October 2005

A sweet goodbye

by Dr. Madeline Behrendt

Since early 2001, I've had the honor of writing monthly columns about women's health and chiropractic for The Chiropractic Journal, and some four plus years later it's time to say goodbye.

It's been great fun and I've really enjoyed the experience. I've covered topics that were hot ("Let's talk about sex," and "Are you sexy?") or disturbing ("A mother's story," or "Our parents"). I've jumped on headline news to give you a published response ("Menopause without interference" and "Flu frenzy"). And, I've spent a good amount of time on kids, I often return to this topic in August as children go off to school and parents are faced with heavy doses of incomplete information ("Back to school ‑ vaccination time?").

I've loved inviting guest columnists to share their work and research. Dr. Leslie Bedell has contributed a number of outstanding pieces on the benefits of chiropractic for battered women. Thank you, Leslie.

And I've interviewed so many chiropractors over the years. Thank you all for your time, and sharing your insights and adventures.

While it's been a real pleasure to research and create more than 50 columns, what's been even more fun is going through all the great messages that readers send me each month. My e‑mail has always been available for chiropractors to connect with me, and being a researcher, each month I would track the number of responses I received for that column. This gave me a strong sense of what moved readers, what you were interested in seeing more of, as well as what topics didn't need to be explored further.

Any guesses as to the column with the biggest response?

If your favorite column was "Bad girl," you're spot on. This column drew a tremendous response, not only in the sheer number of DCs who wrote to me, but it also seemed to connect deeply with your daily experiences. I remember when I wrote it. I dug very deep to express what I had seen over and over and over again. That column was my way of fighting for all the women who weren't yet able to push back the interference they live with.

And, of course, all the columns on the infertility research attracted consistent feedback. This project took years of my life. It was very, very demanding work and I'm proud that I gave it the attention it needed. Millions of people were introduced to chiropractic through the TV interviews I did as these features aired in almost 40 cities over a nine‑month period. Many women, many chiropractors contacted me to get information, to get help. This is such a critical issue that I'm still working on the topic and finding new ways to reach the people who need the information.

Another topic I write about often is the 'Creative Class,' and chiropractic's role in using creativity to propel our culture forward. The first book by Richard Florida blew me away ("The Rise of the Creative Class") as I've always lived as a creative person, have been around creative people and environments my whole life, and worked in many creative capacities. From this perspective, I tried to connect chiropractors to their own creativity ‑‑ which can get easily squelched by all the external invaders we deal with every day. 

During the course of living in the world as a chiropractor, there can be frequent hits to one's self‑esteem. I've observed many respond by acting in a way that can generate whiplash ‑‑ one day chiropractic is the greatest, nothing can touch it, and the next day you're down in the dumps because chiropractic has so little formal traction. So my work in this area has been about introducing chiropractors to a new way of viewing themselves and their work, as well as connecting them to larger changes in society. I'm deeply involved with the Creative Class concept in many ways in my city and in my other activities, and with great results, so it's becoming a larger part of my daily responsibilities.

I'd like to close by thanking many people. Big thanks go out to Dr. Terry Rondberg, who had the vision and generosity to include a column on women's health in his journal; to Barbara Bigham, who many of you know only by her work ‑‑ she does the excellent editing of this journal as well as performs other heroic acts on a regular basis; Dr. Veronica Gutierrez and members of the WCA Council on Women's Health, for promoting well‑being in women's lives; and Linda Bevel of the WCA for all her support over the years.

I hope to return from time to time to contribute articles, so I look forward to reconnecting with all of you again.  Thanks to all my readers for your great support and feedback. I'll miss you.

(Dr. Madeline Behrendt is chair of the WCA Council on Women's Health and associate editor of the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research [JVSR]. An author and speaker, she is committed to connecting women to chiropractic and chiropractors to women, and may be contacted at mbdcawe@aol.com)