What Do You Call a Person Who Goes to a Chiropractor?

No, this is not some kind of a joke or riddle.  It is a legitimate question that has perplexed many chiropractors for the last few years.  Traditionally they have been called “patients.”  That is the most familiar term.  Unfortunately, the word “patient” has the connotation of a sick or injured person and most people who go to a chiropractor are not sick.  They are there to stay healthy and to keep their body working at its maximum potential.  So in that sense they are not really a patient.  Someone has suggested that the term “patient” has to do with your attitude as you wait for long periods of time to see the doctor.  While occasionally people must be patient waiting for the chiropractor, that is not the reason for the use of the word.

There is another factor that makes the chiropractor want to avoid the term “patient.”  More and more chiropractors are attempting to distance themselves from medicine and the confusion that exists in the public’s mind that chiropractic is good for certain medical conditions or that it is a substitute or an alternative to the practice of medicine.  Chiropractic is unique, like nothing else in the world.  Chiropractic utilizes the innate intelligence of the body and gives it the credit for healing and for health.  Medicine does not.  Chiropractic does not treat, cure or even address medical conditions.  Its goal is to allow the innate intelligence of the body to be expressed more fully in all people, sick or healthy, with medical conditions or without, under medical care or not.  For these reasons, chiropractors try to avoid procedures and language that resemble those of medicine.

Can we still say “patient.”  I guess we can as long as the individual receiving chiropractic care realizes it is not “patient” in the medical sense.  Are there better terms?  There must be. Some have suggested terms like client, recipient and alignee.  Perhaps the best term might be “practice member” because it conveys the idea that the individual receiving chiropractic care is part of the process.  The chiropractor merely delivers a gentle, well-directed force to the appropriate place in the spine.  The innate intelligence of the person’s body takes that force and corrects the subluxation.  Then the innate intelligence is able to use the nerve system to bring about changes, to heal, to improve function, and to increase performance and potential.  The person receiving the adjustment is as much a part of the process as is the chiropractor.  As a member of the practice, the individual is also expected to participate in the practice, by paying the chiropractor’s fee to help support the practice and by referring others into the office so that it can grow and prosper and continue to provide this vital service to the community.  There is perhaps no other type of practice that depends more upon the cooperative effort of the person receiving the service.  Like being the member of any organization, a chiropractic practice member has benefits and responsibilities.

Does it really matter what you or your chiropractor refers to you as?  A rose by any other name still smells as sweet.  It really doesn’t as long as we understand the true meaning of a word.  But there seems to be so much confusion about chiropractic that perhaps we do need new words to clarify what chiropractic is all about.  It is something to consider.