In this series I am considering some of the many commonly misused words that have diluted chiropractic over the years.
It seems that many of the words that chiropractors have adopted are the domain of the medical profession. Whether this is by specific intention to assimilate into medicine and gain social self-esteem by such action or some misguided attempt to be more understood by medicine or the public I leave it to you to judge.
All I can say is that these actions are damaging the profession of chiropractic.
I contend that the use of these words have helped to remove our profession’s identity, cohesion and strength thus resulting in numerous chiropractic contradictions.
This week’s focus is on a word that I consider being particularly problematic for the chiropractic profession worldwide.
One of the greatest frustrations that chiropractors experience is that people don’t easily and effortlessly make the transition from the disease based allopathic paradigm of treating sickness to the chiropractic lifetime wellbeing mindset.
It may well serve us to examine a word that you may use and ponder on how it could create such an outcome.
A big one in this context is the word “Patient”. The Oxford dictionary defines Patient as “A person receiving or registered to receive medical treatment”. The question then must be asked – since when is a chiropractor going to be giving “medical treatment”? I suggest that this word is totally incorrect to use in a chiropractic context but more than that it is destructive your practice.
How often do you use this word to describe people who are in the proactive phase of care whether you call it wellness, lifestyle, optimization or the like? No matter what descriptor you use before the word ‘patient’ for this type of care makes it an oxymoron and it will prevent people from advancing with their care. Who wants to get lifetime ‘medical treatment’ for health and vibrancy?
So how about calling it as it is. We check and adjust, if necessary, a person or people. The Oxford Dictionary defines a person as: “A human being regarded as an individual”. That sounds precisely like the individualistic nature of chiropractic to me.
Now, let’s utter a word of warning for you at this point. If you have been using a certain word over and over again for many years there will be some very entrenched neuro-pathways established in your brain. As with any process of changing a habit and creating more neuroplasticity the retraining will feel a little weird and will take time.
Be patient with yourself.
I suggest that you set up a game with this. Maybe you could get an agreement with your practice team and those around you that every time you utter the word that you are replacing it incurs a gold coin donation to your favourite chiropractic cause.
So, be patient
