Hello and Welcome to “The Back Page” Blogs

It’s taken me a while to really get my head around regularly writing a blog.  Finally I have pulled together all my ideas and I’m really looking forward to getting this started. So I hope you enjoy reading about the ‘extra’ side to chiropractic.

What do you think to the name?  I thought it was a giggle, but when I looked up the words in a thesaurus it made sense (to me, at least).

Back: advocate, assist, champion, support, advance, move forward. 

Page: leaf, sheet, chapter, episode, point, announce, call out or seek.    What do you think?

So, where shall we start – how about the story of me and chiropractic – the reason why we’re all here?

Hi, I’m Sarah McNeil,

…born and bred in Billingshurst, where my clinic is now.  Chiropractic came to me long before most people (in the southeast of England, at least) had even heard the word.  Most Chiropractors I’ve met had treatment themselves and then wanted to be able to help others in the same way.  Thankfully that didn’t happen to me, I just wanted “to help people” and someone, along my path to working out which GCSEs I wanted to take, mentioned Chiropractic.  It sounded great!

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do it straight away as there was only one private (and hence out of our ‘financial capabilities’!) chiropractic college in the whole of the UK.  But after gaining a Chemistry degree and working within the pharmaceutical industry for 4 years, the draw was too strong and I enrolled at Glamorgan University: Welcome to 4 years of hard work.

I qualified from The Welsh Institute of Chiropractic (WIoC) in 2005 and was let loose on the world as an Associate Chiropractor working in another chiropractor’s practice.

The Birth of ChiroPractical

Since before the first day of Chiropractic study, the dream I had was having my own practice.  So, in 2007, I started to do ‘mobile’ chiropractic alongside my associate hours.  I already had a portable bench, which I used to practice on at Uni, so it went in the back of my car and my journey really started.

It took a while but my intention was to build enough of a ‘mobile’ patient-base (a client list, if that sounds better to you) to cover the costs of running my own premises.  And in 2011, after taking 36 Explorer Scouts on a World Scout Jamboree in Sweden, I felt ready.

I searched for the right place and applied for the relevant planning permissions.  Taking on the lease for the building that is now known as ChiroPractical (35a High Street).  I soon gave my ‘mobile’ patients a welcome for treatment there.

The last step on this journey so far was in December 2015 when I left my associate position.  For now, I am doing everything myself and working towards taking on my first team members in the near future.  Keep watching this space – there’ll be “Welcomes” on The Back Page when they arrive. ?