What is the personality of a physical therapist? In my experience, physical therapists as a whole are outgoing, exercise-oriented, confident, and generally the “go-getter” type. That just doesn’t describe me. In fact, I have known since college that I don’t have the personality of a typical PT, and as my career progressed and I began to feel more assured and confident about who I am, I started to wonder how much personality plays a role in our careers and in the care we provide.

I am generally pretty reserved, and decisiveness is something I have never been accused of. Ambition is not what drives me, and I would rather curl up on the couch with a good book than go to the gym.

All that being said, I know that I connect with and care about my patients. My professional decisions are all made with their best interests in mind, I advocate for them when it is necessary, and I get positive outcomes. I am good at my job, and I can say that with confidence.

What does the research say?

According to Career Builder, these are the top personality traits that make for a successful physical therapist:

• Cool & determined
• Supportive & compassionate
• Confident & resilient
• Fit & health-conscious
• Sociable & cooperative

I can’t say I found any of these surprising. Nor do I disagree, but you will recognize some of the same characteristics I noted above.

Additionally, a 2015 cohort study concluded the following:

“Treatment by therapists who tend to be calmer, more relaxed, secure and hardy may produce better treatment outcomes in patients with chronic disease.”

Conversely stated, they found that therapists with higher scores in the trait of neuroticism were associated with worse patient outcomes. It makes sense too; if we are naturally less neurotic we will be less stressed at work and more content with life in general. That attitude can only have a positive impact on our patients.

Physical Therapists’ Personality

The other four traits tested in this study (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness) showed no evidence in correlating with treatment outcomes. Interesting, no? You would expect, as the authors did, that these traits would show a positive impact on patient outcomes.

Well, the therapists involved in this study all had higher scores in those four areas with general low scores in the area of neuroticism. This seems to imply a bit of a type when it comes to the personality of a physical therapist. And if our collective baseline personality tends to rank high in those positive traits, then perhaps our baseline would be positive outcomes.

This study also seems to indicate that physical therapists do tend to be more extroverted; this is the trait that I find most intriguing. In part, this is because I know that I am not extroverted, but also because all of my information-gathering has shown me that this trait, in the scope of its opposite of introversion, is the basis for the main difference in individual personalities.

First of all, there are many different personality tests out there, some that assign an animal, some a color, but the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is one of the most widely-known personality assessments. The MBTI indicates where a person falls in the spectrum of the following preferences:

• Extraversion (also spelled extroversion) vs Introversion
• Thinking vs Feeling
• Sensing vs Intuition
• Judging vs Perceiving

Based on this instrument, there are 16 different personality types. Here are the main points that I have learned:

• Contrary to popular belief, extraversion does not necessarily mean outgoing, just as being introverted does not necessarily mean being shy. It has to do with where we get our energy: alone/in a quieter, more low-key environment (introverted), or with a lot of people/in a place with a great deal of stimulation (extraverted).

• Introverts take time to process information, whereas extroverts will do their thinking externally. Knowing this can help improve our interactions and communications with each other while minimizing frustrations with those who are on the other end of the spectrum.

• There is no one personality type better than another. Everyone is capable of adapting, but the key is to have the willingness to adapt to connect to people who are different than you. We all have something to offer, and we can, and should, all work together.

In Summary…

Understanding and recognizing personality differences can help us to customize our treatments to meet the needs of our patients. For instance, an extrovert may appreciate a therapist who shows active listening to all their thoughts while an introvert may benefit from getting information in advance so they will have time to process it and formulate their questions. It is the responsibility of the therapist to meet the needs of the patients, not only to gain their trust but to get the best possible outcome.

But we still have to be ourselves. I truly believe that I have had patients whose outcomes would not have been as successful if I had been a different type of person. Embracing my strengths and recognizing my weakness has allowed me to adapt and grow, and even to see my differences as a positive.

I do not need to be “typical” to be a good, maybe even sometimes great, physical therapist. And neither do any of you!