Q: On the Wellness Wheel there are categories referring to mental health and spiritual health. If a patient has problems in one or both of these areas, what should a chiropractor do about it? What are you proposing?
A: Naturally, the same could be asked of the financial, family, social and career aspects of wellness. This is because wellness is much more than physical health or regular chiropractic care. Sure, having an interference-free nervous system is the foundation for virtually any notion of true health. But there’s much more to wellness than the integrity of the nervous system!
If you don’t have the tools to personally facilitate health in these other areas, you’d want to assemble some helpful resources in the form of books, CDs or other professionals in your community to whom you could direct patients who need help. This is the basis for invoking the Law of Reciprocity, that is, those who receive a lot of referrals, give a lot of referrals. So, see your office as a “concierge,” directing people to the resources they need. This, in turn, creates an obligation for those who receive your referrals to refer to you. Yet, many chiropractors lack the faith to refer out! And in the process shortchange the patient.