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But we are proud to say that Shaun Brewster contributed 71 entries already.
Okay, but what if it doesn’t? Fear can be a significant barrier to improvement and contributor to increased pain, sensitivity and avoidance behaviours. Injuries occur, and our bodies heal. But the regression of pain is rarely linear. Is there a belief that a movement is harmful, a subconscious expectation of pain, a memory that is associated with […]
I’ve been reminded of this several times recently, and it has been a good reminder that what we perceive to be the case, is not always the reality.In the world of clinical practice, arriving at a point of mutual understanding and rapport with your patient is very important. This connection and mutual respect is key […]
There is often so much focus on anatomy and structure in relation to pain, but let’s not forget about human physiology. Disruptions in homeostasis, may be the underlying mechanisms influencing a pain experience. We have 11 body systems and none of them can function independently.That’s right, muscles are not an independent system. Let’s go back to physiology […]
In business, there is a metric known as CAC – Customer Acquisition Cost. This dollar amount is the cost of convincing someone to buy your services.Many things can go into this cost, much of it is generally advertising and marketing dollars, and some may be the cost of humans answering phones, responding to questions and processing […]
We could spend hours searching the internet for the “Best exercise for (insert pathology)”. Well, I will save you the time and tell you right now! The best exercise is… the one your patient enjoys! The key to getting people moving is finding out what they enjoy doing. The more they enjoy it, the more likely they […]
Earlier this week, I heard my mother in-law say the following:“It’s nice to be important, but more important to be nice”As soon as I heard those words, I thought to myself… YES! This is so true. She is a smart cookie 🙂We see this play out in every arena in our lives, and healthcare is certainly not […]
Let’s consider a high-performance athlete.For an athlete to perform at the highest level, they need to put in the work, they need to train, they need to eat well, they need to sleep, they need to ensure they are focused on a goal, and they need to minimise distractions that may stop them from achieving […]
As a health practitioner, we often wear many hats.Some days we are a Clinician, dealing with patients and their issues. Some days we are a business owner, managing staff, ordering stock or solving problems.Some days we are a Marketer, deploying advertising, creating content, spruiking our services.And some days we are just confused… Wondering what to do […]
Recently, I was told that course content and discussion should be solely factual, and that opinion should not be used as it may bias discussion… The fact is… much of what we know about pain and manual therapy is not necessarily fact but rather evolving hypotheses. It is the discussion that allows us to question […]
Do you ask questions like, how is your pain today? How has your pain been over the last week? What is the level of pain you are feeling at the moment? Tell me more about your pain… Directing attentional focus to the pain may not be helpful. Now don’t get me wrong, I know pain may […]
I was thinking the other day about something I quite often say in the classroom.“Success breeds success”.It’s true that when we succeed at something, we are more likely to try it again and ultimately gain even more success. Though, on reflection, I realised that there is more to this.It is in fact, MINDFUL success that […]
A very important but overlooked skill… Feedback is what I am referring to. I believe that both giving and receiving feedback is a skill, and that skill takes practice. The word itself might increase anxiety levels when someone says “let me give you some feedback”, it might automatically put you on the defensive. However, the implications […]
When teaching health practitioners new ways of treating or introducing new ways to work with patients, I’m often met with the following statement…“But my patients expect me to do XYZ, I don’t think they will be open to me working in that way”. It’s true, updating, changing, or shifting the way in which you manage […]
Let’s tickle your dendrites, fire up your axons because this case study will get you more excited than an action potential. What comes to mind for you? Does your mind go completely blank? Do you panic? Or do you get a rush of possible differential diagnosis rushing to your head? It might be easy to point the […]
I always get asked the question, “How much is enough?” What I mean by this is treatment dosage.How long should you mobilise a joint for? What grade mobilisation should I use? How long should I leave a needle in for? How much stimulation should I use? How many repetitions should I prescribe? How many times should I […]
As clinicians it is important that we are always staying up to date with evidence based practices and terminology. One very commonly used label is “Sciatica” This diagnostic label dates back to Hippocrates who was allegedly, the first physician to use the term ‘sciatica’, deriving from the Greek ischios, hip. Many years later Galen treated sciatica by blood letting, […]
So often in clinicians and patients blame an individual muscle or structure as the cause of pain. How often do you hear (or even say) that it’s the Piriformis, Supraspinatus or the QL… Yes, I am sure if someone presents with pain in the buttock, shoulder or low back, these muscles may be tender to press on. […]
Welcome back to this series on the TMJ in clinical practice. My goal in this series is to introduce you to different factors in the assessment and treatment of TMJ related pain. Today I’d like to bring your awareness to the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disc.Just like the discs in our spine, this disc exists to absorb […]
Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction… Where do we start?! Such a small joint, but so much to understand and consider when assessing and treating this presentation. I hear from so many of you that the TMJ is just so complex and difficult to work with, and many people will simply refer on, not knowing how to approach it clinically. Not surprisingly really, […]
Can your brain change? Have you every changed your mind, or changed your opinion? Even when you believed something so strongly, but you were still able to change. What about that bad habit that you were able to shake? Have you ever tried to learn to play an instrument, learn a new language or take […]
Firstly, let me start out by saying I am no expert in leadership, nor do I think I am a great leader. But over the years I have had some great leaders and some not-so-great leaders. I am lucky enough to currently be led by one of the best, so I am learning as I […]
Does pointing out postural discrepancies help or harm? I, like many of you were taught to assess a patient’s posture, and was taught that if someone had an anterior pelvic tilt, then it must mean their hip flexors are short and tight and their glutes are long and weak, or if their shoulders were internally […]
Often there is a lot of attention directed towards the ‘condition’ or the ‘pathology’ in chronic pain, and while this is a component, we need to zoom out and look at the whole person. It is common to think and believe that the pain is the cause of the negative impact on a patient’s life. What if we look at it […]
In my travels I get the privilege of speaking to lots of clinicians from all over the world, and something that often comes up in conversation is their desire to build a big clinic with lots of practitioners.It makes sense of course… Building a large clinic with a broad offering is a great way to scale […]
I bet you can think of someone like this…It is the person who is so very confident in their ideas or opinions that they are incapable (or perhaps unwilling) to see that there may in fact be flaws in their perspective. Don’t get me wrong, confidence is a highly valuable character trait, and one that can serve […]
Advanced Clinical Education (ACE) originally set out to become the most trusted and respected source of quality post graduate education for health practitioners in the manual therapy professions. What followed has continued to blow us away every single day.
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