In this post we discuss a client who forgot to mention a car crash, and how beliefs affect outcomes as much as physical training.
Every now and again something happens at work that surprises me.
Recently, it was a client forgetting to mention she’d been in a car crash several years ago. Ok, I’ll add that to your notes was my initial response, followed by incredulous laughter.
It’s certainly not the first time this has happened. I’ve had clients forget to mention surgeries, broken bones, and on one occasion, a former career as a dancer. Really.
This is why spending time with people is so important. Forgotten history isn’t just an admin gap — it’s a reminder that the full picture of someone’s body, and their relationship with it, emerges gradually.
Beliefs are just as important as physical history
Just as every trauma and exercise routine leaves a physical trace, the words spoken by healthcare professionals, friends, and family shape our beliefs.
What a client thinks is causing their pain, whether they believe it can improve, and what they imagine is happening inside their body, affects their progress as much as anything that happens during a training session.
A client who is convinced that their knee is ‘bone on bone,’ or that their spine is ‘crumbling,’ will tolerate exercise very differently to one who understands their nervous system is simply reacting to a perceived threat.
How you conceptualise what’s happening to your body, and just as importantly, what we’re trying to do to help improve it, is critical to your recovery.
This doesn’t happen in an hour. It happens over weeks and months of conversation, examples, and analogies, all relevant to your particular experience.
Ultimately, this ongoing process of building understanding might be just as important as the physical work itself.
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