Category: Narrative Reflections

The Power of Touch: Trust

Seeking to illustrate the nuances of physical touch in PT practice, Brandon Ness, DPT program faculty member and artist, created an image to inspire discussion among his students about trust and healing. His account of that process—creating and refining the image, going through a Visible Thinking exercise with his students—shows how art can inspire fresh critical thinking.

At Capacity: How Physical Therapists Will Gain More by Doing Less

At Capacity: How Physical Therapists Will Gain More by Doing Less by Hannah Sy, PT, DPT, JHR’s award-winning 2024 student essay, examines how the increased use of AI in the physical therapy clinic may actually improve humanistic patient care. According to Sy, “the advantage of AI…is its ability to solve complex problems with its capacity to process copious amounts of data.” As physical therapists are assisted in data-based problem-solving and treatment planning by AI, she notes, their time may better be applied to connecting with the human beings they seek to rehabilitate.

From Individuals With Aphasia and Brain Injuries to Poets: How the Book I Don’t Think I Did This Right Came to Be

From Individuals With Aphasia and Brain Injuries to Poets: How the Book I Don’t Think I Did This Right Came to Be by Kathryn Paulson, Brendan Constantine, and Jerry K. Hoepner, relates how a group of dynamic poets developed out of a few workshops for individuals with stroke-based aphasia and traumatic brain injuries. Starting out as an idea to spur creativity and help participants share their stories, the meetings quickly developed into the Thursday Night Poets group. Their first published work, described here, offers poetry of deep meaning and resonance for anyone who has ever faced a challenge.

A Seat at the Table: A Reflection on Engaging Disabled People and Their Families in Research and Service Design

Dr. Phoenix and authors explore the metaphor “a seat at the table” in the context of including Disabled People and their families in system-level service design and research. They challenge us to consider inclusivity by interrogating this vision of “the table” in terms of ownership, participation, and consequences after a discussion ends.