Action is Chiropractic
09/03/07 10:51
Joe: Dear BJ, when we ask "what is chiropractic?" all sorts of connotations come to mind: philosophical jargon - with respect - yours and others' polemics, and concrete definitions that mean less and less each time you hear them. Consider wellness, to some it means vitamins, to others it means veganism.
BJ: You want to know actually what chiropractic is?
Joe: Yes. No interpretations. No mental constructs.
BJ: Your colleague, whose father was my friend, Dr Stanley Bolton, once told you "chiropractic is: what it is"...did you understand what he meant?
Joe: Yes. He explained that in a legal context, whatever chiropractors do, is chiropractic now. So whatever goes on in the name of chiropractic, at that moment, defines us. You can have some freaks of nature out there who may wave a wand and call it chiropractic, but it is generally what the majority of your peers does that defines us.
BJ: Right. So what is your question?
Joe: What is Chiropractic!
BJ: Chiropractic is what you make it. Now that I am gone, you need to observe the legacy that I left, and move on.
More importantly, observe what you do from day to day. Take the one thing that you have ever done with a patient...one thing...and gotten the maximum effect with.
Take that thing or procedure and focus on it. That will be the branch of chiropractic to be in. Most of us in the early days had great healing from something a chiropractor did, and we then became chiropractors and focused on that ourselves. Same thing.
Now, if the one thing that you did to that patient was to adjust atlas, do it. Yours is the age of specialisation. Take something and run with it, and communicate with your colleagues...work TOGETHER.
Most chiropractors agree that if there was one area they could adjust, only one segment, and for some reason could not affect any other, which is it they all profess it to be?
Joe: Atlas?
BJ: Right. But do you know how many take the time and attention to study that area and how to affect it best?
Your teacher and my student, the late, learned Dr Virgil V Strang said: "I can count on the fingers of one hand the amount of patients I have who understand and know chiropractic philosophy. But what they mostly need to know is that you know."
Same with chiropractors. Know what you are doing and why. Then, most of the time, you will not even care to define what chiropractic is.
Because action is the best actual definition.
BJ: You want to know actually what chiropractic is?
Joe: Yes. No interpretations. No mental constructs.
BJ: Your colleague, whose father was my friend, Dr Stanley Bolton, once told you "chiropractic is: what it is"...did you understand what he meant?
Joe: Yes. He explained that in a legal context, whatever chiropractors do, is chiropractic now. So whatever goes on in the name of chiropractic, at that moment, defines us. You can have some freaks of nature out there who may wave a wand and call it chiropractic, but it is generally what the majority of your peers does that defines us.
BJ: Right. So what is your question?
Joe: What is Chiropractic!
BJ: Chiropractic is what you make it. Now that I am gone, you need to observe the legacy that I left, and move on.
More importantly, observe what you do from day to day. Take the one thing that you have ever done with a patient...one thing...and gotten the maximum effect with.
Take that thing or procedure and focus on it. That will be the branch of chiropractic to be in. Most of us in the early days had great healing from something a chiropractor did, and we then became chiropractors and focused on that ourselves. Same thing.
Now, if the one thing that you did to that patient was to adjust atlas, do it. Yours is the age of specialisation. Take something and run with it, and communicate with your colleagues...work TOGETHER.
Most chiropractors agree that if there was one area they could adjust, only one segment, and for some reason could not affect any other, which is it they all profess it to be?
Joe: Atlas?
BJ: Right. But do you know how many take the time and attention to study that area and how to affect it best?
Your teacher and my student, the late, learned Dr Virgil V Strang said: "I can count on the fingers of one hand the amount of patients I have who understand and know chiropractic philosophy. But what they mostly need to know is that you know."
Same with chiropractors. Know what you are doing and why. Then, most of the time, you will not even care to define what chiropractic is.
Because action is the best actual definition.
