Adam Matichak, Physical Therapist at Stanford Health Care, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Technical skill will get you into the room.
Emotional intelligence determines what happens next.
Cancer rehabilitation is not practiced in a vacuum of goniometry, strength grades, and outcome measures. It is practiced in rooms where people are navigating fear, uncertainty, grief, altered identity, and the ongoing threat of recurrence.
We ask patients to push through fatigue.
To trust us with scar tissue and weakness.
To try again after setbacks.
To believe their body is still capable.
That requires more than clinical competence.
Emotional intelligence in oncology rehab means:
- Recognizing when frustration is really grief
- Understanding that “noncompliance” may be fear
- Regulating our own reactions to decline or bad news
- Sitting in silence when there are no easy answers
- Communicating hard truths without removing hope
We work with patients at some of the most vulnerable points of their lives – new diagnosis, transplant complications, disease progression, survivorship uncertainty.
If we cannot manage our own discomfort, we will unintentionally rush conversations, overcorrect with optimism, or hide behind exercise prescription.
Emotional intelligence is not soft.
It is a clinical skill.
And in cancer rehabilitation, it may be the skill that most directly shapes trust, adherence, and long-term outcomes.”
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