(This is the Summer of Love as Bill explores some of the distinctions of loving patients rather than merely caring for them.)
Love is patient.
When you truly love patients you don't impose your time schedule. After all, the patient is the one doing the healing, not you! They have the capacity to consciously or unconsciously slow or accelerate their healing. That, combined with the limitations of matter, makes investing your self-esteem and value as a chiropractor in something out of your control, is risky business.
Being patient extends beyond the first weeks or months of care. Think eternally. What if it takes two, three, four or more episodes of starting care and stopping care, spanning a decade or longer, before patients "get" the idea that chiropractic care is a lifestyle decision and can be much more than a natural, short-term diet for pain relief?
What if they never get it?
To use love as an adjunctive procedure with the chiropractic adjustment, remove expectations and help patients become more… patient.