We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dr. Alyssa Martin a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Dr. Alyssa, thank you for joining us today and sharing your experiences and acquired wisdom with us. Burnout is a huge topic these days and so we’d love to kick things off by discussing your thoughts on overcoming or avoiding burnout
Avoiding or overcoming burnout can be tricky and has definitely taken some work for me to find a good way to manage it. The best way for me to avoid it is to have a good work-life balance. Finding hobbies and activities that I enjoy outside of work has helped a lot with avoiding or overcoming burn out. Although I love my job and each day is exciting and different, taking care of other people, especially people in pain or struggling with their health can be pretty draining. After a few busy weeks, I feel fatigue setting in and I can tell when I am getting mentally and physically burnt out. This is when I know to really focus on self care. Self care can look different for everyone, but for me, it changes depending on what I need at the time. I might stay in and watch hockey or my favorite tv show, get together with friends, snuggle with my cat, eat a good meal, go to bed early, get some fresh air, get in a good workout, or call friends or family from home. I also work with a great massage therapist that does energy work, so seeing her every once in awhile really helps to keep me going. I also make sure to prioritize and manage my mental health, because I feel like my mind gets burnt out faster than my body does. Things like therapy, journaling, meditation, and just vocalizing my emotions help keep my mind in a better place. Although exercise can cause people to burn out at times, it is one of the main things that helps keep me feeling good for work. I have a pretty physical job, so being strong and having good endurance comes in handy, and exercise really helps my mental health. Overall, making sure I take time for my needs, whether mental or physical, keeps me from burning out when I am busy taking care of so many other people most days.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am currently a sports-focused chiropractor at Spine & Sport Rehabilitation Institute in Brentwood, TN. Since chiropractic care helped me stay active and healthy growing up, I knew I wanted to do that for other people. I grew up in Michigan as a huge hockey fan, and went on to get my Doctorate of Chiropractic degree and Masters in Sports Science in Rehabilitation, in hopes of working with NHL players someday. After school, I made the move to Tennessee to pursue my dream and now I feel so lucky that I get to do what I love. I get to work with all different kinds of people from kids to pregnant women to professional athletes, and I love how every day is different and every patient comes with something new to work on. A lot of people think chiropractors just crack backs, but there really is so much more to it. We can treat the whole musculoskeletal system, which consists of bones, muscles, joints, tendons, ligaments, and connective tissue. We can also utilize several different techniques, so being a chiropractor isn’t just about adjusting people. On a daily basis I get to do dry needling, cupping, scraping, chiropractic manipulation, Active Release Technique, and rehabilitative exercises with my patients. A lot of patients ask me what my favorite type of treatment is, and I think having many different tools to use with patients is what gets the best outcomes. One thing isn’t going to help everyone, and people don’t always respond the same way to every treatment, so having multiple treatment options gives them the best chance at hitting their goals. I am really passionate about helping people move and feel their best and making sure they can continue to do the activities that they love without pain or injury.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I think three main qualities that have helped the most on my journey are the drive to keep learning, empathy, and perseverance. For others starting out on their journey, I think it’s important to remember that you’re probably not going to hit the point where you’re the very best you’ll ever be and you can never improve anymore. This is where the drive to keep learning comes in. If you are passionate about what you do, you should want to keep learning more and getting better. Every day can be different and bring a new learning opportunity so being open to that has been huge for me. Welcoming change and new ideas or new skills really helps us to grow and create our strengths. Empathy is very big in the medical community but it can really play into any job or any field. Caring about other people, whether they are patients, co-workers, clients, friends, etc. gives us the opportunity to build relationships and make connections. Having connections in the working world can be huge for growing a business or reaching your target audience. People don’t just want surface level connections, so giving some energy and understanding to the ones around you and allowing them to be heard can go a long way. Lastly, perseverance is important in any aspect of work or life. We’re all going to have bad days, make mistakes, and fail once in awhile, but continuing to try and push through the hard times teaches us a lot of lessons. It’s ok if things don’t always go as planned, but if you keep working hard, the effort will eventually pay off.
Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?
Having a few big strengths is great and can make us very successful, but I think being more well-rounded is really important. Especially as a doctor, I would have to turn patients away or only be helpful with a few different conditions if I wasn’t putting effort into areas that aren’t my strongest. There is nothing wrong with specializing or being really good at a few main things, but the ability to keep learning and growing is what makes people stand out, in my opinion. Like I said before, I can treat the whole musculoskeletal system, but that does not mean that I am perfect at treating every single part of the body. I definitely have my areas of strengths and weakness, but I am constantly practicing, learning, researching, and asking questions to improve on the weaker areas. For example at my job, I would say treating the neck and related conditions is one of my strong suits compared to shoulders, but that means I just put in more effort to get better at shoulder exams and treatments. I want to constantly be working on my weak areas, so that my patients have the best chance at seeing results and so I can be the best doctor possible. In life and especially in medicine things are constantly changing and new research is coming out, so even our strengths need continuous work and effort.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.spinesportrehabilitation.com/
- Instagram: @dralyssamartin
Image Credits
Steph Sorenson
