Keeping a Sense of Balance

Enthusiasm, fear, excitement, dismay, most of our stronger emotions have a way of trying to pull us off course. The best laid plans may sometimes be abandoned when faced with the unexpected.

Instead of looking at change as a continuous process, we tend to ignore it until it is in our face. At that point, we are startled and uncertain because we didn't see it coming.

While you are probably thinking more about your practice or even your next patient, perhaps it would be valuable to take a look back across the last 99 years. What do you see? You may see a profession with a rather humble beginning that has been fighting an up hill battle for its very survival ever since. You may recognize internal controversy and a difficult path to maturity. Regardless of what period of chiropractic history you may focus on, you have to admit, it has always been a very dynamic profession.

Internal controversy has been a part of chiropractic from the very beginning. So how did we get here?

Flipping the pages of history in your mind, you recall the names of the early pioneers: the men and women that made the sacrifices. Looking at more recent events, you may see leaders you admire, and those that you don't agree with.

Why, with all the external attacks and internal turmoil, is chiropractic the third largest health care profession in the world, and peering into its second century?

Why did Britain just recognize chiropractic by "royal ascent"?

This profession doesn't appear to have any of the advantages needed to withstand the kind of aggression that has been waged against it: no political protection, no royal patriarchs, nothing to protect us from those that wish to see our demise.

Some would say it is the people in the chiropractic profession that have made the difference. While many chiropractors have shown a profound willingness to get involved and make sacrifices, the entire answer doesn't lie there.

SO WHAT IS IT!?!?

The answer must be found in chiropractic itself:

The multi-faceted aspects of what chiropractic is, that careful balance of art, science and philosophy.

Health care that is in tune with the body, not trying to evoke a reaction or remove a vital organ.

Currently some are suggesting that you can take "manipulation" out of chiropractic. They suggest that "manipulation therapy" in any one's hand will be just as effective.

When I was younger, I had a friend who was an auto mechanic. I didn't understand much about engines, so I was often asking for help. Once, when the engine was idling terribly, he reached in with a screw driver, turned a screw and said: "That will be $50; $2 for turning the screw and $48 for knowing which screw to turn and why."

With all of the motion palpation seminars I've been to, I can probably do motion palpation. But I have no idea what I'm looking for or why. Anybody can learn to manipulate. But it is the chiropractic context that helps you know when, where and why.

There are many changes confronting you and your practice. Take a minute to reflect on where this profession and thousands of other DCs just like you have been.

Change is inevitable. But chiropractic will move and progress through this year and hundreds more to come. You are a part of something great. BE PROUD!

DMP Jr. BS, HCD(hc)