Dear Bill

I read your March 6, 2023 Monday Morning Motivation aloud at our most recent staff meeting. I stumbled over my words as I was sure my eyes were playing tricks on me. I anxiously awaited questions from my team since it contradicted what I’ve been teaching them for the last year.

Any suggestions other than screening your messages before I read them at our team meetings?

Yes, the simple truth that there’s little you can say or do to change the way a patient prioritizes their health can be sobering.

How someone treats and maintains his or her earth suit is well entrenched long before you ever meet them in your practice as a patient. By then, it’s practically hardwired.

You have the same difficulty getting a patient to abandon their allopathic mindset, as I would attempting to get you to change your position on abortion, spanking, gun control or capital punishment—regardless of what your positions happen to be.

But that doesn’t mean you should neglect your obligation to educate patients!

Instead, be curious. Honor their point of view. And if it helps, imagine the possibility that they may have a superior explanation to the chiropractic paradigm you salute.

When you attempt to respectfully understand (stand under; support) their beliefs, you might even provoke some renewed critical thinking. Even better, the opportunity may emerge for a conversation in which you might be invited to reveal your worldview—because he or she was interested!

That’s how real people interact, outside the chiropractic echo chamber.

I can’t change your opinion or position. Only you can do that. Same with patients. Which begs the question, what’s the best strategy that can optimize the possibility of a patient abandoning an old, comfortable belief for something more aligned with the truth?

In next week’s message I share five reasons why you should educate patients—even if changing how they prioritize their health is only a remote possibility.

Thanks for the question!

Ask Bill your question.

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