I’m an advocate of simple explanations. I don’t think patients want difficult, complex explanations or words. Bone out of place is over-simplified, I think there’s a better way to explain that, and I’m sure you get

Well, the short answer is you’ve got to tell them, and the long answer is you just have to tell them. They’re not going to know. Putting wellness in your name is not in and of itself going to teach them.

I’m going to interpret this question as how important is it for you to represent that, to literally live the wellness lifestyle yourself, and I think it’s critical. Not just for the patient, but for you and your certainty, because you can’t sell something you don’t own. You can’t even give it away if you don’t own it.

It depends on your model. If you’re accepting them based upon pain, educating them based upon pain, inferring, “How you doing, how you feeling? Pain better? then you go from there to corrective care, but still emphasize, “Does that hurt a little bit less? Are you feeling a little bit better?” And now you get to wellness care, “Doesn’t feel so bad anymore, does it?”… that’s a tough sell.

To transition from pain to wellness you have to be really clear with people so they understand the difference between the three models.  They need to understand when they’re in relief and why they’re in relief, what makes them now in corrective, and how long they’re going to be there and what are the indicators.  They also need to understand what is the magic number or indicator that allows them to go to wellness and what does that actually mean?

I started sowing seeds immediately upon the consultation. In fact, one of the very things I said after I explained things is, “We’re going to go do our examination, and I’m going to find out exactly what it will take to prepare you for lifetime wellness care.” I just threw those words out. People didn’t respond to it, I didn’t want them to respond to it, but I wanted to sow a seed.