Episode 268 | Perfectionism, Stress And The Physical Therapy Student With Mike Richardson, PT, DPT, DHSC

03/02/22 • 28 min

In this episode, we are discussing perfectionism and stress in the physical therapy students. Stress and burnout in the PT profession are personal interests of mine. I have done some research and explored how to use ACT in preventing burnout and creating resiliency in physical therapists. We briefly explored this topic of perfectionism in episode 217 with physical therapist Andrea Moore. She is a PT who specializes in treating women in overcoming perfectionism, and the intersection between pain and perfectionism.

Perfectionism is often caused by having high standards or having a hypercritical evaluation of oneself. Some doctor or physical therapy students experience increased stress when they go through the rather rigorous academic coursework that we take in physical therapy schools. Yet there is limited research in understanding the intersection between stress and perfectionism in the PT students, what the successful behaviors are that these students have that help them manage this increased stress, especially those who are perfectionists coming into the program.

Here to discuss perfectionism and stress in the PT student is Professor Mike Richardson. He is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Doctor of Physical Therapy Program at Hanover College. He is a Doctor of Health Science from the University of Indianapolis. His current research interests include perfectionism and stress among physical therapy students.

You will learn all about perfectionism and its prevalence among DPT students, perfectionism’s relationship to stress, and why it is important to better understand the relationship between stress and perfectionism. Finally, what can be done? What strategies can you employ if you are a DPT student or a physical therapist yourself who is looking at the impact of stress on your physical as well as mental well-being? Let's meet professor Mike Richardson and learn all about perfectionism and stress in physical therapy students.

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Episode 267 | The Lived Experience Of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder And Complex Regional Pain Syndrome With Deborah R. Brandt, PT, DPT

We're discussing the intersection between PTSD, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and CRPS, which is Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. My guest is Dr. Deborah Brandt. She is a retired Doctor of Physical Therapy. She teaches about issues regarding chronic pain and the use of somatic therapy practices. Her personal experience with and the study of complex post-traumatic stress disorder as well as complex regional pain syndrome, which she identifies as being complex psychophysical phenomena, has enriched her comprehension of both issues and provided her with unique tools to communicate her insights and knowledge to others.

In this episode, we will discuss treatment options, but more importantly, this episode is an opportunity to hear one's lived experience, which includes her knowledge of PTSD and CRPS gained through her direct firsthand experience rather than learning through textbook-like descriptions, which can be challenging to understand the full complexity of what people go through. Without further ado, let's begin and meet Deborah Brandt and learn about the intersection between PTSD and CRPS.

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Next Episode

Episode 269 | The Top Psychological Components Of Pain Rehabilitation With Alexa Knuth, SPT

We're going to talk about psychological aspects of pain rehabilitation that physical therapists perceive as important. When we're talking about research, a new topic or providing new information, oftentimes I'm talking to a pain researcher. It may be someone with a PhD or someone who is actively engaged in investigating different aspects of pain from a lifestyle and a biopsychosocial perspective.

In this episode, I'm introducing you to Alexa Knuth, who is a student physical therapist. Alexa is a student at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland. She is in the last year of her program and she is excited to start a career. Even before she started her career, she had already started to delve into the evidence and contribute to the evidence base by writing a paper called Psychological Aspects of Rehabilitation as Perceived by Physical Therapists. You can all access that. It was published in 2018. I came across it and thought it was important to share with all of you so we're going to be talking about that on the show.

Alexa also has an interest in working with and applying psychological techniques to a specific patient population, which is those who are looking to self-manage inflammatory arthritis like rheumatoid arthritis. There are lots of great applications for this work here. We'll talk about that in this episode as well. Overall, we'll talk about the important psychological techniques people can use for self-management and which physical therapists perceive are the most important.

As you know, psychologically-based care or psychologically-informed physical therapy is something we often discuss on this show. We teach courses on that at the Integrative Pain Science Institute. You can go over and check out our courses as well as the newly released Psychologically-Informed Pain Practitioner Certification. That's a complete certification that discusses the different multimodal approaches that you can use with regard to cognitive and behavioral interventions as well as whole health interventions for treating people with chronic pain. Without further ado, let's begin and meet Alexa Knuth.

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