Trying different approaches

Whilst on my rural prac i had the oppertunity to explore some different methods of communication and also treatment strategies with patients. A patient that started attending the clinic was a young girl with a history of chronic lower back pain approx 75% of her life sofar. From an early age she was told be her doctor that she had a serious back condition (as seen on CT scan- which was actually just a sacralisation of L5. A condition that has no significant evidence to attribute increased LBP). This developed into a very heavy fear-avoidance cycle where she was not going to school very often, not doing any physical activity and not working.
One of the senior physiotherapists started treating the young girl but with very limited results both emotionally and physically. The young girl then got handed to myself to treat and i got told to try some different approaches.
Being closer to the age of the patient i was able to develop really good rapport and achieved some drastic emotional and physical results. Initially we developed an exercise program that we would both do together. The rules for this program were that we were not allowed to mention her back pain (unless it increased significantly during) and that we would do the program no matter how she was feeling. I was able to use conversation and lots of distraction techniques to stop her focusing on the back pain. One of the biggest break throughs was when she started to understand that even if the back is sore, if exercise doesnt make it worse then its getting better!

This is a very long-winded example of how utilising different treatment approaches can be very beneficial, expecially in chronic conditions. Also, its an example of how we should not be afraid to refer to a different therapist if we are not getting the results/rapport that we need with a patient.