CHIROPRACTIC EXCELLENCE

Are you “fired up” to be in practice? Are you happy to be involved in Chiropractic? Are you excited to be a part of this great profession? Here’s an early morning exercise for you - Take a moment to think about how fired up, happy and excited you are - Now - notify your face!

Isn’t it great how you leave some seminars and you are fired up: ready to challenge and change the world? Then comes Monday morning and you’re back in your practice. Have you ever noticed that some of your patients aren’t as fired up as you are? And by the end of the week you’re not fired up either?

Perhaps some of us are inclined to think: “Well, that seminar obviously didn’t work!” Kind of reminds me of that occasional patient who comes back after one adjustment saying, “I’m not fixed yet!”

You see when you were at that seminar you felt like you were soaring, reaching for the heavens. You could see for miles: Your visual acuity seemed sharper than it had ever been: You were riding high on the adrenaline air currents: You could see things you had never seen before: New horizons: Places you want to travel to on your chiropractic journey. You felt like the king of the health care birds: You were the Chiropractic Eagle!

Monday morning: You soared into the waiting run of Old McDonald’s Chiropractic Farm. And there they were waiting for you: “B-b-b-back, b-b-b-back”! Isn’t it amazing how if you hang around in the Chicken Run long enough; first you start to scratch the ground a bit, then you start pecking at the ground, and before long you even start to look and sound like your patients, and the other health care birds: “B-b-b-back”! And when you’re in the chicken run it becomes hard to see over the fence; so you start to focus on the things nearby: accounts owing, unresponsive patients, difficult staff, patient numbers.

This is where I used to be: On the practice rollercoaster: Ten new patients - I’m up. Three cancellations - I’m down. Patient tells me how wonderful I am - I’m up! Patient confronting me as to why they’re not fixed after five adjustments - I’m down! Record patient week - I’m up! Quiet week - I’m down! New car - I’m really up! CAA membership bill - I’m down - “do I really have to be a member?”! This lead to the search - could it be a new technique? Maybe a new mentor? Another seminar? New potions and lotions? How can I keep that high?

There is a way to stop this regression from happening you know. You see as humans we have a God given ability that even the Eagles don’t possess. That is, the ability to see things not present with our ‘mind’s eye’, the skill of visualisation if you like. Remember, even though you may be working in a chicken run, you are a Chiropractic Eagle! Spend time each day visualising those things you saw while soaring at that seminar - what were those visions? - Clarify them, expand on them, work out the finer details. What are the views you will see and the stops you will make on your chiropractic journey towards those visions?….. Put them on paper! What are your estimated times of arrival at each destination….. write them down.

We don’t physically have wings so what kind of vehicles will you need to get you there? A DG convertible? A Gonstead go-go-mobile? A Diversified dragster? An Activatorcopter? A Hinwood Harrier Jet? A Reikemann rocket? A Mertz Mercedes? A TRT tractor?

How do we use these visualisations? Read them, see them, FEEL them, EMOTIONALISE them: EVERY SINGLE DAY! Can you see all your patients healthy and happy in your mind’s eye? Can you smell the new carpet in your dream practice? Can you hear the laughter of children in your adjusting rooms? Can you taste the satisfaction of watching another miracle unfold in your practice?

How BIG can you visualise? Now I know that I’m the only one who used to think like this: I know you don’t say to yourself: “I just need enough to get by”, “enough for me and my family”. “I’m working towards a new car”. “I’m saving up for my next holiday”. “I want to see X number of patients”….. : THINK BIG!! You should see your practice so full with patients that you have to employ associates to cope, or at least refer them to the struggling DC down the road. You should pray for so much money that you have to give half of it away. Can you see every Australian consulting Chiropractors regularly? The demand for Chiropractic being so great that it takes the Tennis Centre or maybe even the MCG to house the DG Conference?

There is another important point to realise here. Those chickens in the run. Look at them a little closer: You see they too are Eagles! They started as eaglets when they were hatched (Isn’t that just a Chiropractic belief - that we are all born with unlimited potential?). But then they were thrown into the chicken run of control, intervention, and modern sickness care thinking. They have been in the run so long they don’t even know that they are eagles any more. In fact they look at you, standing tall and proud, flexing your enormous wing span and speaking a different language; and to be honest you look strange! You sound different to Dr Turkey….. “Gobble, gobble, gobble”! You look different to Pheasant Physio, who looks so good but does so very little. Is he just a chicken in fine clothes - a clever disguise?

But you have a quest; and I believe this is Chiropractic’s ultimate potential. Your mission, should you choose to accept it. It is up to you to reawaken those Eagles within. No-one else can do it but another Eagle! If I may use Chiropractic terminology for a moment: Teach them about the incredible Universal and Innate powers they are blessed with. Release the universal and innate intelligence with your adjustments. Speak Chiropractic Eagle language. Show them the way by your Chiropractic Eagle example. Those Eagles within them will be inexorably drawn towards you and the life of an Eagle. And here’s the other great news. They will bring all their eagle-apprentice friends along with them!

There is one important ingredient that we mustn’t forget. To give the skill of visualisation POWER we require FAITH. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt over the years, it’s that you have to have faith in something. Maybe for you it is faith in science, perhaps faith in Chiropractic, maybe faith in God, maybe you only have faith in yourself, or perhaps your faith is reliant on the vision of someone else. Let’s face it, there is more unknown in the universe than there is known; and you can only have either faith in your beliefs regarding things unknown, fear of the unknown, or ignorance. The bottom line to me is that you have to decide what YOU have faith in - a conscious decision of what you believe in: To quote a text I often refer to myself: “To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see.” Ask yourself: What do you have faith in?

In closing: One warning! Should you choose not to visualise, reach and believe for the life of an Eagle and choose not to plant the visions of better health and a better life as an Eagle to your patients then prepare yourself for a life in the chicken run, with the “b-b-b-backs”, Dr Turkey and Pheasant Physio. Please….. come and soar with the rest of the Chiropractic Eagles!

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Beating addiction may take an extra nudge from the chiropractor.

When Jose Mehlman enrolled in the Exodus addiction treatment center as a study participant, he had hit bottom. Years before, he tried treatments that fell into his lap—anything that might help him. But they were “nowhere near effective.” Today, Mehlman is living a viable, drug-free life. Why was his Exodus experience so successful? “I think that chiropractic care was an integral part of my recovery,” he says.

But what does the spine have to do with addiction? The connection may be explained by the presence, or absence, of brain chemicals that make us feel good. When the spinal chord and its nerves are in proper order, chemicals known as neurotransmitters are released in a specific sequence, like falling dominoes. The result: A state of well-being. However, subluxations or misalignments of the spine can cause pressure and tension on surrounding tissue, interrupting this feel-good sequence.

Jay Holder, a chiropractor and physician with the Exodus Treatment Center in Miami Beach, wondered how patients would fare on a traditional rehab treatment program supplemented with chiropractic care. Some 98 subjects, including Mehlman, participated in the study, which was published in Molecular Psychiatry. Holder’s research found that when an addiction treatment program was supplemented with frequent chiropractic adjustments over a 30-day period, the patients displayed an unprecedented 100 percent program completion rate. In addition, initially rampant depression and anxiety dropped significantly.

In comparison, the study’s two other groups—one, a passive group who underwent only standard rehabilitation, and another, a placebo group who received sham chiropractic care—displayed significantly lower retention rates, and were about as likely to finish the program as the average recovering addict in the U.S. (a probability of about 55 percent).

Holder’s study used a specific chiropractic technique called the Torque Release Technique, which focuses less on the alignment of the bones and more on what he calls the “neurophysiology of the spine.” Certain types of subluxations can interfere with the tissue that extends from the brain stem through the spine and into the coccyx, hampering systems like the limbic system (known as the “seat of emotions”) and throwing off neurotransmitters that keep us feeling our best. Holder’s research suggests that drug treatment programs prove to be more successful with this type of chiropractic care…

Click Here To Read The Full Article At Psychology Today…

Click Here To Find Out More About Chiropractic And Addictions Recovery…

Perceived indifference is the number one reason for patient drop out - AND - the number one need of each of your client’s is the perception that you have heard and understood their biggest concerns. A major shift in consumer power is the demand for self-help advice. While most MDs THINK that their patients come to them for a prescription; and most DCs THINK that their new patients have come to get their backs cracked; One of the first questions in your patient’s mind/s is “what can I do to help myself?”

I still remember one particular new patient who consulted me. He was wanting help with his chronic recurrent Low Back condition and had already seen his MD for an “expert” opinion. The GP had given him a sheet full of exercises as his prescription. This sheet had actually convinced the man that he was in the wrong place! You see, the copyright symbol at the bottom of the page was 1965! The guy said to me - “if that’s how up to date the MDs are then I figured I needed to find another profession”.

A lot of chiropractic treatment programs are very “front-ended” - That is the new practice member gets a lot of attention and information in the first 1-2 weeks of care: And then they become part of the daily schedule - Arrive, wait, guided into the adjusting room, face down, adjustment, “powers-on, see you next visit”, pay and make an appointment, leave. And as each visit passes they develop a growing dis-ease that they might just be a number.

Here’s one technique to help your practice members feel like you continue to see them as individual, important and cared for: It’s called drip-feeding. People respond and comply much more effectively to your educational inputs when they are in small bite-size chunks, instead of a huge plate full of stew that exceeds the appetite. You can apply this to any aspect of your ongoing systems and procedures but let’s use the example of exercise prescription:

Many DCs have given up on prescribing exercises because of perceived poor compliance and persistence. The primary cause of this poor outcome is the way in which the exercises are taught, delivered and reviewed. Instead try these guidelines…

1) Only teach 1 and never more than 2 exercises at any one visit.

2) Demonstrate the exercise by assisting the person to perform the exercise there and then - it’s fine to give a sheet but these are just visual reminders - NEVER expect a client to perform an exercise from a still picture without demonstration, and DVDs will rarely make it into the player more than once.

3) Let them know that you will be teaching them another exercise next week, and that you will be reviewing their progress.

4) When you teach them the next exercise, get them to quickly show you how they are doing the last one you taught them.

This process should only add 1-2 minutes to that consult if you do it effectively - if this is too long, this can be delegated to a tech CA who you should have assisting you if you are seeing high volume anyway.

This process achieves a number of things - implementation because they will remember the exercise, compliance because they know you will be checking on them, persistence because they have been made accountable.

When we teach the Super Posture program I show a set of 12 simple exercises which are very effective for improving postural habits, and can also be used to improve response to your adjustments. Click Here To Learn More About Super Posture…

Now the challenge for you is to review the information that you currently bombard your new patients with, and take some time to trim it down into smaller bite size pieces, to mix into your drip-feeding recipe…

I can remember paying good money to attend a practice management seminar that promised me I’d be able to see more people, charge more for my services, work less hours, convert everyone to lifetime care, and attract hundreds of new patients. The crux of the seminar was rehearsing, memorising and then regurgitating powerful “scripts” which if said in the correct manner, guaranteed that everyone would do anything you told them to do. I must say they did work well, but here’s the glitch: When you’ve been in practice for a little while, and you start to see the same people over an extended period of time; and you also see their family members, and friends and colleagues, and reactivated patients; and if your CAs and associates are also using those same power scripts - eventually you are all going to be “found out”. You see this technique is based on “Disney” systems - BUT; how many times have you visited Disneyland? Once, maybe twice, to go to the bits that you missed the first time? And guess what - you only have to listen to the script once! If YOU are going to be a wellness DC with people seeing you 12 or more times a year, for many years, then you’d better have something different to say… Here’s the best way to develop dialogue processes that evolve and adapt to where you practice members are at…

Ask better questions!

Here’s a really simple strategy that doesn’t take long; builds rapport, intimacy and relationship; and produces numerous opportunities for generating referrals: Get to know the practice member’s family, friends and colleagues by asking a simple series of questions… My CA even knows their Dog’s name/s!

It goes something like this:

Q: “What does your husband/wife/partner do for a living?” A: ……..

Q: “Wow, does he/she enjoy that?” A: ………

Q: “Has your husband/wife/partner seen a chiropractor before?” A: ……..

This is where the brief conversation can take a number of turns, but regardless of the answer, your questions should search for a reason for you to recommend that they bring their partner in to be checked to see if you can help.

On subsequent visits I’ll take some brief moments to get to know their kids, and then their friends, and then their colleagues…

I know this sounds really simple, but I have got to tell you that the conversations are much more interesting than listening to the sound of your own voice saying the same thing over and over again?

Click Here To Find Out About Chiropractic Coaching…

The Million Dollar Question

Many of us now call ourselves “Wellness DCs” or “Healthy Lifestyle Doctors” or some other impressive sounding title - I guess we are trying to differentiate our services from the other “garden variety” DCs? But these titles often are a reflection of us, and not a true reflection of how our customers really see us, or how they themselves behave. Maybe we exercise regularly, get adjusted every 1-2 weeks, keep a positive outlook, eat organic etc. But then we have 80% of our practice on monthly schedules, and have no discernable influence on their other healthy habits?

I suffered a daunting revelation when I upgraded my technique and scheduling systems to a more “wellness” driven focus. You see I used to spend ~15 minutes with each client, and they loved my soft-tissue techniques, and often complimented me on my ability to find the sore spots and to provide instantaneous relief from their musculoskeletal aches and pains. Not that there is anything wrong with this - but my mission is to improve the health and wellness of everyone that I can influence - not to be the natural alternative to Nurofen and Panadeine. And when I changed my technique to a neurological model, many left the practice before they could possibly experience the extra health benefits - why? “Because I didn’t rub their shoulders”!

So, what do YOUR clients really think of YOU? Here is the million dollar question to ask your practice members that will inform you of the truth…

“If you could come and have an adjustment whenever you wanted to, and it didn’t cost you anything, how often would you come?”

1) If the answer is, “Oh I’d come every single week, and sometimes even more”: Congratulations - you probably are truly a wellness DC - your clients truly comprehend the global benefits of an adjustment. They probably perceive the reduction in tension and stress, the improved sleep patterns, the maximised immunity, and the increases in energy after each adjustment.

2) “Oh, I’d come every 4-6 weeks”: Maybe you should replace the title “Wellness” with “Maintenance” DC. Your clients have probably discovered that if they go longer than 4-6 weeks, that their aches and pains start to increase in severity and regularity. Your periodical adjustments offer them effective and lasting pain relief.

3) “Oh, I’d come a 2-3 times a year”: I actually don’t quite understand this concept - maybe it’s because they get their car serviced twice a year, and go to the dentist twice a year, and floss their teeth twice a year, and make love twice a year? I’m not sure of what possible benefit two adjustments per year could have - maybe I underestimate the power of an adjustment?

4) “Oh, I’d come in whenever I had a problem”: Whoops, if you get a lot of this answer, then it is time to change your title to “garden variety DC”.

To take this question to the next level: If your practice members answer that they would like to come more often than they actually do - the next question to ask is - “What do we need to do to help you come as often as you would really like to?” - now its time to work out a strategy, schedule, fee, that makes their dream a reality…

Click Here To Find Out More About Practice Change Coaching…