I often hear chiropractors claim that where they practice is different. As in, "My town is medically-oriented." Turns out the entire western world is! Imagining that your town is some lone outpost of allopathic thinking is convenient. However, thanks to television, the profit motives of drug companies and the human desire for instant gratification, it's pervasive.

You could move your practice to a third world country where no one has heard of chiropractic. Or, you could accept that your number one enemy is your community's wrongheaded beliefs about health. Which means that your new patient orientation would include creating new meanings for symptoms, germs and drugs while highlighting the supremacy of the nervous system. Ignore their pre-existing beliefs and you'll be pigeonholed as a back doctor of last resort.

Embrace the notion that while you deliver chiropractic care, you're actually in the more difficult and challenging business of changing beliefs.