Have you ever gotten a piece of feedback that left you second-guessing yourself?
We’ve all had those moments when someone’s comment or “helpful advice” sticks with us — and not in a good way. Sometimes it’s a coworker, a supervisor, or even a family member, and before we know it, we’re questioning our decisions and our worth.
In this episode, we’re breaking down the two kinds of feedback every OncoPT encounters:
- Challenging advice from trusted voices that pushes you to grow.
- Noise from people who don’t understand your work, your patients, or your mission.
You’ll learn how to filter out the noise so you can focus on the feedback that truly matters — the kind that makes you a stronger clinician and elevates your patient care.
PLUS…
If you want to surround yourself with the right voices who challenge, inspire, and support you, The Cancer Rehab Community Conference 2025 is where you need to be.
Join us November 7–8, 2025, and experience two days of meaningful conversations, practical learning, and real connections.🎟 Save your seat today: TheCancerRehabCommunity.com/conference
Want to watch the episode instead?
Watch this week’s episode of TheOncoPT Podcast on our YouTube channel!
Transcript
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (00:19)
Hey, Onco PT and welcome back to this episode of the Onco PT podcast. I’m gonna be transparent right now. I’m gonna be very, very honest with you. It’s my birthday as I record this episode and I’ve had this episode idea in the back of my head for literal months now. And I’ve been sitting on it because I just didn’t feel like it was the right time. But today, like I mentioned is my birthday as I’m recording this and I’m feeling spicy today. So let’s…
Let’s get into it. This episode is at the crossroads of a personal experience that really has helped inform my professional judgment and how I’ve been approaching different patient cases, but also advice over this summer. And it’s been fun. I’m not going to lie. The first part of this whole transformation for me was very uncomfortable.
We’ll get into that shortly. ⁓ But let’s go ahead and just get into it. So over the summer, to put this into perspective, I was at my grandmother’s funeral, which I find that funerals are just the place where this usually kind of wild experience happens for me. I don’t know if that’s your experience, but that has definitely been my experience. So I’m at my grandmother’s funeral. We’re at one of the events, you know, surrounding
The actual funeral wasn’t the actual funeral itself, thank God. ⁓ But one of my family members asked me a question that absolutely just cut me down in my tracks. And this family member asked me, so Elise, when are you going to get a real job?
Ouch. ⁓ Stunned silence was absolutely the first response I had to all of this. ⁓ I was kind of computing, like, what did this family member just ask me? ⁓ What are they talking about a little bit? And once I regained halfway my composure and my frankly just…
words at this point. I tried to brush it off of like, oh my goodness, yes, I have a job. And of course at that moment, because again, this is a huge family gathering, a different family member who is much, much younger, think like middle school age, I think at this point, asked me and says, you don’t have a job? I’m like, I do have a job, actually have several jobs that I do.
And so I’m explaining, of course, you know, to this younger family member, but also trying to justify myself to this older family member. No, I actually do have a job. I work as a physical therapist in my own private oncology practice. I’m also a professor at a university where I teach undergraduate students. And I also have this cool thing that I do called the Onco PT and I help to educate other
physical therapists on how to treat their own patients with cancer. So anyways, that stemmed into its own conversation at this point. And so I tried to brush it off as best I could, but internally I was fuming. I was furious and honestly I was hurt and devastated that this family member thought so little of me and the work that I do. ⁓ As I mentioned, I’m here, I’m running my business, I’m helping oncology rehab clinicians across the country.
I’m making a real difference in my own patients’ lives. I know that. And someone that is part of my own family that I care about so completely cut me down and dismissed all of my work in one sentence. you know, initially I had kind of lost that, you know, memory of the interaction or just put it to the side because again, we’re literally there to bury my grandmother.
Other things took precedence. But when I got back from the funeral and I went to my first therapy appointment that I had post-funeral, I’m talking about all of this with my therapist and just recounting to her like, yeah, this is what happened and this is what happened and yeah, da, da, da, da. And I brought this specific interaction up with my therapist because I just couldn’t shake it. I mean, it was like a record.
playing in the back of my mind, especially when I would get to this deep, dark place of like, I just don’t know what I’m doing. Like, what am I doing? You know, when whatever crisis of the week comes up, because that’s how life works, right? It’s always just one challenge, opportunity presenting itself after the other. ⁓ But I asked my therapist, I was like, you know, why is this bothering, why is it bothering me so much?
because this one comment from this family member would send me spiraling into this just thought waterfall of, am I doing something wrong? Am I not doing the right thing? know, where am I at in my life? Should I be doing something different? Is my work actually not good enough? Do I need to completely change what I’m doing? And so my therapist, amazingly, I just love her so much.
She listened, was very patient and everything. And then she asked me a really simple question. That was, Elise, would you take actual career advice from this family member? And my answer was an immediate no. Like, absolutely not, genuinely. This family member has never worked in healthcare, doesn’t understand what I do, period, and doesn’t frankly value the same things that I…
value in a career. And on top of that, this family member does not take care of their health, like has had multiple medical issues that have been totally preventable over the years. But I digress. All this to paint the picture of, this is not someone that I go to in my own life, personally or professionally, for advice. Period. Has never been that individual.
And when my therapist put it to me in that capacity, I was like, my God, that makes so much sense. Like I would never seek out advice from this person to help inform what I’m doing in my business, whether that is my clinic where I’m treating patients or in the Onco PT where I’m actually working with other physical therapists on that. So if I wouldn’t take this family member’s advice on my life, my work,
frankly anything, why would I give this person’s opinion so much power over how I feel or what I choose to do? And I recognize saying this, this is a very privileged standpoint to be in right now. Like I have gone through the spiraling, I have sought help from a professional to help me navigate this, and I have ultimately arrived at this conclusion with this professional’s help. Okay, so I have the shortcut to get through this.
I think you may not have that, but this is why you listen to the Onco PT podcast, right? This is why we talk about different stuff to help you become the best possible Onco PT that you can become for your patients. And so in continuing to mull this over, because sometimes those thoughts still pop up in my head, right? It’s not that, ⁓ I talked about it in therapy. Everything is good to go. I wish I tell my therapist that all the time, but that’s not how therapy works, right? That’s not how my brain works.
As I’ve continued to grapple with this and these thoughts continue to sneak up in the back of my head, it’s been a really great reflecting experience to really sit with not all feedback is good. Not all feedback is bad either. In fact, the right feedback can be game changing, but this is the difference here. The right feedback.
What I mean by this is advice and feedback from trusted sources versus noise from the wrong people. And I don’t even wanna say, like, ⁓ advice, it’s gonna be always uplifting. It’s not, right? If we’re getting feedback that is truly helpful and constructive from trusted sources that are knowledgeable, that have your best…
self at heart or working to care for your patient, if we’re talking about patient care here, it may not always be the comfy, cozy, cuddly, warm-feely things that we want to feel. Sometimes advice and feedback from the right sources is going to be challenging. It might be hard to hear. It might be hard to implement, but ultimately we do know that that is
right. That is what is right in this situation. So let me kind of differentiate this out a little bit. So if we’re talking about challenging advice from trusted sources, right? This is feedback from trusted sources that you would actually take advice from in this case. These are the people who really get it, right? They understand oncology rehab, they care about patient outcomes, and they have your best interest at heart. They also have your patient’s best interest at heart.
This may not be someone who is in oncology physical therapy, right? ⁓ One of the people that I get consistently really sound advice from is my husband. He’s a physical therapist. He is not in oncology. And most of the time he would avoid oncology with a 39 and a half pole if he could. But guess what? He can’t because he lives in my world. And he knows just how prevalent cancer is and he sees it in his own work because
He now knows it from me talking about it endlessly for the past, I don’t know, 10 years or however long I’ve known him at this point. So all this to say, he, while not being in oncology physical therapy, has an understanding of what it takes to show up as the best version of yourself day in and day out, and how hard that is. He knows what it’s like to run a business because he has his own private practice.
He knows what it’s like to show up as a healthcare professional for his patients because he does that time and time again. And I know that he is a very ethical person with a really solid head on his shoulders. And so I know that even if he doesn’t know exactly the oncology context that I’m going to him with, he appreciates and understands what it takes to show up as the best possible physical therapist or healthcare professional in that.
And sometimes he gives me advice and feedback that, ugh, it is not what I wanted to hear. Right? It stings, but it pushes me to grow. ⁓ Other people that I go to for advice, maybe more in the oncology setting side of things. I mean, I can rattle a few right off the top of my head. ⁓ Dr. Kelly Sturm, right? Cancer rehab PT. Dr. Alexandra Hill, Oncopelvic PT. Scott Capoza.
⁓ Adam Matichak, Shai Sewell, there’s so many voices that I’ve gotten to know through my work in the OncoPT that I know the kind of work that they do for their patients. And I know what it has taken for them to get to this point in their careers. Some of them are private practice owners. Some of them still work for other institutions, but are absolutely involved in different facets of oncology physical therapy. And so,
Their perspectives are hugely impactful. And dear friend, if you are listening to this right now, I do not have enough time to go through every single person who provides me such sound advice on how to be the best version of myself, the best Onco PT. Please don’t feel hurt if I didn’t name you. I’m so sorry, okay? I don’t have a list in front of me, but know that you are out there and I treasure the valuable feedback and perspective that you provide for me and ultimately my patients. So thank you for that.
But when it comes down to this, I know the difference. again, this has come with reflection after this experience I had with this family member, I am much more clear on who are the people I would actually go to for advice in these different situations, especially regarding my career, my profession, my vocation to work with people who have been affected by cancer. This is a trusted mentor who identifies a gap in your knowledge and not to be like,
You don’t know the contraindication for, I don’t know, thermal diathermy. I don’t even know if that’s a thing. ⁓ Whatever, right? There’s a difference between identifying that, but also saying, hey, this is something I’ve noticed. I’m calling your attention to this. And then maybe linking you up with, here’s a resource that is going to help with that. ⁓ Or, hey, let’s practice that so that you feel really certain about that in the future. You feel really good about that technique.
Awesome. Love that. Maybe this is a colleague who challenges you to look at literature differently, right? You know, we all have our favorite research pieces, but I bet that if we were to go back and look at those again in different lights, maybe we could glean something else from it or maybe a different conclusion, or maybe we would implement that information differently in our practice. ⁓ I’m not going to lie. I went to a continuing education course a couple of weeks ago.
And it was all about neurolymphatics. And it was really, really fun. ⁓ Very enjoyable content, ⁓ very applicable. But I think my favorite thing about that, and I mentioned this in a previous podcast episode, I believe, is being in the room with other lymphedema therapists and learning how they’re implementing and applying some of this into their own practice. And then getting to reflect on what have I been doing for the past few years, you know, since I got my CLT and how has that evolved and changed over time?
That was a really, really powerful experience to get feedback, even indirectly on, you know, this is what’s working for you and your patients with this presentation. How can I implement this into my own practice to work with my patient population to ultimately get better outcomes for them? So again, not everybody is going to give you that kind of feedback. You really need to be selective in who you are going to and getting this advice.
from, because on the flip side of this, unhelpful noise from the wrong people, these are the voices who just don’t understand it. They just don’t get it. And it’s not that they’re dumb. It’s not that they’re stupid. They’re not in the trenches doing the work that you are doing or really even understand the work that you’re doing. They don’t understand your field, your values, your patience even. Sometimes,
amazing as they are, we have colleagues in the physical therapy space who just do not get what we do as oncology physical therapists. That’s fine. I don’t totally always get what they do in their space, but I respect that. their advice, whoever this wrong person with unhelpful noises, their advice isn’t grounded in evidence or aligned with what you know is best for your patients.
For example, maybe this is a family member who dismisses your work because they don’t get it. See the top of the episode, right? Maybe this is a colleague who undermines cancer rehab and what it does because they haven’t been exposed to it. just, they haven’t experienced or seen the kind of transformation that patients can go through as a part of going through cancer rehab.
Maybe, and again, I said at the top of the episode, I was getting spicy because it’s my birthday. Guess what? We’re going there. Maybe this is a manager who only cares about your productivity and the number of units that you’re billing and not actually how your patients are getting better or improving or maintaining their function.
as you’re working with them, right? I know that there are some people who are like, well, Elise, guess what? It’s my birthday. I don’t care. This is a problem. This is absolutely unhelpful noise from the wrong people. I get that they’re in a position of leadership. your manager. They’re your supervisor. I get that. I’ve been there, but I’m gonna push you today, because again, I can, because it’s my birthday.
That is unhelpful noise from the wrong person who does not need to be driving your decision-making, your clinical decision-making and judgment on how to care best for this person. Yes, I get that we have to balance different things, but if your institution is driving patient care exclusively from a number standpoint and patient quality care is being sacrificed, you need to ask yourself what you’re doing there.
Okay, yes, I know, I know I’m spicy today, but guess what? I’m not apologizing for this, because this is how I feel. So all this to say, you do not owe these unhelpful noise voices, that’s what we’re gonna call them, your energy, your time, or your trust, how you are going to get better at becoming the best possible
version of yourself and the best possible OncoPT you can be from your patients is not by taking this advice, this feedback and letting it derail the really important work that you are doing again. Hopefully this goes without saying ethically, safely, empathically, et cetera, et cetera, right? So where this all comes into play, right? How I have kind of culminated this down into when I’m getting feedback, when I’m getting advice
from different people. And I’m discerning whether to implement this into my practice, my business, whatever that is, my teaching, right? I ask myself, would I trust this person to treat my patient well? Like if I was sick, if I was out of town or otherwise incapacitated to treat my patients, would I trust them to come in and treat my patients well?
And that’s the key distinguisher here, not just, treat them for, you know, a session and hope that, you know, nothing breaks while I’m gone. Would I trust this clinician to treat my patient well? And this also came out of this continuing education course that I went to. So over the summer, there is a therapist that I ⁓ have established a professional relationship with over in Dallas. And this therapist was
out of the country when she had a patient who called and said, hey, I’m having a big problem. I need to come in and see you now. And this therapist was like, I am so sorry. I literally cannot do that. I’m out of the country. So this other therapist called me up in Fort Worth and was like, hey, here’s the scoop. I have a patient. Can you see her? And I absolutely, I was like, of course, please send her my contact information. I’m happy to get her schedule. And I saw this patient a couple of times.
until this other therapist got back into town and then this patient resumed care with her normal therapist and went on their merry way. And I, at the time, I was thrilled because I was like, cool, a new patient, I get to meet somebody new, like I’m so excited to see what you’ve been working on. But the amount of trust that this therapist had in me to show up for her patient, because this therapist essentially put her like stamp of approval on me to say, I trust you enough to take care of my patient in the meantime.
and not just to again like, know, see her once or twice and hope that everything goes okay and then I’ll just clean up the mess afterwards. This other therapist trusted me to implement the best possible level of care for this person so that they would improve until they got back and then would continue to improve with them. Like the amount of trust professionally,
that this other therapist had in me was a really wonderful experience to get to rise to the occasion and show up for this patient ⁓ as well as I possibly could, right? Which is ultimately ideally what we’re doing for all of our patients. But I think this was a real kind of example in my life of someone trusting me in this same way that I’m encouraging you to implement this filter when it comes to getting advice and feedback from others. Would you trust this person to
treat your patients well in your absence, right? If you’re gone for some reason. ⁓ If that doesn’t quite fit your situation here, would I trust this person to teach this lecture to my students, for example? Would I trust this person to get on and teach my oncology specialist bootcamp or my case report writing workshop students really, really well? Would I trust them? ⁓
and this is what I do in my podcast interviews, do I trust this person enough to provide a valuable lesson to my audience of people, right? Would you trust this person enough to do the thing that you are trying to do in this case? And again, I know that you’re not always seeking advice from a oncology physical therapist, but is this a person who you would trust with this patient, for example? And I think that is a really, really good kind of centering.
filter with which we can apply feedback and advice to say, this good, is this bad? If your answer to would I trust this person and their advice with my patient, if it’s a yes, even if that feedback is hard to hear, it’s challenging, it’s probably worth considering. It’s probably worth your time. On the flip side, this is someone who you absolutely would not trust with your patient, would not trust with your students or whatever situation we’re talking about.
That feedback might be the noise that you need to let go of and just release into the ether, right? This filter is going to help you separate the mentor who says, hey, I saw that you missed in our recent patient encounter, some signs and symptoms of lymphedema or cellulitis or insert whatever here. Let’s review together, right?
Here’s an article that was really, really helpful for me when I was first starting to work with this patient population, et cetera. Valid, valuable, growth-oriented feedback that is ultimately going to help you forward in your journey to becoming the best oncology physical therapist you can be for your patients. On the flip side, the administrator who says, you need to see more patients per hour no matter what.
You already know how I feel about that, both in this episode and outside of this episode. This is noise that does not improve patient care and does not help you to become the best possible version of OncoPT that you can be so you can show up for the patients in your community with cancer.
Simply put, period, end of story. So when I applied this filter, right, of would I trust blah, blah family member with my patients, with my business, with my students, et cetera, it was freeing. Not immediately, but the more that I’ve really layered this on and looked through this filter, the more it’s helped me release these very hurtful comments. This family member’s opinion stopped.
carrying so much weight because I realized he doesn’t know my field, he doesn’t understand my mission, and he certainly wouldn’t be someone that I would trust a patient to. And I certainly would not be taking healthcare advice and be encouraging my patients to take healthcare advice from this individual. The same applies in your practice. When we let go of bad advice, we create room to focus on the voices that actually help us grow.
and help serve our patients better. And this does not mean, again, an echo chamber where you’re only hearing words of encouragement of like, my God, you did so good, girl. Like I literally wouldn’t change a thing. That’s not what we’re saying. This creates an environment in which you can sift through unhelpful noise and get to the feedback that is actually going to help you grow and develop as an oncology physical therapy professional. So my challenge for you this week.
Think about the last piece of advice or feedback that got under your skin. Run it through the filter of would I trust this person to treat my patient well? Or again, whatever circumstance that you’re in, right? If no, let it go. If yes, lean in and ask yourself, what can I learn from this even if it’s hard to hear, right?
Feedback is not always going to be warm and cozy, like a little puppy sitting on my lap right now. Sometimes it’s hard to hear. Sometimes it’s challenging. But again, it is ultimately in service of you to become the best possible version of OncoPT that you can be. And that is what I want for you, my friend.
If you want to be surrounded by this kind of feedback that we’re talking about, feedback you can trust from clinicians who understand oncology rehab, those who care deeply about evidence-based practice, and those who want to see you succeed in oncology rehab, the Cancer Rehab Community Conference is exactly where you need to be. This is not…
just your basic average conference where you sit through a couple hours long of sessions trying not to fall asleep in the back. This is a carefully curated space where voices from across oncology rehab come together to challenge and to inspire each other to become the best possible version of themselves in order to treat patients better across the globe.
These are the kinds of challenging conversations that make you better and not bitter and certainly not burned out. No more noise, no more bad advice, just a community of oncology rehab professionals who are committed to treating patients well and advancing our field of cancer rehab. The conference is happening November 7th and 8th. It is just like a…
Two months away actually, right as I’m recording this, which is so exciting. And registration is now open. You can save today on ticket prices before they go up in October. So save your seat today at TheOncoPT.com/conference Again, that is TheOncoPT.com/conference. Make this the year. And moving forward into 2026.
the year that you are surrounding yourself with the right people and the right advice. And again, this isn’t always gonna be super lovey-dovey. This is challenging. This is feedback and advice that is going to propel your career forward by asking you to sit with how you’ve been doing things and reassessing, they working for my patient’s best ⁓ interests? Do I need to change them? Do I need to add something in?
to ultimately make this a better experience for everybody, to accomplish the goals that we’re working towards. So again, you can save your seat today at TheOncoPT.com/conference We cannot wait to see you there. ⁓ Remember, choose your feedback, choose your advice well from people who actually get it and you would trust your patients with. And I will see you next week on TheOncoPT Podcast. But until next time, this is Elise with the OncopT.
And remember, you are exactly the physical therapist that your patients with cancer need. So let’s get to work.