When it comes to choosing who we bring onto our health care and wellness team (I am a firm believer that a team approach is best), it’s important to keep in mind what types of services and tools we may best benefit from and the type of person we feel most comfortable with.
If we step away from specific methods for a moment and look just at some prerequisites for effective care, there are many common threads in what sets the foundation for a good provider-to-client relationship. These ground rules could be applied to our relationship with our doctors all the way to our massage therapists or other allied health-care providers.
Finding consistent and meaningful relationships with our service providers can be tricky. Sometimes the effort to simply get in to see someone within an appropriate time frame is the biggest challenge.
Read Also
Consider new ideas on the farm with a learner mindset
When people want some influence and agency to try something new, and are faced with “This is the way the grandparents always did it,” enthusiasm and creativity can be dampened.
Here in Canada, who we get as our primary medical provider (family doctors or general practitioners) may come down to location and availability. In this sense, it’s important once you do find a practitioner to suit your basic medical needs that you feel you can communicate with them and work towards a trusting relationship. Because many doctors are limited in the time they can spend with each client, speaking easily with your doctor can aid in the depth of care they are able to provide.
Often doctors will refer you to other allied professionals for additional care. This is common for injuries, physical well-being, mental health or lifestyle changes. This may include being referred to a physiotherapist, kinesiologist, exercise physiologist, athletic therapist or massage therapist. Other allied professionals can include chiropractors, osteopaths, acupuncturists, manual therapists/bodyworkers, yoga therapists and mental health providers like psychologists and psychiatrists.
Similar training
All of these various professionals will have different focus areas, but many have similar training. For example, a physiotherapist, athletic therapist and kinesiologist will often work in very similar areas and have similar training. A physiotherapist is frequently the local generalist, focusing on acute injury care, post-surgical care and pain management. Athletic therapists tend to specialize in movement-based care, often with additional tools like manual therapies. Kinesiologists are experts in movement science and can be found both as physical fitness advisors and trainers, as well as working in rehabilitation settings focusing on movement-based care.
Utilizing chiropractic, osteopathic or acupuncture services can be effective for musculoskeletal care, with these professionals often practicing in similar scopes to other rehabilitation professionals.
Massage therapists and other providers with a manual therapy focus are excellent resources for pain management, movement enhancement and maintenance of well-being. Massage and manual therapies, including energy work (reiki), acupuncture, breathwork and yoga-based services all are hugely supportive for stress management, joint health, mental health maintenance and quality of life. They are often used alongside more direct therapeutics like the physical therapies to enhance care and support healing of acute injury or chronic tension.
Mental health providers can include psychologists, counsellors, psychotherapists and psychiatrists. All have various specialties and clinical focuses and are well used for stress management, trauma recovery, anxiety/depression and other, more severe mental illness presentations.
As with our medical providers, finding the right allied health professionals can come down to proximity and availability first and foremost. Those of you living in rural areas will well know that options within an accessible distance can be limited. It’s important to recognize while every provider will have different specialties, training backgrounds and lived experiences forming their method of care, “good” or effective care really comes down to how well they are able to communicate, educate and relate to you as their client or patient. Effective therapists will have many tools in their toolbox, and often many of those tools can be used for the present issue at hand. What works for you as an individual will be different from other patients, and effective practitioners will work with you to find the best approach for you.
It doesn’t matter so much what exact tools a therapist uses for their client’s care. Likewise, the cost of a service doesn’t guarantee its effectiveness. A massage, chiropractic adjustment, acupuncture session or movement-focused session will all have similar physiological effects on our bodies and minds when looked at objectively. What makes the difference in the end is the practitioner’s ability to connect with the client in a meaningful way. In the same breath, I would also advise that any practitioner worth their salt is going to be more than willing to work alongside other practitioners toward the well-being of a client.
Regardless of what provider you see, priority should be placed on their ability to understand your lived experience compassionately and come up with a plan that works for you and addresses your intentions about why you came to see them. At the end of the day, you are the only expert on you.
