



Some of the more popular Top 5 Fridays Posts involved 5 mistakes in the past, here are 5 More Mistakes I See Others Make and Have Made Myself.









1) Assuming there is a one size fits all to a certain patient presentation

I have been guilty of this for many conditions in the past

whether it's no orthotics, everyone needs orthotics, everyone needs Pain Science Education, or everyone should run with a midfoot stance

there is no one size fits all, one treatment or assessment to rule them all because there are ALWAYS exceptions to the rule

there is also too much variability in patient's activities, beliefs, nervous systems, overall health and variables in general for any one treatment/assessment to cover all cases





2) Trying to get a patient to buy into a certain assessment/treatment

Whether it's these exercises will reduce your low back pain (or disc protrusion), or Pain is an output from the CNS in response to perceived threat

you ARE going to lose some patients with your explanations, rationale, treatment and assessment

experienced clinicians know when patient's eyes are glazing over and can immediately switch gears to a presentation they feel the patient will more readily accept





3) Buying into any particular guru or system's approach

this gets a good amount of clinicians into trouble somewhere along the line

I've said it many times before and I'll repeat it again, no ONE commercial model is going to get you their promised 80% or more success

in order to get a particular faculty member's success rate, you have to BE that person, using the same mannerisms, confidence, charisma, interaction, placebo and more

learning many different easy to understand and implement systems, and keeping it simple to a few treatments and home exercises work well for most cases





4) Trying to force compliance out of a non-compliant patient

some patients are not buying that you (or anyone short of surgery or miracle drugs) can help them

basically, my 2 visit leash for zero changes also applies to non-compliant patients

you’ll save yourself a lot of frustration if you just refer out to someone they think can help them





5) Treating too locally, or treating too globally

sometimes, a neck patient is just a neck, and you do not need to address breathing, thoracic spine, core stability

other times, an elbow patient with medial epicondylalgia has previous history of knee surgery and their lack of hip, tibial IR is contributing to their complaints during golf

what works for me is to address the proximal complaint/function first, then look at least one joint proximal and distal to be sure, then go after distal asymmetries







Check out our Therapy Insiders Podcast on Common Clinical Mistakes and How to Avoid Them here

The next few weeks, there will not be regular updates until after the holidays. Maybe 1 blog post a week until after New Years. Thanks for reading and making The Manual Therapist what it is today!