Build Trust and Authority as the Occupational Therapy Expert
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[00:00:00] As an occupational therapist, and you want to attract more patients to your clinic, you have to educate them. So I'm going to share with you how I do it. Maybe you can do it as well. My name is Wong. I'm an occupational therapist and certified hand therapist at my own clinic here in Miami, Florida And my online program for occupational therapists that build their clinical and business skills And one of the most important things that I think that we can do as occupational therapists is to educate our patients And it's not about educating them to be occupational therapists It's not it's not to educate them on what we do as an occupational therapist necessarily You I think that's on the back end of it.
But in the front end of it, we have to think about, um, you know, what our patients are suffering with and then educate them about that, educate them about what they can do about it. So, um, Here's what I do. I talk to my patients about why they have what they have, what they can do about it, and then I'm going to show them how they can get [00:01:00] better, right?
So it's the why, what, and how method, and this allows you to build trust and build your authority within your community. So Um, it doesn't matter if you're an occupational therapist and you work in various settings. My setting just happens to be in hand therapy, um, hand and upper extremity types of issues.
But you know, believe it or not, after a while they start, you know, people, um, trust you and they see you as the authority figure and they'll start asking you more and more questions about a variety of different things that you could also help them with. It's just maybe that's not your, you know, number one key thing.
Um, but you'll. Start to educate your patients, share your perspective, and you'll find over a period of time that you will become known for certain things. And those are the kinds of clients that you would like to get, right? Those are the kinds of clients that you love working with. So here's the thing, you know, talk to your patients about, you know, why they have what they have.
So I'm going to give you an example. I have a lot of people who come to me with hand [00:02:00] numbness types of issues. At my clinic, it's probably one of the top things that people are coming to us for. Um, they're, they have numbness. They have tingling. They have a heaviness. They, you know, all these like nerve related types of questions and They just don't know why they're having this problem.
So If you look at some of my clinic videos, I am talking about carpal tunnel so carpal tunnel is is like a huge topic that a lot of people know about. And so because a lot of people know about it, I'm going to talk about why people have carpal tunnel. And then I'm going to share with you what kind of problems that people can have with carpal tunnel.
Like, what are they looking for? What are they, um, what are they looking for to get worse? What are they looking for to get better? What are their, Options when it comes to carpal tunnel, right? So I spend a lot of time educating my patients into why they might have this problem, what it might look like, what it might feel like, what are their options.
I'm gonna tell [00:03:00] them how they can get fixed, right? So there are some things that are, do it yourself and there's some things that, you know, if they're considering injections and surgery, I will talk about why those are options and why that is like good or bad. 'cause there's, there's. It's neither here nor there for me, like some people need surgery and some people don't need surgery.
I'm gonna then from that pinpoint like how you know when you don't need injections and surgery and if you are considering a more holistic approach, a more conservative approach, how I can help you. Right? How I can help you. So you're going to, you know, explain to them why they have what they have, what's going on and what they can do about it.
And then I normally like to show someone how to do like, and in the why, what and how I show them one thing. I show them one thing only. I try to keep it real nice and simple because it can get confusing because there's so [00:04:00] many causes and so many reasons. Um, so from one particular diagnosis, I can break that up into like 10 different topics, right?
But I like to do that to educate my patients. So on one of my videos, I talk about how they can help themselves first. So one of the easiest things that I can teach, um, potential people, right? Just potential people is to wear a splint. You can buy that in the, um, you know, in the store ordered online. It's super easy.
Try it. Because if you came to me with the beginning of it, I would tell you to try it. If you've done nothing else, You can try it, right? You can try it, but if it doesn't work within a month, then that's not your problem. It's not your problem. If you want my help, come to my therapy clinic, right? And then I'll help you to figure out where that numbness is coming from and how to fix it.
So what you're doing is you're talking, you know, you're educating them to ask questions. to help them understand [00:05:00] and make a decision. And sometimes they can decide to go in a different route. And sometimes they're going to decide to come to you. Right. And that's how you essentially attract clients or patients over a period of time to come to your clinic, to use your services as an occupational therapist.
So I never start with, I'm an occupational therapist, and this is what an occupational therapist does. And we help you to, you know, become more independent in your, like, I'm not doing that because nobody necessarily is thinking about being independent per se for that particular problem. Um, but they want to know how to get rid of it.
They want to know why me, why me? Why has this happened to me? Right? And then after they're like, why, why, why? Then they're going to be like, how, how do I get rid of this? And then you can become the authority figure. You can become the expert, right? And you can do this for every single [00:06:00] topic. So for example, I'm going to give you an example.
If you work in home health, Right? If you're going to patients, uh, in their home, and they have, you know, I'm going to use my father in law. They have had a stroke. They're not balanced. They are worried about independence, right? They, in that scenario, they're very worried about independence. Um, they can do things with their, their uninjured hand, but they want to learn how to do stuff with their injured hand.
They want to learn to do stuff with their hemi hand. They want to know what can they do. How can they become more independent? But really outside of that independence, independence is like the bigger picture. They want to get some more emotion back. They want to have a less pain. They want, what do I need to do?
Right? So if you go out there and you start creating videos to educate them because you're in that space, you can talk to so many different people that just want therapy in their home. Like for example, I, You know, my mother in law has, um, [00:07:00] had carpal tunnel surgery. She had bilateral carpal tunnel surgery.
One in one month and then one a couple months down the road. And she still has some dense scarring. Yeah. Does she feel better? Absolutely. But she still has some dense scarring. She's, you know, concerned about that. If you were going into her home or you're talking to someone who wants a therapy in their home, you can talk about, um, how someone like her.
Um, and then you could talk about what things that you could do in their home. So you would teach them, okay, well, don't ignore this just because the incision looks really small. Don't ignore this because your doc, just because your doctor, um, didn't, your doctor didn't order you therapy. But you feel that it's really really tight.
Did you know that therapy can really help you with scarring? I can come into your home. I can show you what to do using the stuff that you currently already have. You know what? Here's the one [00:08:00] thing I'm going to share with you. One thing that you can do in your home, right? Usually with scars you would take your other hand you can massage and you can pinch them together.
The problem is is when you have hand like if you Both your hands are affected, wouldn't you really value someone else coming in and helping you do the work? And then I'll show you one thing that you know, we can find something within your home that can really help you. I'll teach you what you can do so you can do that more on your own, right?
And then, um, then I can also come and supplement, right? So if you're going to someone's home, look how you can educate them. You show them what kind of problem they have, why? It would benefit them for coming in. So scars, you know, it doesn't matter if the scar is really small and you feel really, you know, already better from the surgery.
Scars have a tendency to get tighter over a period of time if you're not fully moving it the way you could be moving, right? So what feels really good right now, a month down, might start to feel kind of bad [00:09:00] two to three months later. So if I come into your home now, I can help fix those problems before they get worse.
Right, because you don't want to get stuck where you feel like, oh, you are able to use your hands better and have more strength and then start to lose it and think, oh, there's something wrong. There's absolutely nothing wrong. Just probably nobody's been working on X, Y, and Z for you. I can do that for you, right?
So you've got to go in there and you've got to educate your patients. And I want to encourage you because, um, You know, more and more people are coming on video, more and more people are coming on video to find solutions to their problems, right? So I've got people watching my videos from all around the world for my clinic, for my clinic.
I'm speaking, I create the videos to educate everybody, right? I don't have a, a prejudice against anybody. Like my videos are created [00:10:00] to educate people and they happen to educate everybody around the world, right? But my videos also educate people who are in my area. And they can watch those videos. They can find me through those videos.
And what I'm doing is I'm educating them. I'm building my reputation as the go to person for X, Y, Z problems, right? I'm a certified hand therapist. I help people with very specific hand and arm problems, right? I have a gazillion things I could be talking about and I will get to them. I will get to them, but I want to share this with you because you're an occupational therapist.
And you have an opportunity to educate your type of patient. Your type of patient needs your, your perspective, how you educate them, what problems you solve. And over a period of time, you build trust and authority and you'll slowly but surely get patients who want to come to you. And I think video is one of the [00:11:00] biggest formats.
Um, because everybody and their mother is watching videos. I think YouTube is one of the biggest platforms right now. TikTok is coming up there as well. Tons of people are coming to TikTok to learn. Um, and TikTok is a place where you can go and you can educate people. I personally like to practice. Um, Long form before you do short form because short form is like, uh, much harder, uh, because you have to speak in smaller, uh, soundbites and increments.
People just want things so fast. Whereas on YouTube, you have an opportunity to, uh, be more long winded like I am right now, and people either listen to you or they don't, but the most important thing is the people who want to listen to you will listen to you, and they will take action, and they're going to call you, and you're going to build authority, you're going to build trust for your clinic in your town, and build up your reputation.
So don't get scared of being on camera, practice, get used to it. [00:12:00] But really think about educating your patients on the problems that they have and then how you can solve it And then just share one thing just share one thing just like I'm sharing with you right now how to do it You know so you can get started and then if you need my help and you want to work more closely with me My links below.
All right Leave me a comment or question and I'll answer them on the next video
