Hi, i'm Lee (on the left)
Back in 2012 my mum and girlfriend suggested I quit my job in the coffee shop and go to uni to study something I was interested in. At the time I didn't know what I wanted to do for a career, but I knew I wanted to know more about what makes us tick, so I enrolled to study Neuroscience and Physiology at the University of Western Australia. Two years in I wrote a paper on something called 'functional electrical stimulation' for spinal cord injury. It's basically placing electrodes on the skin over certain muscles of the body and switching them on and off in a rhythmical, coordinated fashion to help people who've had a spinal cord injury move. I thought this was pretty neat and wanted to do it as a job, only to find out that you needed to be a qualified Physiotherapist to do so. So, I promptly swapped over to Physiotherapy at Notre Dame in Fremantle.
Throughout my course I found that my previous study of the brain and psychology offered a novel perspective on the information being taught. I learnt that many of the treatments we deliver have an impact purely because the patient and therapist expect them to have an impact, rather than them having a direct effect on the tissues being treated. I discovered that expectation and prior experience have a huge role to play in how effective your treatments are, to the point of determining if you'll have a good or bad outcome. Some treatments like ultrasound have been shown to be just as effective with the machine turned off! provided that both the patient and therapist think that it's on and working. Rather than seeing this as an interesting side point, I wanted to know why this effect existed. So, I dove head first into topics like pain neuroscience, psychology and cognitive science which opened up a whole new world of understanding of pain and injury, much of which calls into question the types of treatments offered for people who are in pain, and who've had that pain for a while, often labelled "chronic pain".
Lastly, I also learnt about bioplasticity and adaptation. Many people have heard of the term "neuro-plasticity", which is the knowledge that the brain is constantly changing and adapting at all stages of life. The cool thing is, our entire body molds and adapts to the stresses we place upon it, both psychological and physical (I don't believe these are separable as a side point), at all stages of life. This is more broadly termed "bioplasticity", relating to a plastic (always changing) biological system. When you load your body physically, bones remodel, tendons strengthen, muscles grow, the nervous system learns and your confidence (underpinned by biological processes in the brain and body), builds.
Upon finishing my course I've continued to explore the topics above, researching my heart out each chance I get so that I have the knowledge necessary to help those around me who need it. I've also started a PhD to really come to grips with the complex science around pain which I hope I can share practically with the group. So far, my exploration has revealed to me that some of the best ways to treat pain and be a healthy and happy human being are:
Challenging yourself physically
Finding meaning in the things you do
Being social with people who want you to grow as an individual
Immersing yourself in nature and other helpful environments
Consuming lot's of interesting information and
Being more mindful
I started this group as a way to share my understanding in a way that will hopefully challenge you, and help you to become a more capable and confident person.
Throughout my course I found that my previous study of the brain and psychology offered a novel perspective on the information being taught. I learnt that many of the treatments we deliver have an impact purely because the patient and therapist expect them to have an impact, rather than them having a direct effect on the tissues being treated. I discovered that expectation and prior experience have a huge role to play in how effective your treatments are, to the point of determining if you'll have a good or bad outcome. Some treatments like ultrasound have been shown to be just as effective with the machine turned off! provided that both the patient and therapist think that it's on and working. Rather than seeing this as an interesting side point, I wanted to know why this effect existed. So, I dove head first into topics like pain neuroscience, psychology and cognitive science which opened up a whole new world of understanding of pain and injury, much of which calls into question the types of treatments offered for people who are in pain, and who've had that pain for a while, often labelled "chronic pain".
Lastly, I also learnt about bioplasticity and adaptation. Many people have heard of the term "neuro-plasticity", which is the knowledge that the brain is constantly changing and adapting at all stages of life. The cool thing is, our entire body molds and adapts to the stresses we place upon it, both psychological and physical (I don't believe these are separable as a side point), at all stages of life. This is more broadly termed "bioplasticity", relating to a plastic (always changing) biological system. When you load your body physically, bones remodel, tendons strengthen, muscles grow, the nervous system learns and your confidence (underpinned by biological processes in the brain and body), builds.
Upon finishing my course I've continued to explore the topics above, researching my heart out each chance I get so that I have the knowledge necessary to help those around me who need it. I've also started a PhD to really come to grips with the complex science around pain which I hope I can share practically with the group. So far, my exploration has revealed to me that some of the best ways to treat pain and be a healthy and happy human being are:
Challenging yourself physically
Finding meaning in the things you do
Being social with people who want you to grow as an individual
Immersing yourself in nature and other helpful environments
Consuming lot's of interesting information and
Being more mindful
I started this group as a way to share my understanding in a way that will hopefully challenge you, and help you to become a more capable and confident person.
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