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People often become interested in their ancestry when they want to be more aware of their roots and the historical factors that shaped their current existence. I have a friend who found new self-esteem and life direction when he learned that he came from aristocratic blood in Europe during the Age of Enlightenment. This bit of knowledge made my friend, as he puts it, "more aware of what's inside me that informs me." It seems we benefit when we realize @what came before" and "what pushes us forward," to quote a former professor of mine who encouraged us to look to the past to find clarity for the future.

Knowing the past that propelled us can be an enlightening and invigorating lesson. I found this to be the case when mv fellow students and I had to do our own personal "clinical genealogy" during our PhD preparation. Rather than trace our family roots, we were instructed to trace our "clinical training" roots. This little exercise led me out of the therapeutic sciences within psychology and into the medical and rehabilitative aspects of psychology that I now work within. Starting with my clinical supervisor and mentor in the PhD program, I worked backward to find out who taught him, and so on down the education line. I found that my clinical training roots were grounded not in psychotherapy but in clinical trials and medical applications. I eventually ended up in neuropsychology, and I continue with its applications within rehabilitative and forensic arenas today. Interestingly, there were no forensic scientists in the tree I sprang from, so that is my own unique contribution to the "family tree."

I would urge each of you to look at your own clinical family tree. It can be an enlightening, sobering, and oftentimes inspiring experience. No one who has done it has found it a waste of time. Trace your clinical tree through the people with whom you and your predecessors actually had contact, either in education or in the clinic. Your tree might include professors, supervisors, or short course instructors. In physical therapy, my tree includes Dorothy Voss, my first supervisor Sylvia Tkalitch, and my first chief, Ilse Stauch, through whom I go back to the Swedish school of Bindegewebs (connective tissue massage) of early northern Europe.

In essence, I am like a new twig on my family tree, contributing new growth not seen before because of the forensic applications of my work. Like any twig, I might grow into a large branch, or I might stay small, hardly noticeable, but nonetheless full of life and promise. If I become a huge branch, I might bear fruit, producing brand new trees that are a unique blend of what my tree brings with what their new environment has to offer.

Some have found royalty in their trees to spur them on to greater heights; I have found the humbling truth that not all of us might have roles that will be of tremendous importance to succeeding generations within the clinical world. On the surface, that might seem depressing, but it really isn't if you look at it from the proper perspective. I am quite comfortable with my "twigness," my own small addition of forensic work to my family tree. Like me, you might find that you enjoy merely being in the company of giants. (Besides, you don't have to stay a twig; look at all the royalty you spring from!) It can be a reality check, informed by your place in history, that sharpens the lens you look at your clinical life through.

What and who will you find on your tree? What will be its impact on your life and profession? Will you focus on who came before you, or will you focus on your own place on the tree? Will the latter make you shift gears to reach new professional heights or release you from false bravado?

To begin, ask your most influential clinical supervisor or professor who inspired and taught him or her. If you can, contact those people. Write them letters telling them what you're trying to find out and why. Ask questions about the things that interest you. What fired them up? What did they enjoy about clinical work? Who were their predecessors? You might even need to hit the stacks to find out more about clinical leaders who are no longer alive. You may be surprised, humbled, or disappointed by what you find, but you won't be sorry.

I am proud to have the following people (in no particular order) before me on my clinical tree: Karen Hayes, Sylvia Tkalitch, Dorothy Voss, Ilse Stauch, Dave Erickson, Paul Becker, Margaret Knott, and a host of Swedish physiotherapists whose names I'll never know. When you find your own clinical predecessors, don't forget to thank them.

PT Town Hall is your column! Do you have an insight, opinion, or experience you'd like to share in this space? Contact Mitch via e-mail at DrMitch@msn.com, call him at 316/729-1223, or fax him at 316/722-3365.

by Mitchel A Woltersdorf, PhD, PT

Mitchel A Woltersdorf, PbD, PT, column coordinator for PT Town Hall, is a private practice neuropsychologist with degrees in education, theology, and clinical psychology and a license in physical therapy.