I thought, as I start a blog with our new website that includes an “article of the week”, I should begin by letting you know about me, the doctor. Why did I get into chiropractic in the first place, and how did I start doing this wacky thing called Network?
When I was in high school, I needed a chiropractor for recurrent episodes of low back pain. My father had been going for years, and I thought I should try it out. I was impressed by the thorough exam and the holistic approach to health. There were no drugs involved, and I felt better so quickly! I felt like I was getting to the cause of what was wrong instead of treating the symptoms. I wanted to help people, so chiropractic seemed like a natural career path for me.
While at chiropractic college, I got my mom to visit me at the clinic. I thought she had never been to a chiropractor before, but then she expressed a fear of getting her face pushed through a hole on the table! It turns out that her parents had taken her to a chiropractor as a child, but the doctor hadn’t explained what he was doing and it scared her enough that she didn’t return until her own son became a chiropractor! This convinced me of the need for patient education, particularly with kids to understand exactly what I do.
After 10 years in practice, using a structural chiropractic technique that I had learned in school, I went to Colorado to study a computer diagnostic tool. The doctor that was teaching about it wasn’t recommending one technique over another, but he said the most effective results they are seeing were with a tonal approach, where a very gentle touch was used. To be honest, I had heard about this when I was first in practice and thought it was witch craft. There was no way I was going to do something like that. Seeing the evidence made me decide to be more open-minded, so I went to a chiropractor that was using this technique. I was astounded at the results in my own body! I had many chiropractors adjust my neck over the years, as well as doing my own stretches and working with a massage therapist to try and correct a long-standing problem. When I had my first network visit, I sat up and thought he hadn’t done much. However, I was soon aware that a lot had happened. I could move my neck more, and when I showed my wife that night I heard a “pop” as the neck adjusted itself. My body was learning to correct itself. With ongoing care, I found my body change to be able to heal and adapt to take on new challenges. I have never looked back. I studied Network through many post graduate courses, and transitioned my office over to Network Care in 1999. The rest is history!