The moment you deliver a patient's first adjustment, your influence either increases or plummets.
"Will adjustments actually "fix" my problem? How many should it take?" "How many will it take?" patients ask themselves.
While it's true that what you say may not override what they feel, it reveals the vital importance of at least some type of rudimentary patient education to give your adjustments context, while assigning appropriate responsibility for who is doing the healing. Without this essential "meaning making," you force patients to make judgments solely on how they feel.
This is the danger of first-visit adjusting. After the paperwork, consultation and examination, what passes for patient education can be woefully superficial and inadequate. The result? You're seen as merely a "bone cracker" and the neurological and potential whole-body health effects of chiropractic care are obscured. And while your purposeful mechanistic intervention may please an insurance company, you'll have traded vitalism for mechanism.