Monday, 17 November 2008

Why every consultant should see the physio

I gave myself a sore neck this weekend, and had to see the physio this morning. Ow! Spasms.

I'm deeply impressed with Andrew at Total Body Physiotherapy in Titirangi. Here's what consultants can learn from Andrew:

  • Empathy. As I struggled to lie down, he said "this has been quite a hard week, hasn't it?". Simple acknowledgement of others' pain helps the healing start.
  • Contextual. He asked about the pain, he also asked about the context - my lifestyle, job, state of mind, whether I ever got angry (I told him about once a week - it's kind of difficult to quantify!) and what I did to relax. Understanding your client's context will give you true insight into the real issues, and help prevent wasting time and resources on a fix that may aggravate the problem.
  • Open. He explained his decision-making process throughout the treatment. For example, "We'll try X, which might lead to Y. If Y happens, we'll do Z, but if not, we'll try C."
  • Realistic. He didn't approach me with a cookie-cutter solution; instead he recognised I needed some preparation before he could do manipulation or mobilisation (see, I learnt some of the physio terminology too!). 
Have I missed anything?

This person needs a phsyio

5 comments:

Rachel Ah Kit said...

Good stuff Simon. I don't know him, but from my experience with physio/chiro/osteo/massage practitioners he sounds great. What a great link between consulting like this and those of us in "business". I hope to be putting this into practice myself soon!

Anonymous said...

I've seen quite a few physios over the years, both for my (ex)gymnast daughter and for myself and I found many of them to be similar to the one you blogged about.

I think anyone in business could take a lead from them though. I'm sure you could come up with a great story from this. What can the rest of us learn in customer relations and what did we know we should be doing but somewhere along the line as we got busy, tired and stopped doing.

If anything stands out from your experience it is genuine empathy, which is quite different to people like my dentist who ask considering questions and then move on to talking about themselves or something else when you open your mouth to answer.

Sometime when people ask me how I am, I reply "Very, thanks", then when they say, "Oh that's nice", I know where I stand:)

Mark Lincoln @ Hot PJ said...

They're pretty though those physios. I went to one for some bad whiplash after a car accident and boy did it hurt!

Hope you're feeling better soon, mate.

Simon said...

@rachel thanks, and knowing you I'd say you will be absolutely fantastic!

@luigi very, thanks. Love it! Glad I got a good one.

@mark thanks, actually it was very gentle, he didn't want to do the painful stuff until my muscles had loosened up a bit.

Mark Lincoln @ Hot PJ said...

The physio wanted to go gentle on you?!? Man it must be bad!!

You must spend a lot of time at a computer desk - gotta make sure you're sitting on your chair right! I tried one of those inflatable balls once but found it too much of a distraction!