Starting Chiropractic College can be intimidating, the copious amount of classes, learning new skills, establishing new social circles, and everyone telling you what technique you should do because it’s “the best”. You start to feel overwhelmed and pulled in various directions. Maybe you had an idea as to what path you were going to take, but start second-guessing your initial plan of action.
Chiropractic College is like a version of “Choose Your Own Adventure”. Students develop anxiety when it comes to making the right decision for their futures. Which path will make them the most successful, benefit the most patients, and maintain their passion for their career? They make some good friends in the first few months and begin to see their paths diverge as they choose different techniques. Students begin to feel pressure from their peers as well as other chiropractors and professors on campus. These are big decisions and they can be stressful, here is some advice!
As soon as you start Chiropractic College, attend every club on campus that tickles your fancy. Don’t limit yourself to just one; expose yourself to as many as possible. Make connections with other students that run the technique clubs. Ask if you can get involved and eventually you could be the one running the club yourself! One of the best ways to learn is to teach. Look up chiropractors who practice different techniques in your area and will let you shadow them in their clinic. Don’t be surprised if there’s more than one club you want to join, do it! The technique you choose after graduate school is specific to you. Sometimes chiropractors will use one technique and sprinkle in a couple of others, making their own personalized technique medley. Even when two chiropractors use the same technique, the way we communicate, the pressure of our hands, our course of action, still make us all unique.
Once you have been exposed to all techniques on campus, ask other students and chiropractors which technique seminars are being held in your area. See if any of those options are of interest to you and sign up! (As a student these seminar rates are less expensive, so it’s better to try them out now).
Lastly…what is your gut telling you? What resonates with you the most? What do you believe is truly helping your patients? This is the route you need to take. Do what is authentic to YOU. What are you passionate about, what makes you excited and leaving you wanting to learn more? That’s the adventure you need to choose. This adventure might change and you might learn some other techniques along the way. As long as you know it works best for you and the patients you treat that’s what matters the most.
You won’t lose your friends if you choose different techniques to treat your patients. If you do, they weren’t real friends anyway. Lift each other up and keep an open mind to other techniques. You may find there is a technique you love, and their science makes sense, and you respect how they treat patients, but that’s not how you want to practice in your day-to-day life. These other colleagues that choose an adventure that is different from yours, are great for your referral network. In order to be successful, you have to follow the path you chose for yourself and build a network of other professionals to do what’s best for your patients.
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