For about a decade, I read all of the research surrounding the McKenzie Method, also known as Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy.
I felt confident in seeing a patient on the first day and being able to discern, from the details of the history and movement exam, what was happening regarding the person’s pain experience.
This could only be done through an MDT lens. I couldn’t treat post-surgical patients well because protocols weren’t my cup of tea. Protocols required little thought and I believed that a 🐒 could do that type of treatment.
I couldn’t do chronic pain because I didn’t feel comfortable not having an answer to the questions.
All these years later, I’ve become better versed in treating patients with chronic pain, stinkin thinkin, poor health and post-surgical.
The problem was never in the patient, but instead in how I perceived the patient and subsequent treatment.
Having spent hundreds of hours learning about these types of patient presentations, I feel that I can relatively effortlessly slip from MDT classification to a pain based classification, and do all of this within a protocol if it is required.
Spending time in the trenches to learn your craft will allow you to use many different weapons of choice when enacting you’re craft.