Link to Danica's Interview on Out of the Fog - Oct 24, 2023
Danica was recently interviewed by Jason Piercey, MVA Rehab Client and host of Out of the Fog on RogersTV, to discuss the importance of collaborative care between disciplines. The segment starts at 16m40s - check it out on Youtube or read the transcript here!
J: Welcome back to out of the fog, I would like to introduce you to, well, Danica Benoit-Higgins- I just call, I just call you D, because I I just call I call people by nicknames sometimes
D: it's fine you get permission yeah
J: hi
D: hi
J: thanks for coming
D: thanks for having me
J: my pleasure- this this hour of my day was booked out anyway, usually because we what we we meet at this time of the day mostly weekly, so for context, Danica, you are a kinesiologist and a personal trainer and a therapeutic massage therapist
D: registered massage therapist
J: okay, got it so um you've been helping me through my recovery after a motor vehicle accident and you also know Shane-
D: yes, Shaner trainer
J: Shaner trainer, who I chatted with a bit before this and the, kind of, story that we're telling here is how these individual sections of um, Medicare and the medical industry and these paramedical fields
D: Allied health professionals, if you will
J: Allied health professionals, there you go, how the services that you provide are very collaborative and very helpful and um, I think, I think people miss out on what they are because the word masseuse has always meant something entirely different in the back of people's heads
D: absolutely, so first of all, that is definitely something that we are trying to change the connotation with of course trying to go as much for the registered massage therapist designation to know that there is an accredited education and standards of practice that we are following
J: but it is a medical intervention
D: absolutely
J: it really is, like I say I'll say to people, like I mean even when I talk to my injury lawyer and he's getting like an update on on stuff and he's saying like what what services are you doing, what healthcare stuff and I'm like well I still got massage once a week and I got my chiropractor and I go to an osteopath or acupuncture and my physical trainer and all this stuff, and some of my friends would be like, oh, some nice gets get a massage every week. I'm like if you knew, dude, if you knew how our hours went I'm like I'm fighting back tears and sometimes, I like, I like it is not comfortable-
D: it does not feel good in the moment
J: not not all
D: but of course always with the goal of something greater and there's always a time and a place for the more uncomfortable techniques
J: defending yourself
D: well I mean we always have the greater goal in mind, yes of course, but as long as we are still accomplishing those goals that's the biggest thing, you know as long as we are improving pain levels, improving mobility, stability with stuff, you know keeping a balance between all different aspects of the body that might be impacted, I mean that's always what we're trying to go for, unfortunately sometimes some of those approaches can involve some uncomfortable application of techniques
J: sure but it's in the moment
D: absolutely
J: and it's only temporary
D: right, exactly
J: and then later you feel so much better on account of it
D: as long as that is the case so far, in the general Global sense, of course yourself too
J: so far it is the case. So in your practice, you do a fair amount of recovery type work from from injury motor vehicle or or otherwise
D: mhm
J: is that something that, was that an intention or did it just sort of come about that you had an knack for it like, how did you get into that part
D: that part specifically was personal experience actually
J: ah, well here we go
D: well, a number of years ago actually, ironically enough it happened while I was in massage therapy school um, I was rear ended by a dump truck. I was stopped making a left-hand turn, waiting for the good old Metro bus to go by and a dump truck hit me and drove me across the road. Thankfully, the bus had already gone by so I didn't get hit on the front either
J: because nobody would have believed that you got stuck between a bus and a dump truck, like that's too far fetched I think that sounds made up, brutal
D: yeah, definitely and I was on the way to a massage treatment oh my god, so I mean, to make it even better um, but that came or that, what followed that was my own personal rehabilitation journey with stuff like that, I mean learning about it in school is definitely one thing, treating clients that are going through it is certainly another thing, and you can still have fantastic experience like that, but to be able to understand exactly what somebody's going through when they're trying to describe how their day is impacted by their whiplash symptoms and and that sort of thing um you know, I personally feel like it's had a lot of an impact on how much empathy I have for people sure, um but as just to kind of uh promote me to be a little bit more creative in some of the different approaches that I take so a lot of the hands-on techniques are, you know, focused and applied in session but I found that there was so much else lacking for my own treatments outside of clinic time
J: yeah so I had a similar conversation with Shane and also with like physiotherapists that I've seen, my chiropractor, everybody else and people come up to me and they're like, man, you're you're doing so great that's amazing like how did you get better it takes so long to get better, like I never got better- well, did you do the stuff they told you to do?
D: yeah, did you do the recommended things?
J: but that, but that matters because you've been through that experience
D: absolutely
J: and I've noticed, and now I have context for it, because I've always, and I don't know if I've ever said it to you or not, but I've always thought that like you have a way of explaining to me why the thing that's happening is necessary because of the other things that are related to it
D: absolutely
J: and I think that's as much about lived experience as it is about education
D: I think so, again only speaking from personal experience, not saying that you need to have gone through these things to have empathy for people, but it kind of just puts things in a different context, a different perspective and it could change people's approach, I don't know if you need it to do that, but-
J: but, if you look at um uh Channal, no they they, they rebranded themselves
D: it’ the peer support network, right?
J: exactly, that, that's the concept like you can't be a counselor there or you can't answer their warm line or you can't unless you have lived experience
D: absolutely
J: because how else do like, there's a reason why people go to AA to help with, with addiction and alcohol addiction and they don't go to somebody who's never had a drink before because you don't speak the same language
D: exactly and I think that's a really good way of putting it too, is speaking the same language, you know being able to describe the symptoms but also then me myself knowing what's worked when I had some of those versus having someone in a similar situation, send them off, get them to try whatever XY and Z recommendations are for home, come back and then report back to me- it's kind of, it's a little bit more real time figuring this stuff out as I'm going, um so definitely that's certainly why I've had such a big focus on helping people with activity of daily living modifications at home, ergonomic stuff at work, um any amount of sleep hygiene things that could be impacting how we feel physically in the morning yeah
J: so like what what's your if you- you're involved in all of these things, like, what's your, what's your favorite part of it, like what is the part that really like if you could only talk about this and do this all the time where's what what's that bit?
D: oh, it's so hard to know honestly, that's why I still have my hands in a few of the different aspects of it because it's so interconnected that's the thing, like one of the biggest things that I like to preach about but also practice what I preach, um is balance in whatever context that that means for you- that is going to look different for everybody, you know, balance is never a stagnant thing anyways, it's always going to ebb and flow-
J: and isn’t that the definition, it has to move
D: exactly, right, so we're always going to kind of try to find that equilibrium as time goes on and people's circumstances definitely change, but all of these different factors are influential on somebody's overall health and wellness balance we'll say yeah, um so I definitely find that you know, it's not necessarily one sole thing in particular that I try to focus on but really it's just getting people moving a little bit more, yeah
J: and that's a good segue kind of because the whole point of this is to talk about the value of collaboration in the healing process and in healthcare and in preventative maintenance in in a big way, so there's lots of times that uh, we will start a session and you'll ask like, did you, were you at the gym this week like what did you do, what did you work on here because it can impact what you should be doing for the best benefit of everybody moving forward
D: absolutely, like, if in particular you're at the gym with Shane and you say, you know you're on the bike and your hip was hurting, um well maybe that means a little bit more focus this week on your hip between myself and your chiropractor kind of thing, maybe that means to uh, send along a stretch or a recommendation or something to Shane just to be like, hey, can you squeeze this one little exercise in in the rest of our rigamarole of of prep for whatever other exercises and stuff he's taking you through, so you know, it's definitely, I mean- we're just so complex, humans are so complex in general right, there's so many different things that are influential-
J: kinesiology, isn't it the study of how complex our bodies are and how we move and all?
D: basically, the study of human movement, which is a very complex thing in and of itself to say the least right, and I mean, we can't say, you know straighten up your neck and shoulders for better posture so that you alleviate tension there if you have situations-
J: literally thinking about how I feel in the moment I'm like-
D: everybody always straightens off a little bit more in their chair when I start talking about posture yeah, um but yeah, so it's, it's hard to say something like that without being like, okay well how is your lower back and your hips doing this week or you know are there any other things, like are your knees paining or something right, cuz all of these different things also contribute to how you're holding your neck and shoulders
J: well it's like that song, how does it go, the uh leg bone’s connected to the knee bone, the knee bone’s connected to the-
D: abolutely, yeah
J: cuz it's it's actually true it
D: absolutely is, 1000%. I was uh, I was reading something recently actually talking about a line of fascia that starts in the arch of your foot and goes all the way up through your center, so fascia being the connective tissue around your muscles, it goes all the way up to insert next to your uh, tongue and jaw, now, I still need to do a little bit more research to find out the the specifics on it but,
J: there's literally connective tissue in like the ball of my foot kind of or like in the arch that comes up into my neck?
D: yeah, so depending on how you're standing on your feet, you could have more jaw tension on one side versus another
J: okay we're getting a look at this now next week because this week's massage time I, I wasted, I'm telling you guys all of it, I'm not paying for this, Danica, anyway, thank you very much for coming out, you have been I don't want to say a lifesaver, but you've been a mobility and comfort saver I appreciate for sure, thank you very much.
D: I'm honored to be able to help
J: my pleasure