What's The Goal of Healing

Years ago, when I first began to study and practice Dr. Donald Epstein's work, it was called Network Chiropractic. Through research and trial and error, Network Chiropractic has evolved into a technique that is now called Network Spinal Analysis (NSA). One difference between the two techniques is that there is no longer a structural adjusting component or the neck and back popping that is usually associated with chiropractic techniques. The other main difference is the introduction of levels of care. Each level of care is associated with a new strategy for clients to learn as well as expected clinical and self reported outcomes.

The levels of care provide a framework and roadmap for the direction of each particular visit. It also helps goal-oriented practitioners to have something to work toward. Although it is great to have working goals, there is a downside to being completely goal-oriented.

One day, I had a conversation with a client who was very concerned about how far she had gotten in her clinical outcomes each visit. If she didn't reach the same or better level strategy as she had on the previous visit, she felt like she had failed. After noticing this response a couple of times, we had a conversation about it.

The truth is, based upon the number and frequency of visits she had had, her progress was as good as or better than I would have expected. But success was not coming fast enough for her. Through a more in depth conversation, I discovered the same theme in other aspects of her life as well. So I inquired, “What if you reach this goal, then what happens?” She answered, “Well then I can start the next thing.” This went on for a few rounds before she realized that this strategy could never truly satisfy her.

Within each level of care in NSA care there are gifts, information and strategies to be learned and integrated. Each person receiving care is unique and may require more or less work in any particular level. With this in mind, it would not be appropriate to rush to the next level simply to get there.

Even if an individual has worked in an advanced level of care, there are often times when basic care strategies need to be reinforced or addressed with more depth. Tiger Woods, arguably the best golfer in the world, is on the practice range every day practicing his swing. While it's obvious he knows how to swing a golf club by now, he can always achieve a greater level of depth in that particular strategy. A similar logic can also be applied to healing strategies. NSA clients will constantly move back and forth between level of care strategies, depending upon their needs on any particular day.

In NSA, as in life, if everything is about getting to the next level or goal, an individual can miss out on the gifts and learning that take place along the way. As Dr. Epstein says, “It's great to set goals, but it's not about reaching the goal, it's about the person that you become along the way.”

Robert Updegraff, author of Be Thankful for Your Troubles, writes, "Happiness is to be found along the way, not at the end of the road, for then the journey is over and it is too late. Today, this hour, this minute is the day, the hour, the minute for each of us to sense the fact that life is good, with all of its trials and troubles, and perhaps more interesting because of them."

We've all heard the saying, “Life is a journey.” NSA and Network Care provide a system that guides individuals through the journey of their own healing process, as in life, wherever it may go and however long it may take.