To teach or not to teach?

So, I’ve noticed that there is a perception among some health practitioners (trainers, PTs, even primary care doctors etc.) that clients/patients don’t want to know or cannot understand the “why” behind their rehab, strengthening, or any variation of health improving journey.

This is simply not true. Most of us have heard the phrase before that goes something along the lines of, “if you can’t teach it to a kid, you don’t understand it”. And that certainly applies here.

The reason many of us in healthcare have jobs is because we have completely disregarded the need for health education starting from day one. The vast majority of schools teach a lesson on health to kids maybe a few times a year. And these lessons are largely useless (think back to “the movie” in 6th grade for sex ed *shudders with cringe*). Students are required to take math which goes mostly unused for the rest of their lives if they aren’t in a career involving it, but are not required to take anatomy and physiology even once.

Now I will go on in a separate post about this sad reality in our society, but here I want to address healthcare providers and discuss what happens 20 years later when people are needing to recover from health problems and come to us.

People need to learn how to take care of themselves. They need to understand what is going on in their bodies. They need to understand their pain or illnesses and be empowered to work through them on their own.

I’m still not entirely sure what people’s reasoning is for not wanting to empower and educate their patients. It might be laziness, the fact that they actually do not know how to explain things to their patients, the idea that they don’t think their patients care or would be capable of understanding, or because they think that if they empower and educate them they may lose that client or patient.

Knowledge is Power

It’s their body! They are *absolutely* able to understand it .

First of all, if you are under the impression that a person will not be able to understand what you are explaining to them about their body issues, remember that that person is living in that body! They are absolutely able to understand. It doesn’t happen overnight but with consistency in education they are plenty capable. Second, withholding information from a patient in order to keep them reliant on your services and coming back is incredibly selfish but it’s also not true! We have clients that have gained so much autonomy from seeing us and they come back for months to years longer than they really need us because we are able to continue to help them grow and they still see the value in staying with us. So if you are providing valuable services, that should not be an issue.

At FMF, client empowerment is at the top of our list of priorities. We want our clients to become aligned with their bodies and health. For the majority of clients who don’t know what is going on inside them, this is completely life changing.

People have questions.

Why am I in pain?

Why am I overweight?

Why am I unhappy?

Why are you having me do what we’re doing to get me where I want to be?

I truly believe that it is our responsibility and duty to answer those questions to the point that the clients understand. This takes on a different timeline for different people. Nobody learns this on day one. It takes practice as the clients are working physically on themselves. Things start to click one by one. Watching this process is so beautiful and priceless. Everything about a person changes as they become more intune and confident in their bodies. They carry themselves differently and speak more confidently.

Empowerment is Priceless

Everything about a person changes as they become more intune and confident in their bodies. They carry themselves differently and speak more confidently.

Another aspect of this is that when clients understand what’s going on with them and why you are having them do certain protocols, the client will be much more likely to engage in the plan because they feel like they are a part of it. It helps them see the value in whatever it is you are asking them to do! It truly benefits all parties to educate your clients.