Becoming the Wellness Expert & Advancing the Chiropractic Profession
LIFESTYLE
Stephen Simonetti
DC
With our educational curriculum and our philosophy there are no other portal of entry providers more qualified to be the leaders of wellness care.
In the February issue of The American Chiropractor, I proposed a model of practice where the doctor of chiropractic should become the practice’s wellness expert by incorporating in-office wellness workshops for patients. The workshops will allow you to focus your office time on adjusting as many people as possible. I also suggested that, although there are many adjunctive procedures that help patients, the adjustment has the greatest impact on a person’s physiology.
Over the past 40 years, my practice has focused on providing the most skilled adjustment, utilizing an integration of several adjusting techniques with myofascial work. During my regular practice hours, I am only adjusting, and I am only giving time-critical recommendations/advice. I do teach a plethora of other lifestyle choices in two workshops—the Basic and Advanced Better Results Workshops. When a patient asks me about a pillow or vitamins, etc... my response is “did you attend the Basic and Advanced Better Results Workshops? You will get a much better understanding about your question and many other related proper lifestyle recommendations.”.
This article will present a marketing strategy for you to become the wellness expert in your community while improving the image of chiropractic with a singular cohesive chiropractic message that allows you to serve more people. As mentioned in the prior article, and I’m sure you would agree, the public’s image of chiropractic is at best murky. If it were not, we would see more than 10% of the population. In addition to helping the reader “build” their practice from the outside through lecturing, my other purpose for writing is to advance our profession by helping doctors of chiropractic become premier wellness experts. Don’t worry if you’re not really interested in the fate and evolution of our great profession; you will find a nugget or two to help your practice. Okay, here we go! Since approximately 80% of people, at one time or another, will experience low back pain, some may argue that our focus should be musculoskeletal pain relief (Beliveau, 2017). I would argue the best way to improve access and our market share is for people to frilly understand the impact of chiropractic on their overall health and well-being.
The other argument I have heard is “get them in the door” for their musculoskeletal complaints and then educate them about the full benefits of a spine that’s free of nerve interference. To quote one of my friends who has been involved in the politics of chiropractic as long as I have been, “How is that working for you?” As we still see only 10% of the population, this strategy has been proven not to work.
We are shortchanging our communities by making our message solely about “treating” musculoskeletal ailments. Anyone who has been in practice long enough and been busy adjusting spines has witnessed the miracles of chiropractic. A case in point is my father-in-law, who, after many years of medical care including a pacemaker, saw his blood pressure significantly lower immediately after receiving his first adjustment. Our “unique selling proposition” is that, in addition to helping people feel better with their musculoskeletal ailments, chiropractic care also helps people function better, thereby improving overall health and vitality.
Admittedly, it is a tall order to deliver this message on a global scale. Improving the image of chiropractic, as I see it, is essential to the growth of chiropractic and health of our society. At no time in history has the world been more ready for the quantum leap to wellness care. The post-COVID era has people questioning the allopathic model in a new wide-scale manner. With our educational curriculum and our philosophy there are no other portal of entry providers more qualified to be the leaders of wellness care.
To this end, I have developed a program called Getting Chiropractic to the People (GCttP), which positions doctors of chiropractic as wellness experts. GCttP has a singular, cohesive chiropractic message—the body is a self-healing, self-organizing entity. The nervous system regulates every cell, tissue, and function of the body, and the doctor of chiropractic is the most qualified healthcare provider to improve nerve function by correcting subluxations, thereby improving overall health and well-being.
I have built my practice through out-of-office lectures at houses of worship, libraries, schools, nursing homes, companies like Home Depot, etc., by sharing the chiropractic message (principle). The vision of GCttP is to build a team of doctors throughout the nation teaching wellness lifestyle choices, with the number one choice being the life-enhancing benefits of the chiropractic adjustment.
GCttP teaches doctors and staff how to schedule out-of-office wellness workshops, how to present state-of-the art, scientifically sound PowerPoint presentations, and how to effectively schedule new patients. At the moment, we have five wellness workshops. The program is “soup to nuts,” Google Drive-based, and easy to implement. It was created to achieve the aforementioned vision while raising donations (from attendees) to help the Wellness for All Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization my wife and I started. The foundation raises money for the education of orphans and other underprivileged children.
In a subsequent article, we may present some additional do’s and don’ts for presenting lectures. The first “do” is to get over any fears of public speaking. There are many proven strategies to get over this fear, and the easiest is to remember your “why.” Why did you become a chiropractor? Why does the world need to hear your message? Hint: Because you are the only person who can communicate it the way you can!
When your “why” is big enough, you will find the how! For me, a big why is that the world needs to accept our great message (principle)—the body heals itself and does it a lot better without subluxation. The world is ready for it. You can tell one person at a time or just as easily tell 50 or more!
If you are interested in participating in Getting Chiropractic to the People, or you have any questions about the Wellness for All Foundation or the art of public speaking, contact Dr. Simonetti via email at [email protected] or phone at 917-494-9383. Until then, continue to share the uniqueness of chiropractic care because you never know how many lives you will help to improve!
References:
1. Beliveau, P. J. H., Wong, J. J., Sutton, D. A., Simon, N. B., Bussieres, A. E., Mior, S. A., & French, S. D. (2017). The chiropractic profession: A scoping review of utilization rates, reasons for seeking care, patient profiles, and care provided. Chiropractic & Manual Therapies, 25, 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/ S12998-017-0165-8
