Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor • February 2020 • Growing up chiro

A few months ago, I attended a local chiropractic meeting in Ottawa. As is often done, we all introduced ourselves to the newer chiropractors attending for the first time. It struck me how many mother-daughter chiropractors were in attendance and how many second-generation chiropractors were also there, their fathers having retired.

It occurred to me that there may be something uniquely influential about growing up chiropractic that doesn’t typically happen if your dad was a lawyer, or a surgeon, or veterinarian. Was leaning into your parent’s chiropractic world more common compared to other professions? I didn’t have any statistics so it was worth exploring: Was there some ingredient that motivated sons or daughters of chiropractors to pursue a profession in which they would have witnessed both the highs and the lows of practice?

Before interviewing anyone, I created my own list of questions that might help me discover if there was an underlying reason. I’m a second-generation chiropractor myself, so I had my own thoughts about it. There is a feeling of comfort that comes with taking over a clinic that you have may spent significant time visiting, receiving treatment or potentially had worked as a part time employee. Having a chiropractor in the family and benefiting from chiropractic care could also be influential.

Most children go through a teenage stage where they try and distance themselves from their parents as a means of creating their own identity. Once that stage has passed, they may find themselves more in alignment with their chiropractic parents than they expected, particularly with the renaissance of the societal validation of alternative and complementary medicine. When we view the gradual loss of the cultural authority that general medicine once enjoyed, stimulated by the risks, side effects, negative outcomes, and widely publicized medical misadventures, the practice of allopathic medicine has become less glamourous as a career choice. The Internet has allowed more information about the nature of health care interventions to be viewed by the health care consumer. People listen carefully to their doctors but don’t always blindly accept his or her verdict on best practices for their health issue. That didn’t explain however, the apparent decisions of my second- generation colleagues who made their decisions 25 or more years ago. I sought out some familiar chiropractors with family members in the profession and asked them these four questions:

• What influences did your chiropractic parent have that may have contributed to your becoming a chiropractor?

• What was the most significant factor that led you to apply to chiropractic college?

Lane is my classmate and is still one of my closest friends. He (like me) had felt no pressure to go into chiropractic. In fact, his mother claimed to try to steer him away from chiropractic for the “right” reasons. It was so difficult in the 1950’s to make a go in practice in society and because of the stigma attached to chiropractic.

“My mother felt that there was a bias against chiropractors coming from some physicians within the city. Her own father, a prominent member socially of their town experienced that same prejudice from a physician friend when her daughter accepted a proposal from a chiropractor. They attempted repeatedly but without success to pressure him to interfere and stop the marriage to a chiropractor.”

In direct contrast, Lane’s uncle, Dr. Richard Luck, also became a chiropractor in Northern Ontario and by coincidence was in my father’s class. Dr. Richard Luck’s son, Dr. Ted Luck also followed in the family footsteps. Lane’s Dad, Dr. Len Luck, was all for him following the path. Sadly, they were only able to p r a c t ice together for a decade at which point Dr. Luck senior passed away due to illness. They had a very close relationship and appreciated each other a great deal, both in practice and during their many adventures exploring the outdoors.

What surprised Lane the most about the process of becoming a chiropractor was the difficulty. “There was more to it than I had expected,” he says. “When I applied you had to go to university for two years.” Dr. Luck did an undergrad (ten credits) at Brock University before making the transition to Toronto.

As a young person, everywhere Dr. Luck went with his parents, people would come up to his father and would say to him and how much he helped and even saved them. The phenomenal respect that he commanded from folks from all walks of life, was so incredible, Lane realized that whatever his father was doing, it was special. Lane remarked that they couldn’t go anywhere without people approaching them to pay their respects to his father and his care.

They were big shoes to fill, but he never felt any pressure. He just wanted his dad to be proud. Dr. Lane Luck continues to love the practice to this day, with more enjoyment than ever. To him, it is no longer work – it’s simply what he loves to do.

(If Lane couldn’t be a chiropractor, he would be an optometrist or an air traffic controller.)

Dr. Laquerre is the son of one of my father’s closest colleagues, Dr. Jacques Laquerre. I recall that he would show up when I was in high school on Wednesday nights at my father’s practice for an adjustment and a chat, which I always enjoyed overhearing. Before studying chiropractic, Jacques was an anti-submarine Navy tracker pilot whose many adventures included taking off of Canada’s aircraft carrier, Bonaventure. After leaving the Navy, he arrived in Toronto and attended CMCC. Dr. Laquerre went on to have an exceptional career in Ottawa at the same location where his son now practices.

Dr. Robert Laquerre said that there was no pressure whatsoever to go into chiropractic. “I was lucky growing up chiropractic,” he says. The phone would ring on a Sunday morning and he would often accompany his dad to see patients, learning from a young age what it was like to see chiropractic patients.

“In high school, I played a lot of sports and saw his father treat athletic injuries of my classmates who always got better – which was very rewarding,” he says. “I did chemistry at Queens University in Kingston which I thought was hard. I found out that It was more difficult at CMCC.”

When asked about the most significant factors leading him to apply, he recalled that during his undergrad in chemistry, he had the occasion to go to the physical therapy department to observe one of his roommates who had hurt his back.

“The only treatment was IFC [Interferential Current Therapy] and McKenzie exercises and that was it. If this is all that they do, what my dad does is a lot more, and what he does is more interesting.” After seeing the difference, he saw that when physiotherapy was compared to chiropractic, there was very little hands on.

(If not practicing, Dr. Laquerre’s ideal job would be in education, probably teaching which would allow him to interact with people. He prefers hands on education.)

Dr. Jim Moore practises upper cervical chiropractic and has published the results of his clinical research on post-concussion syndrome in the literature. He has an exceptional practice as a NUCCA practitioner and works with his wife Carol, also a Health care provider in their Stittsville clinic near Ottawa. His brother Dr. Brett Moore practices chiropractic in the GTA.

He felt no pressure at all to go into chiropractic. When Dr. Jim Moore was growing up, his dad, Dr. Donald Moore, would occasionally say that he had the hands of a chiropractor. The decision to become a chiropractor took place during his third year in university when he randomly picked up a green book by Stevenson and read it. Until then, he had never heard of innate intelligence. Once he read the book, he was hooked. Dr. Moore’s advice for new practitioners is to talk to successful older chiropractors and ask them about how to start practice.

It’s been reported in many sources that 70-85 percent of the population don’t really like their job and are looking to get out. In a recent MD Linx survey, it was discovered that almost half of physicians would not recommend medicine to their children as a career. After interviewing a few chiropractors, I started to think that beginning the study of chiropractic was something that many of us learned to fit with our core beliefs of life and our desire and sense of agency.

My dad, Dr. “Bud” Keenan said that medical doctors excelled in critical and emergent care but so much suffering is related to chronic health problems for which medicine often fails to deal with but that chiropractors often help. While we can see that chiropractors help so many of their patients, we can unfortunately get caught up with the patients that fail to improve.

As a young person I learned that 80 percent of patients improve a great deal, 10 percent we will help somewhat, and 10 percent we don’t help that much, if at all. This is a great record that very few health professions can claim. Perhaps it’s those excellent patient outcomes that we witnessed in our parent’s practices, that kickstarted our desire to be “useful” and one of the drivers to follow our parent’s chiropractic footsteps.

If you have an interesting story about why you became a chiropractor, email it to me – I would love to hear it.

DIRK KEENAN is a second-generation chiropractor practicing in Ottawa’s oldest clinic for the past 34 years. Dr. Keenan pursues an active interest in multi-disciplinary clinics, Interprofessional education, and chiropractic practices abroad. He is currently in the midst of establishing an international locum service. Interested parties in international locums, multi-disciplinary practices, or interprofessional education can contact him at [email protected].