To comply or not comply.......that is the question...?

When patients attend my clinic,  my goal is to improve their health and balance their bodies. But what is the intention of my patients? Nearly all of them come when they are in pain and their main goal is to be pain free and continue with their life as normal. I have to ask myself is this person committed to improving? They have made the first step coming here and investing in their health, but do they want to get better? If you were one of my patients how committed to recovery and improvement would you be? #improveyourhealth

Would you comply to the advice given you by your chiropractor?

Some people attend after months or even years of pain and some come only after a week or 2. What I always try and find out from my patients, is what else is going on in their lives, apart from the symptoms they are presenting with. What is their general health like?  Are they on medication? What is their emotional make up? What is their nutritional status? What are their activity levels? For me, patients who are suffering in pain have normally had a long journey to get into a state of imbalance and discomfort, and it is important to understand this journey, not to judge, but to form a better understanding of the person in front of me.

What I then do with this information is to drip feed improvements in all aspects of health, whilst administering manual therapy to help improve the pain. Those individuals who recognise the advice and start to modify unbalanced behaviours will make the most improvements, and soon do not need me, but use the treatment for prevention rather than cure. Those who just want manual therapy and don't take on the advice improve slower and will always need some form of manual therapy. This is because breaking their poor habits may seem too much of a mountain to climb. I am not critical of these people, they are my bread and butter patients, but their health blueprint was probably set a long time ago when they were children, they probably had a parent or relative who had a bad back or had health problems and subconsciously it is their destiny to repeat the old behaviours they learnt when they were impressionable children, this validates what feels normal to them everyday. #breakingbadhabits

Where does your pain come from is it simple mechanical pain?

I have a couple of sayings I like to use when offering advice to one of my patients with a poor health blueprint, to help shake them out of their normal poor behaviour patterns. The first I use when I'm offering exercises/nutritional advice I will look into their eyes and say - 'This advice comes with a warning .......only use this if you want to get better'. There is often a moment of understanding, that this could actually make them better and it's not just rhetoric. The other saying I like to use for the patients that don't feel the treatment is improving their pain is.. - 'I have you for 30 minutes once or twice a week and you have the responsibility of you all the rest of the time......I can not be there to correct you, you have to be your own teacher'. Finally for those patients who are coming back in and they have the same dysfunctional stresses in their bodies over and over again, there is normally more of an emotional content to their physical pain and I have to tell them.... 'there is only one person who can make you better and that person is you'.#wellness #healyourself

Stretching can be helpful to release tight tissues in the body and help you understand your body more

The long and short of it is that everyone is a product of their environment - if they comply or do not comply has bearing on the number of treatments they need, how quickly they heal and what type of maintenance care they require. You all have preconceptions based on your life experiences and this will often shape the outcome of any treatment and how your body heals. I am grateful for every patient I have through my door and I learn something new from everyone of them, because they are all unique and their bodies are amazing, self repairing, intelligent organisms that often just need a gentle nudge in the right direction to get back on track. #healthblueprint #stiveswellness #holisticchiropractor #holistictherapy #chiropractorstives #theholisticchiropractor