02/24/2025
Dr John Edward’s said this best and I agree 100% with this statement! “Chiropractic” sounds like “back,” so a lot of people think that’s what the word means. Chiropractors must be “back doctors,” like podiatrists are (pod) foot doctors, orthopedists are (ortho) bone and joint doctors, psychiatrists are (psyche) mind doctors.
But that isn’t what Chiropractic is, or even means.
Chiro is Greek for “hand.” The name describes both the tool we use and the distinct approach, “practice by hand.” It’s the bespoke craftsman who carves the wood into the creation the wood itself tells him it was meant to be, whether that destiny is a violin or a sweeping banister.
Like many of my favorite colleagues and mentors, I wasn’t drawn into this profession to help the health of spinal columns. I was drawn to it because of the lens the training gave me in seeing and feeling through my hands the innate wisdom of the body as it expressed itself. It literally is a degree in studying the physiology of health and healing, bounded by the intentional guardrails that we don’t put artificial things in or take integral parts out. The art of what I do loses its meaning without the boundaries and proportion of that philosophy. The science is how to do it as effectively as possible in a lifelong quest for mastery.
That’s what makes it “by hand;” it’s the foundational principal that keeps us, BY OUR CHOICE, distinct from the approach oriented toward relieving suffering through potions, lotions, drugs, or surgery.
Being a chiropractor doesn’t limit my knowledge of neurology. On the contrary, it provides me with context to ask the most important question in healthcare, “Why?,” while respecting that the body is smart enough to employ the full power of its animating force in order to stay in harmony with its environment.
