9 Uncommon Questions that Make a Huge Impact on Our Client's Healing

OT Elevate: The Biopsychosocial Approach to Colorectal ConditionsOT Pioneers: An Intro to Pelvic Floor Therapy for Occupational TherapistsBristol Stool ScaleLindsey's Favorite Laminated Portable Pelvis (use code "OTPIONEER" for 10% off)--Transcript--Let’s discuss 9 uncommon questions that make a huge impact on healing. Why are they uncommon? Because they aren’t typical, you won’t find them in most intake questionnaires and well because….. they are all about bowel habits.Here’s why this matters….The majority of our clients who come to see us, they are often coming due to urinary issues, painful intimacy, pelvic stability issues, prolapse, abdominal wall concerns…..often not directly concerning their bowel habits. But most of these issues often come back to a healthy relationship with bowel movements. Even if it wasn’t the primary reason they came to see us. In fact, it may not even be something that they flagged on their intake forms. So how does this affect our session with our clients? How does this affect their outcomes?Let’s focus on our ability to ask quality questions and develop the rapport we have with our clients. These two powerful things enable us to see if there is a relationship there between the symptoms they are coming to see us for and what's really driving it. Very often it comes back to bowel issues.As Jane Kauffman said, my mentor from biofeedback training and incontinence solutions, the poop drives the pee.We just mentioned that the majority of our clients come to see us for anything other than bowel movement issues  so I have learned to be a bit of a detective to find out what's really going on.  I have learned to ask better subjective questions, even if the intake didn’t direct me there. and maybe even especially when the intake doesn’t bring me there.I am going to tell you what I have learned to do…I use the Australian pelvic floor questionnaire as one of my evaluation forms that our clients fill out. There are sections devoted to urinary fx, sexuality, bowel function. Many of us, including myself, will kinda glaze over asking more in-depth questions about bowel function if there are no red flags on the form. Notice I said I used to do this. So much of pelvic floor function is not discussed in everyday life so our clients don’t even know what optimal function is , and this couldn’t be more true than with BM. Some of our clients will come to see us because of a newish symptoms. … Urinary Incontinence, urinary freq, etc. But many of them have had BM issues proceeding this for years if not decades that have contributed to their newer symptoms.  For so many, what is more shameful than pooping?…. So our clients come to accept many of these issues as common, or normal .  They buy Imodium or laxatives but not much else. Most people experiencing these issues don’t even bring them up with their GPs.This is why the intake is crucial! Your job is to help them to share things that they don’t even realize are an issue. As they start to see how interrelated their stories, concerns, and experiences are, they will continue to connect the dots in their own life, leading to so much self-efficacy!So the questions we reviewed on the Australian pelvic floor questionnaire don’t resonate with our clients very much. They are clinical and undefined .So I would like you to go deeper with your questions and use alternative language in order to get<____________________________________________________________________________________________Pelvic OTPs United - Lindsey's off-line interactive community for $39 a month! Inside Pelvic OTPs United you'll find:​Weekly group mentoring calls with Lindsey. She's doing this exclusively inside this community. These aren't your boring old Zoom calls where she is a talking head. We interact, we coach, we learn from each other.​Highly curated forums. The worst is when you post a question on FB just to have it drowned out with 10 other questions that follow it. So, she's got dedicated forums on different populations, different diagnosis, different topics (including business). Hop it, post your specific question, and get the expert advice you need.More info here. Lindsey would love support you in this quiet corner off social media!