I know you've been there...

It's that dreaded moment when someone says, "I'm not getting better".

😩 UGH it hurts to hear that, doesn't it?

It's especially frustrating when you know they ARE getting better.

But, for some reason they aren't seeing what you're seeing.

Then starts that conversation (turns disagreement) where you kindly share how they are improving and they still insist, "No, I'm not getting any better".

Ok...where do we go from here? 🤔 Clearly, something is missing.

Now, let's work through this together --

When someone says they're not getting better and you feel that's not true, instead of feeling frustrated, get curious -- make it a BIG light bulb moment.

💡 Ask yourself this: Are you measuring success the same way as your patient OR are you are both on VERY different pages?

Part of this process is understanding 2 things:

• Do you both have the same vision of what the end goal looks like? (paint the picture: get all the details of what "better" really looks like, feels like, etc)
• How is your client measuring success? (What is your patient using as an indicator that things are the same/better/worse, how frequently is that being assessed?)

From there, you can have a real conversation about how you both want to change gears.

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My Challenge for you this week:

Think of a patient you are struggling with.

Check in with yourself: Do I really know, understand, and share THEIR vision of success?

If the answer seems fuzzy, vague, or you're not sure then it's time to get clarity!

In Part 2, we'll talk about next steps.

Dive in Deeper If you need to zoom out bigger to understand the larger context of why your patient feels they aren't getting better -- check out this article Listening is therapy Article by Diener et al., 2016

Always in your corner,

Brittany Kim 🔥 the CRPS PT