33 Principles of Chiropractic

“I tend to approach things from a physics framework. And physics teaches you to reason from first principles rather than by analogy.”
— Elon Musk

(Elon Musk’s grandfather, was a chiropractor (Palmer grad., 1926) from Minnesota, and his great grandmother was the first chiropractor to practice chiropractic in Canada.)

Below is a link to a poster you and your team can refer to that lists the principles which form the basis of chiropractic.

Principles are basic: if you understand them then everything else makes more sense. If you really understand principles, you can develop your own effective procedures in administration, marketing, and patient care.

Principle: a comprehensive and fundamental law, doctrine, or assumption.

These 33 principles were published in 1927 by Dr. Stephenson. However, according to Rob Sinnott, D.C.:

“…these 33 principles were the result of decades of effort and consideration. It is also now clear that they were not first written by Dr. Stephenson. As a matter of fact, most of these principles are contained in other language in D.D. Palmer’s 1906 and 1910 texts long before Dr. Stephenson’s well-known effort.”

You may already have these 33 principles hanging in your team breakroom and refer to at your team meetings.
If so… great! Let this then just be an encouragement to continue.

However, if you are not, then please do so.

The chiropractic profession operates in a different model of health than the medical model. In fact, it could be said that the chiropractic system operates outside of the conventual commercial matrix that persuades people to seek symptomatic gratification through pharmaceuticals, bad food, and often, bad culture.

But grassroots trends are on our side. Organic food sales have been booming and people want natural, sustainable solutions. New yoga studios are sprouting up even faster than essential oil representatives, both of which emphasize natural health and “P.T.C.” – “present time consciousness” (an old Dr. Jimmy Parker acronym). And our professional athletes and their teams standardly utilize chiropractic services.

The world is catching up to chiropractic. It wants what you have and have had for over 100 years – natural health and health freedom.

Even though these principles may seem like “old news” in chiropractic and not high-tech, they are, in fact, just catching on. But you must own these principles and this niche in the market-place — and teach them to your team members – and your entire practice family. Do so to improve everyone’s understanding of health and to increase their motivation to improve it. But teaching it also benefits your work in practice management.

You want to get everyone on your team playing in the same ballpark, working in the same model of health and business. Going over these principles will help create a positive team culture that will improve practice performance.

Ed Petty

References:
http://www.elonmusk.info
Interview by Chris Anderson (@chr1sa) is editor in chief of Wired 10/21/12
Textbook of Chiropractic Philosophy, Vol.1, Rob Sinnott, D.C., DPhSC

Download the Poster now:  The Thirty Three Principles of Chiropractic-2018