Here at the Academy, we have been exploring the idea of wellbeing and how this fits into our treatments and care of our clients. Last week Chris talked about his view of the three elements that give us a full picture of our clients; lifestyle, posture, and emotion.
Click here for last week's discussion on wellness.
This week we want to explore how you can use these elements to inform your treatment and get the best gauge of where/how your client is.
One of the key questions that presents itself for therapists is ‘where do you start your treatment’? If we use these elements to inform our treatment and assessment of the client, then the starting point should be what we can notice when the client enters the room; posture.
There are a number of postural observations that we can notice about our clients but by far the most common one is rounded shoulders. If we can make this observation then we can start to consider what might be causing this both from a lifestyle and emotional perspective. For example, lifestyle elements might include desk work, regular heavy lifting or hours spent driving. Emotional elements to consider could be sadness, depression, anxiety or being overwhelmed.
In being able to make these connections, whatever type of therapist you are, you can offer a tailored, supportive treatment to your client.
In the below video Chris uses the example of rounded shoulders as an initial client observation to further consider what could be impacting this postural issue from a lifestyle and emotional perspective.