The Deductive Protocol: Advanced Clinical Verification for the Frustrated Student.

1. Posture
2. Active posture
3. Motion palpation
   1. Coupled movement
4. Myotome assessment
5. Therapy Localization
6. Challenge
7. Adjust
8. Reassess

The following is a roadmap in deductive reasoning as it pertains to the modern chiropractor and chiropractic student and is intended for the practitioner who understands nuance and values precision. 

Step 1.  Posture. 

Look at the person.  Stand them up and look at them.  Just like we are more than the sum of our parts, humans are more than a spine to be palpated.  Dr. George Goodheart said, “Look with eyes that see”.  He understood the difference between the two.  Dr. David Leaf said, “If you look at someone long enough, they will show you what is wrong”.  Look at the person who is coming to you for help. 

Don’t look at them as a skeletal system.  Look at them as a biomechanical marvel.  A beautiful integration of bones, cartilage and muscle bathed in fluid.  ...

The chiropractor of the 21^st century is being pushed by the public to become more.  More complete to match the classic philosophy of structure meets chemistry meets psyche.  More knowledgeable about neurology.  More knowledgeable about endocrinology.  More knowledgeable about immunology. 

These three interrelated human characteristics co-mingle to make up the human system and are becoming ever more important as the public wakes up to the power of looking at the body as a whole unit versus the sum of its parts.  It just makes sense.

We have all surely heard the quote from Thomas Edison, "The doctor of the future will give no medication but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, diet and in the cause and prevention of disease".  The public is catching on and is crying out for help and there is no one better to help than the modern chiropractor. 

The chiropractor of the 21st century is also being pulled by the profession to “stay in their lane” as a subluxation remo...

The Location of the Stress Test

Every healthcare profession possesses an inherent structural mechanism designed to filter for independent clinical reasoning.  The critical variable among these professions is not whether the filter exists, but precisely where the stress test occurs.

In the traditional medical model, the filtering process is heavily front-loaded.  It takes place entirely before active private practice through highly competitive structural gauntlets: standardized entrance examinations, rigid grade point average metrics, selective interview panels, residency matching algorithms and institutional hospital credentialing.  By the day an MD opens a private clinic or steps into a staff position, the institutional framework has already spent years removing the unmotivated, the unskilled, and the identity-conflicted.  The stress test is complete before the first independent patient is ever seen.

The chiropractic profession operates on an inverted architectural framework.  It f...