This article is about something that has become second nature for us, but super useful for chiropractors. As one of my mentors way back in the day told us, “when you’re adjusting somebody, you’re not doing it to them, you’re doing it with them.”
That is key in all adjustments. I’m thinking of it as a dance and you don’t dance to somebody. You don’t make them dance; you dance with them. Three is a flow to a dance and, when an adjustment is done well, there’s a real flow to it.
Chiropractic is a dance and not a fight. A lot of times chiropractors have this adversarial relationship with the person or treat them like a chunk of meat. They work like they are trying to slay subluxations or get rid of them. Or there is an adversarial relationship, as opposed to when you’re creating a connection and ease within the person. It’s a completely different experience philosophically, but also experientially. The person will definitely notice a massive difference.
We often see this with cervical adjusting. The chiropractor will try to distract the patient by having them wiggle their toes or asking them a question about their day and then wait for the “perfect moment” to adjust them. The reason we have to use these tricks is because we have not put in the time or reps practicing the skill of creating connection with the person on the table. When we don’t train the skill of putting people at ease, and putting ourselves at ease so that we can actually listen with our hands, we have to resort to more distraction tactics to get the adjustment to go.
When adjusting, get yourself in a very comfortable position and wait for the window to open. And as soon as you feel like you can adjust, you just go straight through it. This week work on that. Ask yourself if you are having an adversarial relationship with your patient? Am I trying to fire through and make something move or am I really connected?
