Why CONFIDENCE is Important in the Clinic

Omg...

There's a patient over there...

What if I don't give them the right diagnosis?

What if I fail to give them the correct treatment plan?

What if I'm just shit?

I get it. You just want the patient to get better. You don't want to fuck it up because... you care. 

But guess what?

If you bring that energy into the consult room, your patient is unlikely to get better at ALL.

Why?

Because you're going in to the consult with an air of insecurity. And insecurity will drive you to practice in a way that doesn't DIRECT the patient to their goals.

And no, I'm not telling you to command them.

You can be a gentle or firm shepherd, but you still have to herd. You still need to guide your patient toward their goals. 

Contrary to most 'confidence' coaches, where they talk about doing certain exercises to 'boost' how you feel about yourself.

I just recommend ONE mindset shift that'll change the way you see confidence forever. If you want to watch a video of how I did this while stuck in a cave in Laos, watch the video below. If not, continue reading!

 When a patient comes to you with a problem, you come up with, or use a tool to fix their problem, right?

For example, if a patient has pain - you might use some dry needling or massage techniques.

If a patient has weak glutes, you might use hip strengthening exercises.

These are all tools.

But what if I told you CONFIDENCE is a tool? 

If confidence is a tool, what is the 'problem' that they're facing?

Insecurity. Confusion. Lack of clarity. Anxiousness.

The patient is unsure of their path ahead, and the BEST tool you have is CONFIDENCE. 

But it's not about 'what you feel'. It's actually about understanding that the patient is going to benefit CLINICALLY if you just communicated confidence. 

In other words, stop thinking about why you're not confident. This is a very self-centric view.

You are there to support the patient.

You need to be patient-centric. 

You need to understand that appearing confident is in the best interests of the PATIENT.

When you understand this, it's no longer about how you feel but learning to project confidence in front of your patient. And there are ways to do this (which I'll cover in a later blog post). 

A lot of clinicians use a 'lack of confidence' as a reason why they're not performing well with their patients.

But I don't really see it that way.

I believe that the 'confidence' problem is a self-centric problem. It's a mindset where they are there to treat patients so long as they feel good about themselves.

That's not the cure for lack of confidence though. The best 'cure' for lack of confidence is a complete focus on the other. You have no time to 'feel not confident' if you're too busy trying to improve your patient's life.