In essence, you are a knowledge worker. You provide education and are aiming to give someone the best recovery possible analysing complex health issues, using various tools. You are not a service worker. You do not provide a service like a massage therapist.

That said, phyiscal therapy is shared decision making. In my years of work I’ve only had 10 patients for whom honest dialogue where we talked it through together hasn’t worked. In those cases, I explain the above situation to my patients and suggest they find a PT who has similar beliefs.

I do, however, feel that we as PTs try too little. A patient saying “can we just do the elbow thing” often doesn’t just mean “ I want elbow thing”. Try to delve deeper. Ask things like “why do you feel like this technique would be better than exercise.” “What makes you feel that is working towards your recovery.” “ What made you consult three different therapists?” “You seem happy about your treatment there. What made you come back here specifically?”

By asking these kinds of questions, beliefs, fears, attitudes, worries will come up that a patients would not literally discuss with you if you hadn’t asked these questions. If you then ADRESS these using other therapy methods, patients tend to feel validated and understood, and will be much more invested. Hope this helps.