The philosophy underlying the Practices of the Healthcare Athlete seeks to integrate and embody both psychologically oriented and somatically based practices.
Dr. Darin Davidson partners with Learner+, a CME/CE reflective learning platform for healthcare providers. For the opportunity to reflect on this article and earn CME/CE credits, Launch here. Check out all past articles which are also eligible for reflections and CME/CE credits.
For downloadable, actionable strategies and tactics to leverage biology in the pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance, visit the resource store, Launch here. Chapters are arranged by topic so those of interest can be selected and each are also eligible for reflections and CME/CE credits through Learner+.
As discussed in the previous article, the Practices of the Healthcare Athlete is a framework which leverages biology in the pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance. The skills, strategies, and tactics incorporated within this paradigm are evidence driven, scientifically based, and real world tested. In concept, this framework seeks to integrate the two prevailing paradigms which are oriented towards the pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance.
The two most prevalent paradigms which contribute towards the understanding of human performance and the pursuit of our fullest potential consist of the psychologically oriented and the somatically based theories and practices. Typically, each school of thought emphasizes its own paradigm with limited, if any, integration of the other framework. Inherently such a perspective is restrictive because as humans we are both psychological and physiological beings. As such in order to reach our fullest potential, whether it pertains to health, wellbeing, or sustainable high performance, it becomes important to not only integrate but embody the psychologically oriented as well as somatically based theories and practices.
In order to fully understand the philosophy at the heart of the Practices of the Healthcare Athlete and its integration of these frameworks, it is beneficial to understand each perspective. Not only is it useful to understand the benefits of each paradigm, but also the drawbacks or limitations of each. By combining the two perspectives, we are able to fully realize the benefits of each and limit to the greatest extent possible the limitations.
The psychologically oriented perspective is more commonly encountered when we consider the attributes and skills related to sustainable high performance. From this perspective, the approach is to train psychological skills in order to optimize our potential. Many of these psychologically oriented skills are commonly discussed, including remaining calm under pressure, increasing confidence, enhancing optimism and gratitude, control of attention and focus, reframing, and self-talk. From the perspective of the psychological orientation, it is suggested that these attributes can be fully expressed through training the relevant psychological skills.
As discussed in past articles within the series, however, it is often the case that once our biological state has shifted away from anchored and grounded states into activated, attacking, anxious, overwhelmed, and shutdown states the psychologically based skills are of less impact and are often ineffective. The neurophysiological basis for this has been discussed previously and can be summarized through the understanding that in these states there is activation of the hypothalamic pituitary axis in conjunction with the sympathetic nervous system. There are many effects of this activation, including a shift in our salience network, as well as a negativity bias and reduced effectiveness of our prefrontal cortex. Each of these factors leads to a decrease in the effectiveness of psychological skills which are ultimately dependent upon executive functioning and the prefrontal cortex. As the effectiveness of these skills decreases, the ability to utilize the attributes to promote health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance is reduced.
While the psychological skills may be of less benefit within activated, attacking, anxious, overwhelmed, and shutdown states they do, however, remain highly effective from anchored and grounded states. For this reason, these skills are important to train and develop. Of particular benefit are the skills related to identifying purpose, increasing confidence, the use of reframing, optimizing self-talk, controlling attention, and developing optimism and gratitude. These attributes are often indicators of our biological state and emerge naturally from anchored and grounded states. When we are in such states, however, the utilization of the skills can be highly effective in strengthening our anchored and grounded states.
It is also important to train the psychological skills in order to be able to intentionally and deliberately influence their emergence. If we do not consciously pay attention to our psychological skills, it can often be the case that subtle shifts in our biology towards activated states can lead to changes in our thinking with an ultimate deepening of the activated, attacking, anxious, overwhelmed, and shutdown states. This can easily go unrecognized. By optimizing our psychological skills, we are able to contribute towards strengthening our anchored and grounded states, and also limit, to the degree possible, the unintentional co-opting of these skills towards unintentional shifts in our biological state.
The important limitation to recognize with the psychologically oriented paradigm is that the skills and attributes often emerge from anchored and grounded states. As discussed above, the effectiveness of these skills is significantly reduced when we shift into activated, attacking, anxious, overwhelmed, and shutdown states. The attempt to utilize these skills while in these states can lead to a further deepening within those states because of the ineffectiveness to result in the desired and anticipated change. Understanding these limitations is important so that we can optimally use the psychologically oriented skills.
The other predominant framework for consideration is the somatically oriented perspective. This is a biologically consistent perspective, which can be effectively used within any state. The specific manner in which we utilize the body-based skills may change depending upon our biological state however, what remains constant is that we are able to utilize these effectively from any biological state. This recognition emphasizes the importance of first identifying the current state and then implementing the pertinent skills to affect the desired state shift.
Many of the practices described throughout this article series emerge from a somatic orientation. Skills such as use of breathing, adjustment of muscle tension and posture, use of voice, and movement are all examples of somatically oriented skills. The significant advantage to this perspective is that it is able to be used from any biological state.
There is, however, a limitation to this perspective. It is often the case that somatically oriented perspectives do not sufficiently integrate and incorporate the psychologically oriented skills. In this situation, we are not fully optimizing our potential because we are not fully integrating the mind-based skills which can serve as strong promoters of anchored and grounded states. With this recognition in mind, we can implement the somatic orientation and also include the psychological perspective so that we are able to experience the benefits of each. When we truly integrate these two paradigms, we optimize our ability to leverage our biology in the pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance. This is the philosophy underlying the Practices of the Healthcare Athlete.
It is hoped from the above discussion that it is evident that both the psychologically and somatically oriented perspectives can be highly effective in the pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance. Each perspective has significant benefits, but also important limitations. By understanding both the advantages and limitations of each and, in particular, integrating the two perspectives we can reach a more biologically consistent and empowering framework. This paradigm combines the psychological and somatic oriented practices. This serves as the foundation of the Practices of the Healthcare Athlete. By integrating these two perspectives, we are able to realize the benefits of each while simultaneously reducing the limitations of each.
To learn more, including about polyvagal informed coaching for healthcare professionals and others in high demand domains, please visit www.darindavidson.com.
Dr. Darin Davidson partners with Learner+, a CME/CE reflective learning platform for healthcare providers. For the opportunity to reflect on this article and earn CME/CE credits, Launch here. Check out all past articles which are also eligible for reflections and CME/CE credits.
For downloadable, actionable strategies and tactics to leverage biology in the pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance, visit the resource store, Launch here. Chapters are arranged by topic so those of interest can be selected and each are also eligible for reflections and CME/CE credits through Learner+.