Intern Interludes With Whitney Marsh

 

At Well Connected Chiropractic, things have been growing fast! We have welcomed our newest intern, Whitney Marsh, to the crew, and we are thrilled to hear her perspective on what Blair Chiropractic care means to her. In this episode, she joins Liz Hoefer to help us get to know her, learn about her story and how her life has changed since her correction. She has wonderful insight and is a fantastic addition to our team! Enjoy hearing her journey.

—

Watch the episode here

Listen to the podcast here

Intern Interludes With Whitney Marsh

How My Student Intern Experiences Well Connected And The Blair Chiropractic Technique

I am very excited like I always am about my guest. It’s cool when I get to have a personal conversation with somebody who I respect and love very much. Even though our relationship is relatively new, it’s forming quickly into a partnership that I know is going to be a lifelong friendship. It’s neat because my guest is my intern in the office. Her name is Whitney. I’m very excited for you to get to know her, learn about her story and journey in the Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractic world and what Blair means to her. Without further ado, welcome to the show, Whitney.

Thanks so much, Dr. Hoefer. I’m excited to be here.

I have a little formula that we’ve developed for our show, which is exciting. We go through a series of questions. I want to know your perspective on these questions that we ask. How did we get well-connected?

It was the summer of 2020, an interesting time to say the least. I was finishing up my lab requirements for the Blair Upper Cervical elective. Dr. Hoefer happened to be my instructor. As we were going through X-ray analysis, she leaned over and saw my little color-coordinated everything detailed notes and goes, “I like that.” We hit it off from that point.

It was fun. I remember working with you and being like, “You have a gift and a natural ability to understand this three-dimensional concept. You’re oriented with detail but you’ve got a personality that’s friendly and engaging. You know how to communicate with people.” It was neat because I didn’t take it any further. I remember you calling one day. What did you text?

I had an assignment for my Geriatrics class, which was even the following quarter in the fall. It was to interview a doc in how they work with some of the elderlies in their population. From there, I just out front asked if you’d be open to a preceptorship. I think that’s where we started rolling.

It’s neat because that semester or trimester quarter before, I finally got approved to take interns from your college, Life Chiropractic College West. It wasn’t something that I didn’t want to do. It never presented itself. Typically, I take students from the local college here in Southern California. I try to limit 1 to 2 interns at a time with social distancing, COVID and being able to pour into people. There was a time before COVID where I had six interns in one semester. Sometimes there were three students at the office at one time. It was too much for me. I felt like I wasn’t able to give that mentorship to the people because there were so many.

I apologize if you were a previous intern and you didn’t get 100% attention. I decided to limit the amount of people I had, being able to learn at one time. That has increased my passion for it. It’s also attracted the right people. When you asked, I was like, “I’m already approved. We just have to make sure that they’re cool with you coming down here.” Before I knew it, you were signing a lease in San Clemente. What has your journey up to the point of becoming an intern in this office been like in the Blair world?

Prior to being in this office, it consisted of taking the Blair elective and then finishing the Blair elective in the summer. Coming down here, I took a seminar with you and continuing to grow in-depth in the knowledge and understanding. Being at the office, I’ve been here for about four weeks. My knowledge has expanded far and beyond anything that I could have obtained in a classroom. While I was still on campus and in the Bay Area, I had one patient under Blair Upper Cervical. It’s a little more challenging getting through the red tape in the school situation. I think being here, being immersed in it, being in a practice that specializes just in Blair is huge for me.

She had her first Blair Upper Cervical correction. It was so neat because we got to do her analysis based on the new cone-beam CT imaging that we have in the office. She and I both participated in engineering her correction. Thank you to our good friend, Dr. Wynn, and soon-to-be-doctor, Sasha, we were able to go to his office. He trained us on how to do the analysis. We took Whitney’s images and worked through them with him and learned how to manipulate the data and use the tools. Monday, we gave her first correction. How has your life changed in five days?

To be honest, that Monday I’d had a migraine for about 30 hours at that point. Post-adjustment felt better. It didn’t continue to progress down my normal migraine path. I woke up the next day. I’ve been feeling great since, noticing within my body internally how I’m carrying my weight and being a little more self-aware. For example, normally I lean into my left side a lot. Post-correction, feeling the difference in the balance in my body from right to left is probably the biggest notable change at that and not having a headache.

The beauty of the human race on this planet is diversity. Click To Tweet

I remember at the team meeting on Monday, she was covering her eyes and I had to dim the lights, which is not a problem but I was like, “We need to get you corrected now.” I think we did that mid-shift or something. It was lunch. After the meeting, we adjusted you and then you took your time coming back to the second half of the shift. It was like a different Whitney because you didn’t have a headache. That is amazing. Migraine gone, balance better. I love that you were already sold out on Blair before you even had a correction. That’s rad.

It makes a lot of sense. In my own personal life and philosophy, I think the beauty of our human race on our planet is diversity. I get off on getting to know people and their uniqueness. Another layer of that is their anatomy and structural composition. Blair takes that to the next level and being able to deliver someone in adjustment that is just for them.

Moving into that next question. This is going to be something that you’re going to have to face daily for the rest of your life as a practitioner. What would you say to somebody who’s skeptical about trying the Blair Technique compared to the plethora of other options in chiropractic?

 

I would probably respond to them with a question and try to get to know the root of their skepticism. Is it the past history of being at another chiropractor? Is it they’ve never had chiropractic before? That thing is uncomfortable. It starts to hone in on what it is that cultivates the skepticism and jumps off from that platform. Overall, the other reason why I like this technique so much is that it is gentle and very safe in all ways, shapes and forms. When the adjustment is delivered, you’re keeping the person you’re adjusting in anatomical alignment. Their spine is not getting twisted from side to side. I think that’s a big part of what makes Blair different is that gentle nature, patient set up, positioning and the tailor-made adjustment is huge.

Even now in practice, our morning shift, we saw as young as six years old and then right before we went to lunch, our last patient was 92. We literally see from birth to grave. I don’t think she’s going anywhere anytime soon, our last patient of the morning shift. It’s awesome to be able to know that we can safely deliver a correction tailor-made to that patient that is gentle, specific, precise and is going to change their life whether they’re 6 or 96. What does it mean to you to live your life in alignment?

The first word that comes to my mind is integrity. Alignment and integrity seem like very parallel concepts. With that being said, the integrity of my life, I’m a DC-to-be. I am an advocate for health. I strive and would like to strive within my own body to find maybe not balanced but that harmony. I realized balance is a loaded word these days with everybody’s schedules, stress and things. It’s not always a perfect balance but it is harmony. For me, living my life in alignment is being able to dance within that harmony, being able to walk my talk and being adjusted is walking my talk 100%.

I’m looking forward to the evolution of your experience. It feels like she’s always been a part of the team because she’s so in tune with the culture here and with the way that we look at people’s health and how we design their care plans. She has already been an instrumental part of taking it to the next level here at Well Connected. I’m very thankful for that. I’m looking forward to pouring into you as much as I can so that you feel safe, comfortable, prepared, ready and excited to take on wherever it is you’re supposed to go. However long we’ll have you, we’ll be grateful for it. When you’re ready to leave, it’ll be amazing. I can’t wait to see what you get to do.

It’s been such a joy for me to be able to train DCs-to-be and watch them pop up all over the country, hopefully someday all over the world and be able to deliver the care that we know we talk about all the time. It’s remarkable to know that I have a guy in New Jersey who I can call and say, “What do you think about this?” or, “My patient’s grandma lives 25 minutes away. Can you take care of her?” I know that they’re going to get the exact same care that I would deliver because I got to train them. Another mark of a good leader, a good trainer is somebody who can produce people who are better than them. That’s why I told Whitney like, “I’m going to teach you everything I know so that you can go and be better than me. Wherever you end up, those people are waiting for you.”

I get to be a part vicariously through all the care you deliver in the future. It’s been a fun thing to know that I’m expanding my reach by training the next generation. When we have little kids come into the office and they get excited about the bones and the muscles, we’re like, “Do you want to be a chiropractor?” Somebody is going to need to take care of our great-grandkids. I’m excited for that. Whitney, thank you so much for sharing your time now. We’re very happy to have you here and to be on this journey with you. We look forward to amazing things to come.

The feeling is very mutual.

—

Thank you so much for reading this episode. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, you can always reach out to me at Well Connected Chiro. Of course, if you have any questions about the Blair Technique, you want to learn more or how to be a patient in the practice, I would love to connect with you at WellConnectedChiro.com. I look forward to talking to you next time.

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!

• Here’s How »

Join the Get Your Head On Straight movement today:

• WellConnectedChiro.com
• Dr. Liz Hoefer Facebook
• Dr. Liz Hoefer LinkedIn
• Well Connected Chiropractic Facebook