Another thing that always amazes me is how chiropractors can abandon objective straight, non-therapeutic chiropractic and return to practicing in the medical model. I can understand someone moving from therapeutic chiropractic to straight chiropractic. After all, we have all come that route, whether it was the medical model taught in chiropractic school or by way of practice. But I cannot understand why chiropractors go back. It must have something to do with memory. Too often chiropractors forget why it is they left mixing chiropractic and embraced the straight model. We seem to forget how the therapeutic approach to chiropractic did not resonate with our world and life viewpoint. We seem to lose sight of the fact that practicing other approaches to chiropractic did not give us a feeling of fulfillment, that they left us with doing something less than we could or should relative to being a chiropractor. Chiropractic in the medical model was not a satisfying life and if you are going to do something for 40 years it must deliver more than just a good paycheck. Along the way some of us lose our perspective and when that happens the “leeks and onions of Egypt” begin to look good. When the Israelites were moving to the Promised Land and things got tough, they actually complained that they would be better off as slaves in Egypt. Then when they got to the Promised Land, despite all the great experiences along the way, they were afraid to go in because the spies said there were “giants in the land.” Okay, so there were giants. But the key word was “promised.” If it was promised then, giants or no giants they were going to get the land. So what are your giants? What are those obstacles that have caused you to turn back? Why are you considering or have left non-therapeutic straight chiropractic? Why did you want to be an objective straight chiropractor in the first place? I assume it was because it promised a better life in chiropractic and by better I assume it did not mean financially. It meant serving more people, more effectively with a greater service. Well, that hasn’t changed. So you’re faced with some giants such as people not getting the big idea. Making ends meet is tough. Educating people to a non-therapeutic approach in a therapeutic world is hard work. You have to make a lot of sacrifices and your family does also. But hang in there. Unless, of course, the original idea that you had about the beauty and the reward of chiropractic no longer makes sense. In that case go back to the slavery of the outside-in approach and being a vassal of the Egyptian slave owners of Aetna and Medicare. But if the promise of a better chiropractic life by practicing non-therapeutic chiropractic is still just as real to you, hang in there. Get some help from another OSC or vow to work harder. In the end it is worth it. I know. And what is the alternative? Sure you may have manna on your table every day but in the end you will have spent 40 years of your chiropractic life wandering around in the desert of therapeutic care and never experience the abundance that objective straight chiropractic has to offer. That would be a waste of a chiropractic life and all the money in the world cannot compensate for that.v21n1
