Intentionality

Having an intention to every intervention I apply is a cornerstone to the way I work. The interventions fall back on principles that guide each decision. There are fundamental mechanisms in how we move, understanding those and applying them in a painful situation can often restore movement capabilities and reduce the sensitivity.

A quick look at my process with patients. We have a conversation about the problem at hand, and then we move into objective measurements. Now, every measurement has a certain degree of error, however it is a starting point. From those measurements I begin to formulate an image of the patient’s available movement strategies. We now have a starting point to intervene on the system.

The underlying principles can then be overlaid, and we have a more consilient view of what we need to do to alter a patient’s systemic movement capabilities. Measurements are typically retaken to then further the process. All of this is required in order to intentionally prescribe an intervention. There needs to be guiding principles, measurements that can be superimposed on those principles and strategies utilized to align the principles with the measurements.

Austin Ulrich, Physical Therapist