PTJ Author Interview: Empathetic Communication by Physical Therapists

PTJ Author Interview: Empathetic Communication by Physical Therapists

From APTA Podcasts by American Physical Therapy Association

February 24, 2026 · 26 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the impact of empathetic communication by physical therapists on patient outcomes.

In this episode of the PTJ Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Steven George, PT, PhD, FAPTA, talks with Katrina Monroe, PT, PhD, about her recently published study, which tracked physical therapist-patient conversations over a six-week care period and found that consistently responding to patients’ emotional cues was associated with lower pain intensity. George and Monroe discuss what empathy looks like during physical therapy visits, why there might be variability in empathetic communication, and why empathy’s influence might take time to appear in patient encounters. Monroe is co-author of the article “ More Frequent Empathic Communication by Physical Therapists is Associated With Improved Outcomes for Low-Impact Chronic Pain .” Read the article on the PTJ website and follow PTJ on LinkedIn and Bluesky for more research updates.

People in this episode

Host: Steven George

Guest: Katrina Monroe

Topics covered

  • empathetic communication
  • physical therapy
  • patient outcomes
  • emotional cues
  • chronic pain

Keywords

  • empathetic communication
  • physical therapists
  • patient interactions
  • pain intensity
  • chronic pain

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: American Physical Therapy Association

Books & works: More Frequent Empathic Communication by Physical Therapists is Associated With Improved Outcomes for Low-Impact Chronic Pain

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