How Pts Perceive You

Hi, this is Dave Kats for Therapist Consultants, and I have a tip for you.

Have you ever wondered how your patients perceive you? How they see you as far as the value you play in their life? Well, there was an article written about how patients perceive their therapists, and there were seven things that made a difference in how the patients perceive you.

The first one is simply their need. If they have a problem that they desperately need help from, they see you as being much more important. For instance, if they desperately want to keep their marriage together, and you are helping them do that, then they see you as a very important part of their life. The second one was their personality. For instance, if they have a personality disorder of some kind, they may not see you as important as they could. The third one I thought was very interesting, it was your presentation. How you present yourself, how professional you look, how professional you act, the way you dress, and things like that. Just your overall presentation to the patient. That's an important one.

The fourth one was very important, too. Your procedure. How you handle your care with them. Are you very professional about it? Are you very direct about it? Do you have a plan? Do you explain the plan to them? Those are very important. The third one was your charge, surprisingly. The more a therapist charges, generally speaking, the better they think the therapist is. The sixth one was your bedside manner. Just how good you are with people. And the seventh one was the results that you get.

Don't you think that it's interesting that the last one listed was results? I think that's very interesting. It tells you that you can do a lot to improve the way that your patients think of you. First of all, your presentation. If you dress professionally, if you have a professionally looking office, if the office isn't cluttered, if you have a very good-- and the next one having very good office procedure. If you have a good report of findings that you show them, if you advance multiple schedule them in a proper way, if you handle finances in a proper way, they will see you as being more professional.

Dress professional, act professional, have professional office appearance, have professional office procedure, handle your finances correctly, and I'll tell you, it'll go a long way to making them see you as more professional and more important in their life. Now, why does that make a difference? Well, if they see you as more important they'll use you more often, they'll use you longer, they'll be willing to pay a little more, and they'll just see you as a good professional. It'll elevate you in the profession, and elevate the profession.

Think about it, and make the changes that are necessary.

This is Dave Kats, thanks for listening.