The Most Underrated Trust Moment in Your Practice

Most of the chiropractic marketing and trust conversation lives in two places. The new patient consult. The report of findings. We refine our language. We rehearse our explanation. We pour everything we have into those high-stakes moments.

But there’s a moment we treat as routine that is doing more for trust — or quietly undoing it — than anything else in your practice.

It’s the adjustment.

It’s the most repeated moment in the entire patient journey. And it’s where the relationship actually lives. Visit after visit. Month after month. Year after year.

In this episode I share the story of Mary Louise — a patient who, on the day I sold my practice, said something to me about how she felt in our busy open plan room that has stayed with me ever since. And I unpack the five things that quietly break presence in the adjustment room… and what most chiropractors are missing.

Key Takeaways From This Episode

• The adjustment is the most repeated — and most underrated — trust moment in your patient journey.
• Trust is the real engine of chiropractic practice growth, not marketing or technique.
• Presence isn’t a personality trait. It’s a practice you can build.
• Most chiropractors are quietly breaking presence in at least one of five ways.
• Retention and internal referrals — the two things that build a sustainable practice — both trace back to how safe and seen patients feel on your table.

Why The Adjustment Is The Most Powerful Trust-Building Moment In Chiropractic

If trust is built through consistent, repeated experiences — and it absolutely is — then the adjustment is the most powerful trust-building tool you have. And most chiropractors are leaving it on the table.

The practices that grow year after year without grinding for new patients aren’t winning because of their website. They’re winning because patients trust them so deeply that they keep showing up, and they bring people with them. That’s how a sustainable practice is built.

Introducing The Signature Adjustment Experience™

In this episode I introduce a simple framework — the Signature Adjustment Experience™ — and the one thing that decides whether each adjustment quietly builds trust or quietly erodes it.

It’s not technique. It’s not your explanation. It’s presence. And presence, like any skill in your practice, can be built.

The Five Things That Quietly Break Presence

Most chiropractors are doing at least one of these. Some are doing all five. And they have no idea.

1. Thinking about the next patient while you’re with this one.
2. Talking at the patient instead of with them.
3. Confusing autopilot with flow.
4. Letting the environment work against you instead of for you.
5. Going in to be liked instead of to lead.

Inside the episode I walk through each one and the simple shift that brings presence back — including the breathing reset I used before every adjustment, why your front desk distraction is actually a training problem, and what the work of Iain McGilchrist has to say about the difference between autopilot and true flow on the table.

Why This Matters For Chiropractic Practice Growth

Chiropractic practice growth doesn’t come from grinding harder for new patients. It comes from patients who feel so seen on your table that they stay for life… and bring their people with them.

Retention and internal referrals. Those are the two engines of a sustainable practice. And both of them trace back to how present you are in the most repeated moment of your patient’s journey.

Better marketing won’t fix a practice that’s losing patients in the adjustment room. Better moments will.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the adjustment the most underrated trust moment in chiropractic?

Because it’s the most repeated moment in the patient journey. Trust isn’t built once at the consult. It’s built — or eroded — every single time you put your hands on someone.

What is the Signature Adjustment Experience™?

It’s a simple way of thinking about the adjustment as a relational event, not just a clinical one. The thing that decides whether each adjustment builds trust or erodes it is presence — and presence is a practice.

How does presence on the table affect chiropractic practice growth?

Presence is what makes patients feel safe and seen. Safe-and-seen patients stay for life and refer the people they love. That’s where sustainable growth, retention and internal referrals actually come from.

Episode Transcript

Introduction

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening folks. Hey, welcome to another episode of the Marketing Your Practice Podcast — the podcast where I have the pleasure of simplifying the marketing and the mindset so you the chiropractor can increase your income, your impact and your enjoyment in practice too.

Now today I want to talk about something that I think is quietly one of the most underrated trust moments in your entire practice. Not the new patient consult. Not the report of findings. The adjustment.

Mary Louise — The Patient Who Felt Seen

Before we get into it I want to tell you about a patient of mine. Her name was Mary Louise. And she said something to me on the day I sold my practice that has stayed with me ever since.

Our practice was open plan. People could see each other getting adjusted. It was busy. Often there were patients everywhere. And Mary Louise looked at me and she said, “It didn’t matter how busy the practice was or how many people were there. You were always there with me. I never felt rushed. I never felt hurried. I always felt a sense of connection.”

Sit with that for a moment. A busy open plan practice. Other patients being adjusted around her. And she never felt like one of many. She always felt like the only person in the room.

That wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t a personality trait I was born with. It was something I worked at, deliberately, visit after visit. And today I want to talk about what that actually looks like.

Why The Adjustment Is The Most Repeated Trust Moment

Most of the trust conversation in chiropractic lives around two moments. The new patient consult. And the report of findings. And for good reason. Those are the high-stakes moments. The ones where patients say yes — or they don’t. So we obsess over them. We practise our language. We refine our explanation. We work on how we present care.

But here’s what I think we miss. The adjustment is where the relationship actually lives. Not once — but visit after visit, month after month, year after year. It is the most repeated moment in the entire patient journey. And we treat it like the routine part.

Let me say that again. The most repeated moment in your patient’s entire experience with you… and we treat it like the routine part.

If trust is built through consistent, repeated experiences — and it absolutely is — then the adjustment is the most powerful trust-building tool you have. And most chiropractors are leaving it on the table.

Trust Is The Engine Of Practice Growth

Here’s why this matters beyond just the relationship. Trust is the engine of practice growth. Not marketing. Not technique. Not explanation. Trust.

Because trust is what keeps patients coming back. And trust is what makes them refer their friends and family. Think about the practices that grow year after year without grinding for new patients. They’re not growing because of their website. They’re growing because patients trust them so deeply that they keep showing up — and they bring people with them.

Retention and internal referrals. Those are the two things that build a sustainable practice. And both of them trace back to the same thing. How safe and seen your patient feels when they’re lying on your table.

Introducing The Signature Adjustment Experience™

I want to introduce you to what I call the Signature Adjustment Experience™. Because the adjustment isn’t just a clinical event. It’s a relational one. And the thing that determines whether that moment builds trust — or quietly erodes it — is presence.

Presence isn’t a personality trait. It’s a practice. And like any practice, there are things that build it, and there are things that break it. Today I want to walk you through five things that quietly break presence — and what the shift looks like for each one. Because I promise you, most chiropractors are doing at least one of these. And some are doing all five. And they have no idea.

Shift One — Breathe Before You Touch

Number one. Thinking about the next patient while you’re with this one. Your hands are here. Your mind is somewhere else. You’re already thinking about what’s coming next — the patient waiting in room two, the phone call you need to return, the schedule running behind.

And patients feel it. Not always consciously, but their nervous system knows. Because the nervous system is extraordinarily good at reading other nervous systems. It’s been doing it since before we had language. And what it reads when your mind is elsewhere is simple. You are not safe enough to be worth their full attention.

Here’s what I actually did to solve this. My patients were lying prone on the table when I got to them. And often the first thing I did, with my hand resting across their sacrum, was get them to take a deep breath in. I’d take one at the same time. We matched our breathing. There was a physiological synchronicity that happened between us in that moment.

And while I was doing that, I had something close to a mantra. A quiet internal intention — almost like a state of prayer — that my hands and my words would be guided to give this person what they needed. And I’d ask myself: is my mind here right now? Am I with this person?

That reset took seconds. But it changed everything about how I showed up. Because you cannot be present and distracted at the same time. You have to choose. And that breath was my way of choosing.

The shift: before you touch the patient, breathe with them. Let that be your signal that you’ve arrived. That everything else can wait. Because right now, this is the only thing that matters.

Shift Two — Talk With Patients, Not At Them

Number two. Talking at the patient instead of with them. Educating during the adjustment can be genuinely valuable. Sharing what you’re finding, what you’re noticing, what the body is doing. That’s part of the experience.

But there’s a version of it that becomes a monologue. And when that happens, the patient stops being a person and starts being an audience. And an audience is passive. An audience doesn’t feel seen. An audience doesn’t feel heard. An audience is just… there.

Here’s a simple measurement. When you reflect on an adjustment, ask yourself one honest question. Who said the most words? Was it me, or was it them? Because if it was mostly you, that’s a signal worth paying attention to.

This doesn’t mean you should be silent. It means the adjustment should belong to them, not to you. Patients would often ask me how I was going. And it’s natural — we love to talk about ourselves. We all do. But presence means resisting that pull. A genuine answer, and then a question straight back to them. How’s that shoulder been since I saw you last? How did the kids go with that thing you mentioned? How’s work been this week?

Those questions might seem small. But what they communicate is enormous. They say: I remember you. I was thinking about you between visits. You matter to me beyond this room. And when a patient leaves an adjustment feeling heard — not just treated — that’s the Signature Adjustment Experience™ at work.

I looked at every adjustment as an ongoing conversation. Sometimes there was a week between visits. Sometimes two. But we might have been having that conversation for years. And when you see it that way, the adjustment isn’t a clinical transaction. It’s the next chapter in a relationship.

The shift: after your next adjustment, ask yourself honestly. Who said the most words? And if it was you — good. You noticed. That’s where it begins to change.

Shift Three — Flow, Not Autopilot

Number three. Confusing autopilot with flow. This one is more nuanced than the others, and I want to spend a little more time here, because I think it’s the most misunderstood point on this list.

There’s a difference between mindlessness and mastery. And those two things can look identical from the outside. Both involve hands that move without being told. Both feel automatic. But they are completely different experiences. And your patient feels that difference, even if they can’t name it.

Let me introduce you to a thinker whose work I find genuinely fascinating. His name is Iain McGilchrist. He’s a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, and his book ‘The Master and His Emissary’ makes a case that has stayed with me for a long time.

McGilchrist argues that the two hemispheres of the brain don’t just process information differently. They have fundamentally different relationships with the world. The left brain categorises, sequences, manages. It’s the brain that’s running when you’re going through a protocol, checking your technique, tracking the schedule, managing the noise in the room. The left brain is useful. We need it. But it keeps you at a distance from the person in front of you. It processes the patient as a problem to be solved. Not a person to be met.

The right brain is something else entirely. The right brain reads relationship, context, tone. It perceives the living whole of another person. It’s the part of you that walks into a room and immediately feels the energy. The part that knows something is wrong before anyone has said a word. The part that picks up on what isn’t being said.

McGilchrist’s argument is that we’ve become a culture dominated by left brain processing. Analytical. Fragmented. Transactional. At the cost of the right brain’s ability to perceive the whole.

Now apply that to your adjustment room. When you’re in autopilot, you’re in your left brain. The hands are moving, but you’re not really there. You’re managing a process. But when you’re in flow, something very different is happening. Flow is right brain dominance. It’s the state where noise falls away. Where time disappears. Where the hands know what to do without being instructed. Where you’re finding stress and tension in the spine faster and more accurately than you could by thinking your way through it. Where your communication becomes heart to heart.

I’ve experienced this. And if you’ve been practising long enough, I think you have too. That feeling where everything is effortless. Where you and the patient are genuinely in sync. Where there’s a resonance happening between two nervous systems that goes beyond anything you could manufacture consciously. That’s not mystical. That’s right brain to right brain communication. And it’s what your patients are responding to when they say they felt something they can’t quite explain.

Here’s the problem. Autopilot feels a lot like flow from the inside. The hands are moving. You’re not having to think. But the quality of attention is completely different. Autopilot is absence. Flow is presence. Autopilot is boredom wearing the mask of efficiency. Flow is attunement. And the difference between them is what your patient feels on the table.

The good news is this. The breathing technique I described in number one isn’t just a way to arrive mentally. It’s a doorway into right brain function. When you slow down, match the breath, drop into the moment, you’re shifting from left brain management to right brain attunement. You’re moving from processing a patient to being with one.

The shift: the goal isn’t to think more during the adjustment. It’s to think less and feel more. Not less clinical. More present. Because that’s where the real work happens.

Shift Four — Design Your Environment For Presence

Number four. Letting the environment work against you instead of for you. Most chiropractors think about the environment as something that happens to them. The noise. The interruptions. The open plan. The CA who needs something. The phone that rings. And they try to manage it through willpower. Through focus. Through gritting their teeth and tuning it out.

But here’s what I learned over time. The environment isn’t just something to manage. It’s something you can deliberately design. And one of the most powerful tools I had in my practice was music. My staff used to laugh at me about this. Because the playlist changed constantly. Some days it was soft, yoga style, meditative. Other days it had more energy to it — electronic, some beats, something that moved.

And the choice wasn’t random. I was reading where I was at that day. If I came in feeling a little flat, a little low energy, I’d bring something in that lifted me. If I was scattered or wired, something that slowed me down and settled me. Because presence isn’t a fixed state you arrive at the same way every morning. Some days you need to be lifted into it. Some days you need to be quieted into it. And the environment can serve either function, if you’re paying attention to what you actually need.

So the first part of this shift is proactive. Do an audit of your environment. What can you actually control? The music. The lighting. The visual noise. The things that pull your eye or your ear when you’re trying to be present. Most chiropractors have never thought about this deliberately. They just take the environment as it comes. But every element of that room is either helping you show up, or making it harder.

The second part of this shift is about something more uncomfortable. There’s a specific kind of distraction I want to name. And that’s when you find yourself listening to what’s happening at the front desk. Half an ear on how they’re answering the phone. Monitoring how a conversation is going. Mentally stepping out of the adjustment room to check in on what your team is doing.

I’ve done this. I know exactly what it feels like. And here’s what I’ve come to understand about it. That distraction isn’t a focus problem. It’s a trust problem. When you can’t let go of what’s happening at the front desk, it’s because some part of you doesn’t fully trust that it’s being handled. And that’s important information. Not about your focus, but about your team. Because the solution to that distraction isn’t more willpower. It’s the training and the standards that earn back your trust. So that when you step into an adjustment, you can genuinely let go. Because you know it’s being handled.

You cannot afford to be half present with a patient and half managing your practice at the same time. Your patient deserves all of you. And so does your team — the investment in getting them right pays off every single time you step into that adjustment room.

The shift: audit your environment deliberately. Design it to support presence, not fight it. And where you find yourself distracted by your team, treat that as a signal — not a focus problem, but a training opportunity.

Shift Five — Lead, Don’t Seek To Be Liked

Number five. Going in to be liked instead of to lead. This one might be the most uncomfortable point on this list. Because it looks like warmth. It feels like care. And it comes from a good place. Most chiropractors who do this do it because they genuinely care about people.

But there’s a version of wanting patients to be happy that tips into neediness. And neediness is not what your patients need from you. When we walk into an adjustment trying to please, trying to make sure they like us, checking whether they seem satisfied, monitoring their reaction to everything we do — that energy comes across. And it repels.

Not because patients don’t want warmth. They absolutely do. But because needy energy is anxious energy. And anxious energy doesn’t create safety. It creates the opposite.

Think about it from the patient’s perspective. They came to you because something isn’t right. They’re vulnerable. They’re uncertain. They need to feel that the person working on their spine is steady. Certain. Not looking to them for reassurance. Your patients don’t need you to need their approval. They need you to know what you’re doing and to lead them through it with confidence.

I want to be clear — this isn’t arrogance. It’s not coldness. It’s not indifference to how they feel. It’s the quiet certainty of someone who is here to serve and doesn’t need anything back from this moment. There is a version of warmth that comes from strength. And that’s the version that builds trust.

Patients don’t need you to be liked. They need you to be certain. And here’s the shift I want to leave you with. It’s not about walking in and asking what this person needs. Because even that question can become a subtle form of searching, and searching is just neediness in disguise.

The shift is this. Walk into every adjustment already knowing. Knowing that your hands are going to find what needs finding. Knowing that your adjustment is going to give this body what it needs to heal. Knowing that you are going to deliver something of real value — regardless of what this visit looks like, regardless of how the patient seems, regardless of whether they say thank you or say nothing at all.

You’re not there to find out what they need. You’re there to deliver what they need. And you already know how to do that. That certainty, that quiet confidence, is what your patient feels the moment you walk through the door. It’s what creates safety. It’s what builds trust. And it’s the energy of a practitioner who is truly there to serve.

Bringing It Back To Mary Louise

Let me bring this back to Mary Louise. She didn’t tell me I was the best adjuster she’d ever had. She didn’t say my technique was outstanding. She said she never felt rushed. She always felt a sense of connection.

That is what presence does. It makes the clinical feel personal. And it’s what keeps people coming back — not just for a course of care, but for life. And when they come back for life, they bring people with them. That’s how a sustainable practice is built. Not through better marketing. Through better moments.

I want to be honest with you about something. I could do all of this in four to six minutes. I wasn’t spending thirty minutes with every patient. I wasn’t doing anything dramatic or elaborate. I was just… there. Fully. And that’s available to every one of you. Right now. In your next adjustment.

The adjustment isn’t the routine part of your patient’s journey. It’s the relationship part. And every visit is a chance to either deepen that, or let it drift.

Closing

So here they are again. Five things that break presence. Thinking about the next patient while you’re with this one. Talking at patients instead of with them. Confusing autopilot with flow. Letting the environment work against you instead of for you. And going in to be liked instead of to lead.

Pick one. Just one. And bring it into your next adjustment.

That’s it for today. Thanks for all that you do. Keep saving lives, and I’ll see you back here next week.