How to Read Your Patient Like A Book!

At Dynamic Growth Congress next February Allan Pease, the international body language expert, will reveal the telltale body language signals patients give. He says that you cannot completely know a patient unless you recognise those signals and really understand what they mean. Here he gives us a taste of what’s in store at DG.

Speech is only a small part of the communication process and the majority of what we actually ‘say’ is non-verbal or ‘body language’.

For example, when you first meet a patient, the chances are that you’ll quickly make a decision as to whether that person is ‘likeable’. You may think that is a feeling, a gut reaction or even intuition, but the evidence suggests that much of your reaction is based on the person’s body language.

It’s what people do that counts

Non-verbal ‘body language’ accounts for 60 - 80 percent of the impact people make when communicating ‘face to face’, while the words only account for seven to ten percent. What is said face to face has almost no bearing at all.

The main purpose of understanding body language is to learn how to read others. Knowing a patient’s state of mind can be invaluable in the chiropractic relationship.

Delivering your report of findings

Let’s look at that comparatively new relationship and what a patient may be thinking when you are immersed delivering your report of findings.

Deep down the patient may not be ready to trust you yet. As the meeting progresses, they should normally warm up and begin to display more open body language.

For example, when someone is in a responsive mode… leaning forward and in an open position… they are actively accepting. They like your ideas and are ready to start care.

If the patient is in reflective mode, opened but leaning back, they are interested and receptive but not actively accepting. Asking for agreement now may drive them into fugitive mode. This is the time to present further facts and may also be a good time to keep quiet and let them think.

In fugitive or running mode, closed and leaning back, the patient is trying to escape mentally or physically through the door. This is the time to spark interest in any way you can, even if it's irrelevant to what you're trying to get across.

Finally, when the patient is closed and leaning forward, in combative mode, there is an indication of active resistance. This is the time to be very careful and defuse anger, avoid contradiction and argument, and to steer them into reflective and more accepting mode.