It’s February, 2013 and my body has been hurting. I’m visiting with Josh Beaudry, D.C., a Doctor of Chiropractic. Dr. Beaudry is committed to the restoration and cultivation of full health and vitality for every patient.
I’ve had chiropractic care before, however I’m quickly learning that Dr. Beaudry provides something surprising to me. He is educating me, and I am learning that chiropractic care isn’t just “crackin’ the back” to make the pain go away. There are a multitude of different approaches to chiropractic care.
You’re in pain, you put your back out, so you go to a chiropractor. Some chiropractors adjust the spine and other joints to relieve your pain. The pain goes away, you stop going. When the pain returns, you go back for more adjustments.
At first glance, that makes sense. Then there are chiropractors who do very few adjustments and spend most of their attention on other healing modalities. I have worked with another chiropractor who specializes in homeopathy and gets very good results. She is passionate about her classical approach to homeopathy, is very well trained and continually expands her knowledge.
In chiropractic college, the students choose their specialties according to their interests and personal affinity from among several branches of chiropractic technique. So, here, as in every healing modality, it is important to get to know your practitioner and come to trust that they have a plan for how their training applies to your case. If you are comfortable with the match, proceed.
Dr. Beaudry gives me my education for the day, takes my history, does a series of x-rays, measures my weight distribution by having me stand with left foot and right foot on separate scales, and uses an instrument to measure blood flow at each vertebra.
My visit is over and the doctor has his homework. When I return to discuss the result, Dr. Beaudry promises to be prepared with an analysis and a plan to move forward to meet my health goals.
In the next blog entry, I share the analysis and care plan.