A More Effective Swine Flu Vaccine

When it comes to the newly-hyped media craze of swine flu, how are you communicating it in your chiropractic office?  Are you part of the chiropractic profession getting caught up in the fear tactics propagated by the government and media or are you grounded in your chiropractic principles?  How is your certainty as a chiropractor?  It’s easy to talk about chiropractic and immune function when people are well, but what about when faced with the proposed ‘Swine Flu Pandemic’?  Can you keep yourself together, use your emotional intelligence skills and not allow the panic to hijack your amygdala?  Can you keep your critical thinking about cause and effect, and your common sense approach to health, wellness and disease to lead your community through this challenge?

My friend, Alain Desaulniers, D.C. has used this photograph and made a poster for his office that says at the bottom, “Chiropractic Care Strengthens Your Immune System. Stay Well Adjusted!”  (He has given permission for other chiropractors to use it, so email me if you would like it).

The last time Swine Flu made an appearance was 1976 and the government quickly pushed through a flu vaccine (doesn’t this normally take time to manufacture “safely”, if there is such a thing?), used fear to mass vaccinate and 25 times more people died from the flu vaccine than of the flu itself. Congressman Dr. Ron Paul’s video on Swine Flu recalls this event and states, “The government shouldn’t be in the medical business”.  This time it is an interestingly more complex virus, a recombinant H1N1-H5N1 avian/human/swine flu virus never to be seen before.  My microbiology might just be rusty but I can’t help but wonder if this is natural genetic evolution or a laboratory virus gotten free?

Let’s look to chiropractic’s history and originating philosophy to on understand the cause and effect of disease, especially infectious illness:

“One question was always uppermost in my mind in my search for the cause of disease.  I desired to know why one person was ailing and his associate, eating at the same table, working in the same shop, at the same bench was not.  Why? … This question has worried thousands for centuries and was answered September, 1895.”    ~D.D. Palmer, The Chiropractor’s Adjuster (1910)

Dr. Fred Barge continued on this theme when he used to say, “Do rats cause garbage or does garbage cause rats?”  Dr. Kevin Donka of Chirothots has continued Dr. Barge’s message with a twist, “Flies don’t cause garbage!”  

Common sense tells us that rats and flies are attracted to dirty places where there is decaying matter to feed upon.  Just because rats and flies are present at a garbage dump or a dirty restaurant doesn’t mean they caused the garbage, they are an effect of the garbage!  So why do some people get sick and some people stay healthy? It depends on the cleanliness of the body’s environment!  If your body is weak, your resistance is down, and your cells are decaying, doesn’t it make sense that the germ scavengers would find home, food and shelter there?  Of course it does!  The germs don’t cause the disease, they are present when disease is!  It is your internal resistance of your immune system that determines whether you get sick or not. Keep in mind it is called the ‘Germ Theory’ not the ‘Germ Fact’!

Whether or not the U.S. Homeland Security is appropriately given the power to make decisions about the health of Americans, (a political discussion of its own), what are chiropractors doing to coach the people they care for about strengthening their body’s own ‘Homeland Security’?  As a Wellness Chiropractic Coach and Consultant at Rosen Coaching, we coach chiropractors to not only communicate and educate people about the 3 Dimensions of Stress and what causes subluxations, but to provide ongoing communication about the ingredients for a healthy body, first and foremost clear nerve system communication.  What else can people  do to strengthen their immune systems and promote health? Proper nutrition, vitamins and minerals including high doses of vitamin C, movement and exercise, hydration, rest and relaxation, fresh air, sunshine/vitamin D, mental clarity, stress management, emotional peace and fun!

As a chiropractor looking to lead your community to health and wellness, to have practice success and growth as well as to have the life of your dreams you need to stand up, tell the truth and show people there is another way! Let us know if we can help!

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Tags: Amygdala, care tactics, Cause and Effect, Certainty, Challenges, Chiropractic Coach, chiropractic profession, communication, Congressman Dr. Ron Paul, Disease, Emotional Intelligence, Fear Tactics, Germs, Immune System, Internal Resistance, Leadership, rosen coaching, Success, Swine Flu, wellness chiropractic practice management

“Look at ever path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question: ‘Does this path have a heart’?”  ~Carlos Cataneda~

What is the essence of your practice?  What matters most?  If you have passion.  If you are ‘on purpose’.  If you love what you do.  The truth is, everything comes down to your focus, your enthusiasm and the energy you bring to your practice and the people you serve.  

In my chiropractic coaching, I work with chiropractors more about their head space and mindset than on their procedures.  I can easily consult you with typical practice management style and tell you a script to say for your Report of Findings/ Recommended Action Plan.  But if you don’t have passion, or certainty, or value yourself as a chiropractor and the care you provide, it won’t help. We have to coach through these intangibles before we can move forward.

At the time of death, the ancient Egyptians removed all the meaningless organs and discarded them. One that they kept - the heart.  I myself have been in ancient Egyptian temples and tombs and am intrigued by their understanding of the human experience.  When an Egyptian dies and goes to receive judgement by Anubis, their heart is weighed on a set of scales against a feather.  If their heart is lighter than the feather, they have lived a good life and move to the afterlife.  How light is your heart?  When do we let ourselves over-think our practice and ignore our true knowing, our intuition and what is in our heart?

Most chiropractors I know or have coached, who have done the ’scare tactic’ model of communication tell me deep down it didn’t’ feel right. They went to bed with a pit in their stomach and their heart knowing the incongruency.  But it sounded like a good idea to use fear for patient compliance and to get the promised results.  It might work for short term compliance, but to get long term follow through our job is to have passion, tell people our truth, show them the consequences of their choices and build human relationships through hope and loving communication. 

Here are the steps to help you regain heart in your practice:

1.Truly discover your heart, passion and certainty for chiropractic

2. Bring it to your practice in every aspect: communication, marketing, team building etc.

3. Love people where they are and show them there is another way ~ lead them!

4. Make your systems and communications congruent with what is true to your heart

5. Have the practice and life of your dreams

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Tags: care tactics, Chiropractic Coaching, communication, Egyptian, Heart, Passion, scare tactics, wellness chiropractic practice management

As chiropractors, hopefully most of us are communicating with the people we care for about the concept of health as a process vs. health as an event.  The accumulation of stress over time and the removal of such stress is the creator of health or disease.  Nothing from the outside. Nothing that just ‘happens’.

After a close family member had a heart attack this weekend I am deeply thankful for event/crisis care that our social medical system provides. It saved her life with incredible speed and skill.  And what I know so conceptually, I was reminded viscerally this weekend where they fall short. Medical care is not designed nor intended to keep you healthy. They view health as an event instead of a process. “This happened, we fixed it. Now take these drugs for life as our best approach to manage it”.  

True health care is the chiropractic understanding: Health is a process. In every moment you are either moving towards health or away from it with your choices. If you accumulate too much lifestyle stress in your nerve system, you will create dis-ease and disease.  We acknowledge this as the CAUSE and make new choices to create a different state of health.  Wellness care is acknowledging what the body needs (and doesn’t need) to be well and continue to take care of yourself with the same level of care, whether you are sick or whether you are well.

But a process takes TIME you say! Ah yes, heart disease didn’t happen overnight. Nor will it disappear with a medical miracle.  They can reactively stop the acute pain of an MI and reestablish blood flow - but the proactive process is just beginning!  But we are a quick-fix society wanting results NOW!  

Even wellness chiropractors, who understand the ‘process vs. event’ concept and communicate this way to the people they serve about symptoms, healing, and chiropractic care can be impatient with their practice and their chiropractic coaching. But I want results NOW they say!  Ah yes, but changes in your practice don’t happen overnight!  Don’t fall into the quick-fix trap, it’s incongruent with our philosophy.

Know what you are trying to accomplish, have an action plan to work towards it, follow through with the actions and produce the results.  In every moment, your chiropractic practice is either moving towards success or away from it with your choices and actions.

Make sure that you are applying the same Process vs. Event principle to all aspects of your life: Your chiropractic practice, your chiropractic coaching, your nutrition, your exercise, your finances… it’s aligned with the laws of nature.  Life is a process, not an event.

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Tags: Chiropractic Care, Chiropractic Coaching, Event, Health Care, Medicine, Proactive, Process, Reactive, Wellness Care, wellness practice management

Most people don’t want to know about their disappointed customers.  It scares them and it’s uncomfortable.  Especially if you are a chiropractor, serving with all your heart.  If you are taking care of people with world class excellence, doing your very best, it can really ruin your day to hear from someone who isn’t happy with your service.  In fact, it can start a downward spiral of self-abuse if you don’t get hold of your head space right away.

From the wise Seth Godin, a guru in marketing and leading tribes, he says these words about disappointed customers, “Don’t ignore them”.  

Find out if you can save the relationship and rectify the disappointment using LAASR communication we use in our coaching. Ask for more information to clarify the disappointment. Acknowledge their concerns/fears/feelings. Come up with a solution that works for both parties. And then knock their socks off! Really WOW them.

If they are out the door anyway and are the 10% of the population that will tell you they are disappointed (most will just disappear without a word), don’t hang your head in shame.  Have the guts to ask what they didn’t like about the service? What could we improve upon for next time? The more information you can extract from these people and then change your approach, the better your service will get.  Don’t hide from the hard stuff ~ get as much as you can get!

They key is to take their input not as criticism, but as feedback. It’s not a setback, but valuable information, a gift to evolve your practice, your procedures, your service.  Because we can’t always see how our service is perceived.  It is more important to extract this information from disappointed customers, than it is to ask why the happy ones like your service. Why? Because an unhappy customer tells 20, a happy customer tells 5.

Please share this blog with others if you are happy with it!  Please email me with feedback with what you’d like to see changed.  I value your input. Thank you for reading.

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Tags: chiropractic, Chiropractic Coaching, Disappointed customers, Feedback, Happy customers, LAASR

As a chiropractor, do you know what your vision is? Do you know why you get up every day and do what you do?  Without a clear vision of where you are headed it can be hard to stay the course.  Just like a raft guide who doesn’t know where he’s headed, a chiropractor without a vision can get easily lost. If you can’t clearly articulate your vision, that is the first thing to master to have success in practice.  Because you are not just leading yourself, you are leading your team and the people you take care of.

Your mission is how you are going to accomplish your vision. What will it take to get there?  It answers the 5 W’s of who, what, where, when and why. Your vision and mission is what guides your everyday action and reduces the overwhelm of your To-Do list.  It is essential to start with the big picture in mind to have a successful wellness practice and life for that matter!

Like the raft guide, you are steering the raft of your office for the people you serve, your team, and the community.  Do you know which direction you are headed?  Are you padding upstream or with the current flow of the river of life? Your vision and mission are essential to being able to course correct with wellness practice management principles.  As a chiropractor, are you stepping up to the level of leadership required to save lives in your community?

Next, what does it take to have a successful wellness chiropractic practice? Have you got what you need and are you implementing the strategies to do so? Just like the raft guide has to pack meticulously to have the correct rations of food, tools, supplies and emergency necessities, do you know exactly what you need to run a wellness practice and in the correct amounts?  Or does it feel like you are flying by the seat of your pants (or hanging on to your life jacket)?  May I suggest that you start to look at your practice as if you were a raft guide, who is responsible for the lives, the well-being, the nourishment, and the enjoyment of yourself and others on your journey.  Nothing can be left to chance in the wilderness ~ have a vision, make a plan, have what you need and course correct to be in the flow of life and success! But don’t wing it… your happiness and the health of your community depends on it.

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Tags: chiropractic, Leadership, mission, Practice Management, Success, vision, wellness, wellness chiropractic practice management

  VS.   

If you are a chiropractor still practicing in a pain based model of symptom relief, I hope you will realize (soon) that the future of the profession lies in wellness care. Like dentistry realized fifty years ago that waiting to pull rotten teeth from people’s mouths with toothaches is antiquated, our chiropractic profession is starting to see the light.  Treating people’s backache’s and using adjustments like expensive aspirin isn’t keeping up with the times.  It’s time to think different. 

People want wellness, look around! From organic food, to fitness gyms people are looking to get well and stay well rather than wait for a crisis.  Our culture is in the middle of a wellness revolution ~ don’t get left behind!  It is time for the chiropractic profession to lead this wellness revolution.  It is up to each one of us.

At Rosen Coaching, we look at two key stats as a litmus test for a wellness practice: your retention or PVA (patient visit average) and the percentage of internal referrals.  You may think you are running a wellness chiropractic practice, but if your PVA is below 60 and your internal referrals are low ~ it tells us that the people in your practice don’t ‘get’ chiropractic like you think they do. If I sat in your reception room and asked the next 100 people through the door why they are there, what would they say?

So what are the symptoms of practice not succeeding and not congruent as a wellness practice?  Of course, low PVA/Retention and low internal referrals as mentioned above.  But what else?  A wellness philosophy for how you manage your practice is key. Do you have systems and a communication model that is reactive as opposed to proactive?  Do  you wait for the number of new people to drop down before you do any marketing or do you have a perpetual, balanced approach marketing calendar?  Do you wait to have staffing issues or do you spend time each week cultivating a Dream Team?  Do you wait for people to drop out of care before addressing their concerns, or do you listen between the words and identify the symptoms of when a person receiving your care is unhappy?  Are you afraid to address their concerns and sweep them under the rug with an assertive or non-assertive ‘brush off’, or do you address them right then and there?  Want some more examples? Disorganization, stress, lack of income, lack of new clients, people don’t ‘get it’, clients don’t follow your recommendations, they don’t sign up for care, they don’t keep their appointments. The list can go on…

Truly the biggest difficulty I see in the profession is the amount of scare tactics that are propagated by some of the biggest chiropractic practice management companies out there.  I truly believe that there is no place for fear and manipulation in a wellness practice, as it is completely incongruent with the very nature of a wellness philosophy.  It’s time to think different and start using trust, hope and truth to help people see what is possible for their well-being. If you are going to have a wellness chiropractic practice, leave the scare tactics at the door.  And start to use a proactive congruent wellness approach in your systems, communications, and practice management.

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Tags: care tactics, Chiropractic Coaching, chiropractic profession, communication, future, pain based model, rosen coaching, scare tactics, wellness model, wellness practice management, wellness revolution