As we mentioned earlier finding a good chiropractor is like finding a good mechanic. Once, you’ve found a good chiropractor, or mechanic for that matter, hold onto them. It can be tricky to find another good one. Since we’ve covered how to find a good chiro, let’s talk about our thought process and why we do what we do. The treatment philosophy may be more important than the techniques that are being utilized.
Never wanted to say back off or don’t play “X“
After being told to not work out as much when ailing from mild knee pain, it became my mission to not tell a patient the same thing. Unless a patient is in imminent danger of tearing, breaking, or permanently damaging their body, I want to help find a way for them to do their chosen activity.
We’ve had 80-year-olds that want to do yoga, 40-year-olds that want to run 100-mile races, 20-year-olds that want to deadlift 500 lbs, and 10-year-olds that want to play tennis. My treatment philosophy is I might modify your training temporarily, but I never want to simply say don’t do “X” as much and leave it at that.
Empower the patient
In helping you do your preferred activities it helps to get you involved personally in your care. We try our best to explain everything that is happening. It helps knowing why we are doing what we are doing. As the patient, we want you to understand what you’re feeling.
Minimize provider reliance
Furthermore, we want you to be able to help manage your condition. If we have you come back once a week for the rest of your life, we aren’t truly fixing anything. We want to treat you as quickly as possible and then give you the tools to stay out of our office and control your condition on your own. Depending on your condition, that initial treatment will have varying lengths, but our treatment philosophy is always to work ourselves out of a job.
Don’t be salesy
We hate being salesy. You will never hear a “pitch” from us. We don’t want you coming in on false premises or false hopes. If we don’t think you need care or our care is the best treatment for your condition, we’ll tell you who to go to or what to do next. If we think you need treatment, we’ll lay out the facts about your injury, what we plan to do, and why.
Combination of manual medicine
We don’t always identify as a “chiropractor.” That is because we are such a hybrid. That hybrid is a chiropractor mixed with a physical therapist mixed with an exercise therapist and more. A goal of ours has always been and will continue to be to find whatever research-based therapy we can to better treat your muscle, joint, and/or nerve ailments.
Stay in our lane. Won’t promise things the research doesn’t
We try to stay well within our bounds as part of our treatment philosophy. We treat muscles, joints, and nerves. You can find clinics that will promise to help with ADD, Depression, Autism, the flu, bedwetting, breast cancer, etc. etc. Through our schooling, we learned about all of those conditions. As medical providers, we should have a good understanding of them. But that doesn’t mean chiropractors or chiropractic itself can fix them. While chiropractic may indirectly help some of them, research hasn’t proven a connection and therefore we refer them to the proper providers.
Final thoughts
Knowing what a provider has to offer is only part of the story. We think it is important to also know why we do what we do. You should understand your treatment and it should make sense to you. If your treatment plan is going to be an extended plan you should understand why. When a certain therapy is suggested you should understand the motivation to use it. If it seems too good to be true, it likely is. A provider’s goals and mission should gel with yours. If ours aligns (pardon the pun) with yours, click here to schedule and we’ll get rolling.
