Synopsis: 10

TACIT KNOWLEDGE AND PSYCHOPHYSIOTHERAPY

Dr. Gladson Jose

Principal

Dr. M V Shetty College Of Physiotherapy

Mangaluru

According to World Health Organization (WHO) the global prevalence of anxiety and depression has been raised to 25% in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. World Physiotherapy has been stressing the importance of Physiotherapist’s role in mental health through the Organisation of Physical Therapists in Mental Health (IOPTMH). The scope of physiotherapy is not limited to physical and functional problems but could be extended to mental health. “Psychophysiotherapy is a holistic therapeutic approach addressing the body, mind and spirit through talk therapy and body therapy, considering human beings as complex and inseparable from their interacting systems” (Bill Bowen). There are many Psychophysiotherapy related approaches such as Body Awareness Therapy (BAT), Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT),Psychomotor Physiotherapy, Mindfulness and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy.

The philosopher Plato defined knowledge as “justified true belief”. There are two types of knowledge namely explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge (Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995). Tacit knowledge has been originally named by Polanyi (1966). It is not expressed through words. It is the knowledge of experience which is informal, based on analogues and difficult to articulate. This knowledge could include belief perspectives, mental models, images that can be confined in the mind. These are primarily transferred by regular interaction, extensive personal contact, involvement in shared activities, mentoring and apprenticing. The quality of the outcome depends upon the skill, commitment, time and other resources which have been used. The physiotherapists are concerned with cognition, affect, physiology and behaviour. They must have a powerful nonlinguistic dimension at their fingertips. Thus Tacit knowledge helps in Psychophysiotherapy.