day where the person was talking about the way we teach things to children can have a profound effect on them later in life.

They talked about grabbing the brain of a person when they’re young and if we dictate things to them in a way that presents something as fact, their very lives can be shaped by what has been put in their head.

They will genuinely believe whatever has been told to them.

I can’t help but liken this to my experience in college.

I didn’t really question the information being presented to me (in all fairness, I had no other advanced education past high school, so hadn’t really been taught critical thinking skills) because all the information I needed was in the textbooks and why would the instructors tell me something that was incorrect? I had complete faith in what was being taught to me.

I think for most of us, once we’re done college we look for the next best thing in continuing education and go down a road of looking for the best manual techniques we can find. Sometimes this results in following a couple of instructors (or maybe just one), then investing in Levels 1-4 of manual technique “X” and shaping our careers around these specific technique styles.

All of this could be happening in the early or “youth” stage of our careers, everything being taught to us is being presented as fact and we genuinely believe it because…why wouldn’t we!?

Knowing all of this, I can’t help but liken it to some of the things I see happen in our profession and I think I realize why I get some of these scathing emails once in a while.

We can spend several years doing these courses having great success with the patients who come into our practice, all the while this is shaping our identity as a therapist. Your patients refer their friends because you’re the best manual therapy “X” provider they’ve ever been to!

You have the absolute best of intentions and you genuinely help most of the people who come and see you (none of us have a 100% success rate) because your hands and the technique you use works so well. Your practice is thriving, so why question it? Plus, you go to another course from the same provider and you’re surrounded by like-minded people who are also having great success with these techniques!

Then somebody questions it.

Your very identity, intentions, practice, and success are all questioned.

If you changed, how would your colleagues react? what about your patients? their referrals? your place in the community?

Your very identity could be changed…and that’s REALLY SCARY…trust me, I know!

Challenging our own belief system, whether its the one you were raised in, or the type of therapist you are might be one of the most difficult things you could ever do, but the thing is, it doesn’t have to be!

Evidence-Based Practice

Last year at our associations AGM there was a huge discussion around evidence-based practice.

Some of the discussion centered around reading research and applying it in practice. I wouldn’t say it was a heated discussion but there was certainly a bit of controversy. Much of this was around how to make research easier to access and making the information easier to digest.

Then when it was all over, an interesting thing happened.

An accountant came up and asked me “what does evidence-based practice mean?”

I said: “well, it means using your experience in practice while reading the most current research and staying up to date on new findings so we can better serve our patients for better treatment 부천오피 outcomes.”

She said: “isn’t that just a given!?”

You’d think so?