Welcome to The FAKTR Podcast, where we talk about the stuff they didn't teach you in school, how to grow your practice, refine your clinical skills, and get better results for your patients.

We're here to help you navigate the real-world challenges of being a healthcare provider, from delivering top-notch patient care to running a business that doesn't run you into the ground. Whether you're fresh out of school or scaling your practice, we're diving into effective cutting-edge treatments to get patients better faster. We'll also talk about business strategies and tactics to help you work smarter and not harder, and the mindset shifts required to thrive as a top performer in your field so you can build a career you love without burning out. If you're ready to learn what works and what doesn't from leading experts, industry innovators, and respected clinicians across a wide range of specialties, you're in the right place, my friend. Let's dive in.

Welcome back to The FAKTR Podcast, where we bridge the gap between rehabilitation, performance, and real-world clinical practice. I'm your host, Jessica Riddle, and today we're continuing our conversation with Dr.Karolina Shander, licensed psychologist and certified mental performance consultant who specializes in sports and performance psychology. In part 1, we talked about the whole human behind the athlete. How identity, mental health, relationships, rest, recovery, and performance are all deeply connected. We also discussed why trust matters when integrating mental health support into sports medicine and performance environments. In part 2, we'll move into the practical side of that conversation.

Dr. Shander shares how healthcare providers can broach the topic of mental health support with patients. Without making them feel dismissed, judged, or like their symptoms are all in their head. We also talk about agency, patient buy-in, injury recovery, career-ending injuries, burnout, and how providers can use curiosity and better questions to understand what is really happening beneath the surface. This episode also includes an important conversation for healthcare providers themselves, especially those of you who are high achieving, deeply empathetic, and constantly giving of yourself in practice. Dr. Shander will offer practical insight into recognizing burnout, building small moments of recovery, and creating rituals that help providers reset their own nervous systems between patients and at the end of each day. Whether you work with athletes, active individuals, performers, or patients that are navigating pain, injury, stress, or identity shifts, this conversation is a reminder that healing is rarely just about the issue. It's about the person attached to it.

Let's get into part 2 of my conversation with Dr. Karolina Shander

Well, and I've heard time and time again from providers, especially those that are a little bit more seasoned in practice, that sometimes even a patient you've been seeing for a while, you have to ask questions multiple ways sometimes to get the true answer. And it's so funny because even being a patient myself, I realize that sometimes it's hard for me to articulate. Well, It hurts. He like, but it's like, where does that really hurt? Or where's that coming from? Or sometimes I know, especially for chiropractors, for PTs, for people who are treating kind of the whole person from a physical standpoint, people forget to tell them things. Oh yeah. I forgot to tell you, I had this car accident 2 weeks ago, or I broke this thing in the past and it's bothered me ever since then. So I think there is a lot to be said, as you mentioned, for kind of like Being very observant and kind of picking up on cues and picking up little subtleties that sometimes are not things that are at the forefront of people's mind when they're speaking to you about their pain, but certainly are things that if you have an awareness of what to look for, you certainly can see differently. When it comes to being in the office with that patient, having that visit, Let's say I'm a provider and I've noticed some things that you've mentioned are kind of those not necessarily red flags to where I think they need immediate help, but those kind of yellow flag things to where it's like this person could really benefit from speaking to someone.