The Wick of Change

How can you bend a stubborn iron? You can do it by force but the edges will be jagged and the shape, deformed. Conversely, you can warm it up until it softens slowly, until the iron itself is ready to be moulded and re-shaped. The same applies to a person; you cannot force someone to change drastically. It takes time and a ton of effort to change behaviour. This is what The Freedom Writers instilled in me last Friday.

Change takes time; however, this is not always applicable to clinical setting. As a therapist, knowing a patient can be difficult if there is limited time. A patient may come to you for the first time and you will be tasked to teach her/him a novel exercise for a limited 45 minutes. The real challenge as a Physical Therapist is not the physical effort of demonstration and contact guidance but the mental planning of how to facilitate the activity without an idea of how the patient learns best and how to use that “best strategy” to facilitate change in behaviour that is crucial for a treatment program to be effective. Teaching is a matter of trial and error; but 45 minutes is too short to conduct many trials to select the best option. From the initial assessment to the intervention itself, the therapist must closely and keenly search for clues to the patient’s personality as this will help determine the latter’s “soft side” that will eventually be the loophole to her/his persona and be the wick of her/his change in behaviour.

Values can be radiated; and are sometimes contagious. To instil determination and patience to a client, the therapist must first be determined and patient. To help another person change, we must be flexible enough to change in the first place.