If I Start Seeing a Chiropractor will they want me to come in Forever? Why am I not healed after 1 or 2 visits?

This is a question I get a lot as a chiropractor. People have a fear that once they start seeing a chiropractor, they’ll have to keep going the rest of their life. This is a valid concern, and I plan to address this topic in the following blog post. Before I do, if your curious about trying out a different approach to chiropractic that focuses on healing stress and trauma in the nervous system - check out our last blog!

Okay, let’s address the question at hand, why would I want to start seeing a chiropractor if I’ll have to keep going to them for the rest of my life? The first point I want to make is that no service provider should ever require you to do something that you don’t consent to, or fully understand. Often times as patients, it’s easy to feel like whatever the doctor says goes, and it can be hard to find your voice in those situations.

I think one of the concerns many people have is that once they experience some relief from chiropractic care, their symptoms will eventually come back and then they’ll need another adjustment… and this cycle will continue on and on. While this is a very common experience, it’s important to realize that this is not the only chiropractic experience there is. Chiropractic was actually founded on the principle that there is an organizing intelligence in all matter, and that in humans this intelligence expresses through the spine and central nervous system. With this in mind, the goal of chiropractic is to address stress in the spine (called vertebral subluxation) that is interfering with the bodies natural ability to heal.

This all sounds nice, but why doesn’t just one adjustment fix the problem? This can be due to many factors. For many of us, we’ve had stress in our spine for many years. Even as early as birth, as the birthing process can be very traumatic to the spine for newborn babies. As we grow older, other environmental stressors begin to accumulate, and layers of tension patterns begin to develop in our body. When symptoms begin to develop in our 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s we assume that the problem just started, or is just a result of us getting older. Not realizing that the accumulation of stress in our spine is beginning to take a toll on our health and well-being.

This brings me to my final point. Because of the way the nervous system works, it often takes more frequent visits with your chiropractor up front in order to begin to retrain the patterns that have been built up over time. Think of it as beginning to peel back the layers of an onion, it takes time, but every layer that is peeled back allows the brain to communicate more effectively with the body, allowing you to begin to heal and function more optimally. As far as how long you need to see your chiropractor, that depends on how much stress has accumulated in your spine, and how severe that stress is. The more layers of stress, the longer it will take with your chiropractor to begin to heal and realign your spine.