Expert: Scott F. Gillman, DC, DACBSP - 8/1/2009

Question
Why are you so against Gonstead chiropractic. i have been a patient for over ten years and have had great results. i have also had many "diversified technique" doctors who had no idea what they were doing, just cracking my back and collecting the check.

Answer
James,

It likely had nothing to do with Gonstead technique.  How many Gonstead practitioners have you gone to?   Just one?  Did you ever think that you just didn't find the right practitioner, regardless of what method they used.   What I am against is a doctor sticking to a hypothesesis that has been proven wrong.  The reasons why the patient gets better is not the reason the doctor thinks, but he will assume that his "method" was the reason.    When I was in chiropractic school, enduring long hours of sitting in class and being pounded-on by junior interns trying to learn joint manipulation, I found relief from a venerable Gonstead doctor.   But later on I also find relief with other's, too.   It likely wasn't the Gonstead, it was the doctor's skills.  The Gonstead concept is flawed, as is other methods that tried to identify "misalignment" and target the misalinged segment.   Sorry, it just doesn't happen.   But practioners that learned hands-on skills that help them target and deftly manipulate joints (like Gonsteaders) were often better than those that barely passed their technique class.    To further put this in perspective for you, consider what happened when all the folks frustrated with Gonstead and similar approaches discovered the paradigm shift created by Len Faye, DC, who started the Motion Palpation Institute (somewhere in the early 1980's).   All the better practitioners migrated to that system of looking for segmental fixation and not a bone out of place.  You can be sure that there were many patients like you that said, "all those other doctors were just cracking my back..." (based on an erroneous x-ray finding)...   

'Hope this was helpful...  

Dr. G