The Complete Clinician — Are We Mental Health Professionals? Part 3

So let's start with something that I think is genuinely exciting.

The research is showing us something really compelling.

that when manual therapists actively integrate basic psychological techniques into their physical treatments, outcomes improve significantly.

Not marginally, significantly.

And in some studies, it outperforms physical therapy alone.

Now, I know what some of you are thinking.

Psychological techniques? That's not my scope.

And I hear that.

But what we're talking about here isn't therapy.

It isn't diagnosis.

It's teaching a patient a skill that helps their nervous system do what it's already trying to do.

Specifically, the research points to things like abdominal breathing and guided body scans, simple, teachable techniques that, when integrated into a session, produce notable decreases in pain and anxiety.

So think about what that actually means in practice.

If a patient is on your table and they're guarded, bracing, holding, you can teach them how to breathe through that.

You can walk them through a simple body scan.

And in doing that, you're not just helping them relax in the moment, you're giving them a tool they can take home.

Something they can use during a pain flare-up at 11 o'clock at night when you're not there.

That's significant.

Because one of the things that drives pain catastrophizing is the feeling of helplessness.

The sense that pain is happening to them.

and there's nothing they can do about it.

When you teach a patient how to down-regulate their own nervous system response, you're directly countering that helplessness.

You're building their confidence.

You're building their

resilience.