As a chiropractor, I am sure that you are feeling two urges with every person you adjust.
I bet that you will have a deep desire to really help the person. This ‘help’ may be to relieve pain, sickness, suffering, dysfunction, a current challenge or make the most of an opportunity. You also may have a yearning for the person to understand the chiropractic viewpoint and get a bigger vision of life and health just as you do.
I also bet that you want to help people so much that you want to try to do everything that you can do for them right now, while they are on your table.
Yes, today, right now, on this visit, while you have them there, there’s a desire to do EVERYTHING!!
I suggest that you take a counterintuitive stance on this. Heed the advice that less is more. Less input over longer is a winner in the chiropractic game.
Both with adjustments or their education the wise advice is TOMORROW.
Firstly – Adjustments: The human body is a system of interconnected and related parts. All parts work together in a chain of communication from the human energy centres, the brain, spine, nerve system, to the tissues, organs and cells and also in reverse order to complete what we fondly know as the ‘Safety Pin Cycle’. As soon as an input is received by the body, all parts and I mean ALL parts change.
Change, on one hand, takes a nanosecond to be registered throughout the person. Every adjustment that the body makes sends a ripple of change through its entire fabric. On the other hand, change also takes a lifetime. The human body is constantly regenerating and making the most of every input it receives.
Secondly – Education: Education is a nanosecond event – a question, a statement, a raised or lowered inflection or tone, a raising of your eyebrows can plant seeds of transformation that can be life-changing. Education is also a process. It’s a process over time with one concept building on another as you and your practice member takes on a new reality.
Your practice member is on a journey when they stop by your practice. They may be there for a specific ‘issue’, soon to fly off to the next stop on their journey or they may stay and enjoy what you have for a few weeks, months, years or even a lifetime. One thing is for sure, you can not give a person the experience and the benefits of the whole journey in a cluster of life-enhancing adjustments or education sessions. What is done today is built on TOMORROW. This is the true art of chiropractic.
Now, for sure, be very specific in what you do for the person every visit. Pre-check and post check your work. Ensure that your outcomes from today have been obtained and then give the person a chance to take the benefits on board.
You took many ‘tomorrows’ to get to where you are with your knowledge base so give your practice members a chance to assimilate the great work that you do also.
There is no hurry. There is no need to do everything today. There is no need to tell them everything right now. They don’t need lifestyle advice in the first stages of care.
Back off and remember that you and your practice members are on a journey and there is always TOMORROW.
