Stop Guessing, Start Assessing: A Conversation with Tom Swales

About this episode

In this episode, Amy Bradley Radford interviews Tom Swales about assessment and critical thinking in therapy, emphasizing the importance of understanding the bigger picture in client recovery.

As therapists, many of us spend years collecting techniques, certifications, and treatment approaches, hoping the next tool will finally provide the answers we're looking for. In this episode, I sit down with physiotherapist, strength coach, and founder of the Advanced Movement Therapist (AMT) Certification, Tom Swales, for a fascinating conversation about assessment, critical thinking, recovery, and what it really takes to create meaningful change for our clients. Tom shares his incredible journey of surviving a life-threatening battle with sepsis, how that experience transformed his perspective on health and resilience, and why he believes clinicians need to stop chasing pain and start understanding the bigger picture. What I loved about this conversation is that we explore many of the same questions therapists ask every day: How do we know our treatment is working? Why do some clients improve quickly while others stay stuck? How do we move beyond symptom chasing and create lasting results? Whether you're a massage therapist, manual therapist, or healthcare professional, this episode will challenge you to think differently about pain, assessment, and the role we play in helping…

People in this episode

Host: Amy Bradley Radford

Guest: Tom Swales

Topics covered

• assessment
• critical thinking
• recovery
• pain management
• health
• resilience

Keywords

• assessment
• treatment approaches
• pain
• movement testing
• health
• sepsis
• clinicians

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Advanced Movement Therapist

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