Therapeutic alliance is crucial to ensuring that you, as the patient, get the most and the best out of your physiotherapy sessions. Creating a personal bond and sustaining it throughout the rehabilitation process is an integral part of creating this therapeutic alliance.
How, then, do physiotherapists go about creating this therapist-patient bond? It comes down to several things, including the following.
1. Effective Communication
Your therapist will allow you enough time to tell your story and explain the issues for which you are seeking physiotherapy. The therapist will then clearly explain the diagnosis, the exercises you will be doing and the goals of the proposed treatment, all in a simple language that you can understand.
An expert physiotherapist will always ask for feedback from the patient. Is the proposed treatment course working? Is there anything that the therapist can do to make you more comfortable during your sessions?
2. Joint Decision-Making
Having a say in your treatment course certainly inspires a lot of confidence in it. By being a part of the decision, you will own the process and do your best to make it work.
An expert physiotherapist recognises this and will strive to ensure that you have a say in the treatment methods. This is, of course, after explaining all the options available to you and their merits. What works? What does not? You can always change things up later as you see fit.
3. Keeping promises
It's about the little things that build trust. A professional will, for example, always avoid being late to your physiotherapy sessions. If the therapist assured you that you should see some results within a specific timeframe, it only builds your confidence in their abilities and the treatment if the prediction turns out to be accurate. If the therapist promises that they will send you some material and details of exercises you can do on their own, then they should do just that without fail.
4. General Demeanor
It's easy to bond with a physiotherapist that demonstrates genuine empathy for your situation. If the therapist shows a sense of concern and understanding in both words and actions, it will help you to open up and give yourself fully to the process.
These pointers, among others, can help to create and strengthen a healthy therapist-patient bond, which will, in turn, positively influence the outcome of your physiotherapy sessions.
To learn more about physio, contact a physiotherapist.