What To Expect When Seeing A Chiropractor
The Belmont Chiropractic Experience
If you’ve ever gone to a social event where you didn’t know anyone, you know how uncomfortable that can make you feel. Our goal is to eliminate every shred of apprehension and make you feel at home.
Since chiropractic care involves a series of visits, with each one building on the ones before, it’s important that our relationship can go the distance. We’ve found that one of the best ways to have successful patient relationships is to explain everything in advance. No surprises!
The more you understand who we are, what we do and why we do it, the better results you’ll enjoy. It’s as simple as that.
Get Familiar With How We Work
You’ll be warmly welcomed and made to feel at home. Help is on its way!
We have developed a modern, contemporary space with the goal of providing state-of-the-art chiropractic care in comfortable surrounds.
Make yourself at home!
We have minimal parking at the front of the building. After your visit we expect you to walk for 5-10 minutes, so parking in another street or in Belmont Forum is a good idea, if you don’t want to return to the carpark. You’ll be greeted by name when you enter our office and given a short tour to get you acquainted with our facilities.
If you’ve already completed your admitting paperwork, great! If not, after doing so, you will then meet the Chiropractor who is going to care for you.
We explain everything first
The purpose of your consultation with the doctor is to discuss your health goals and see if chiropractic is likely to help you. If it looks promising, a thorough examination will help identify the cause of your problem.
If we are unable to find the cause of your problem, we will send you to someone who can.
Patients appreciate that we explain everything in advance!
On your report visit we explain what we found and how we may be able to help you.
After we study your health history and correlate our examination findings, we’ll make recommendations designed to help you get and keep your health. We call this the Report of Findings.
This is usually attended to on your second visit, which may be later the same day or the following day. This two-visit approach accomplishes several things:
- Reduces the length of your first visit
- Gives us time to correlate our findings
- Avoids overloading you with too much information
In certain situations, and in the professional judgment of the team, we sometimes make exceptions. It just depends on your unique situation.
After the investment of time needed on the first and second visits, many patients become concerned that every visit will be of equal length.
In a word: no. A typical visit may require just a few, highly-focused, minutes.
But don’t think the brevity of a regular visit lessens its value! With the groundwork laid, we can quickly size up what your spine and nervous system, adjust you and get you on your way.
Like a regular workout at the gym, each visit builds on the ones before. Miss a visit and we can lose the momentum necessary to make the needed changes.
We recognise your time is valuable. We do everything possible to run on time and minimise the impact on your busy life.
Will I Need Multiple Visits?
Yes! Your brain has created a way for you to function without some of your joints working properly. When you come into our office we introduce some new information to your brain in the form of movement. This creates some new circuits in your brain.
The old neural pathways are fairly well established, though. They have probably been there for a while. This means that the new stimulus requires some repetition to make it stick. Your spine and brain are essentially learning a new trick. Like learning anything new, it takes repetition and time.
Do some people get some amazing changes in one or two visits. Absolutely! Could I look any of these folk in the eye and tell them that the function of their spine will be forever altered as a result of that one push? No!
How Long Do I Have To See A Chiropractor For?
Have you heard the common urban legend that “once you go to a chiropractor you have to go for the rest of your life”? It is not true. There are two ways people choose to use chiropractic care in our clinic:
1. Relief Care
Many people seek care in our practice and have one goal: relief. So that’s where we start! During this initial stage of intensive care, we have several obligations:
- Uncover the underlying cause of the health problem
- Suggest a care plan to produce the fastest results possible
- Offer ways patients can participate in their recovery
- Explain the value of post-symptomatic wellness care
2. Wellness Care
We’re committed to teaching our patients that true health is a journey, not a destination. Through educational opportunities, like this website, we hope to communicate the value of ongoing chiropractic care. Our desire is to see our practice members abandon the prevailing sickness care model of health (waiting for symptoms and then taking action), in favour of the emerging wellness model.
We see our responsibility as offering optimal recommendations based on our education, training and clinical experience. Your responsibility is to decide how far you want to take your care and let us know how we can best serve you.
The bottom line? How long you choose to benefit from chiropractic care is always up to you.