Issue 2 - January 2003

Chicken Soup® will warm your chiropractic heart

Newest book in the popular series aims to boost the image of the profession

Ah, the power of the printed word! You can talk until you are blue in the face and still not convince a skeptic about the value of chiropractic care. But let him read it in a book and it’s a different story. If it’s published, it must be true.

And that’s one reason Chicken Soup for the Chiropractic Soul will be such a tremendous tool for chiropractors. “Chiropractic Soul is bound to help the image of the profession and enhance the awareness of chiropractic,” Fabrizio Mancini, DC, president of Parker College, told Chiropractic Economics. Mancini championed getting the book from concept to press and is listed as one of the co-editors, along with Jack Canfield and Mark V. Hansen, who created the Chicken Soup® series.

Canfield and Hansen, both long-time users of chiropractic, had considered the idea of such a book for some time. Chiropractic and Chicken Soup® have a lot in common, says Hansen. “What make Chicken Soup® books work is that they create instantaneous behavioral change. In other words, [when you read a Chicken Soup® book] you get goose bumps or a lump in your throat, or your heart palpitates at a higher level or you feel weak in the knees. That is exactly what happens in chiropractic,” says Hansen.

Mancini and Hansen discussed the idea of writing the book and approached Canfield about the possibility. “When they proposed it to me,” said Canfield, “I said ‘perfect.’ It is a way we can use this Chicken Soup® brand awareness and attach it to something that can help people.”

But to make the project a reality, someone had to take hold of it, collect the stories and select the best ones. “I decided to make it happen,” said Mancini.

Mancini sent out an e-mail to Parker Seminar speakers and asked them to forward it to others in their databases. In the e-mail, he outlined a summary of the criteria that Hansen and Canfield use to select stories for the Chicken Soup® series, and asked for stories.

“The response was overwhelming,” said Mancini. Within a couple of months we received between 1,800 and 2,000 stories. But we had a problem … Jack said we couldn’t use them!”

The stories were good, genuine and heart-warming, so Mancini was confused: What was wrong with them? The problem was that they were too good, explained Mancini. All of the stories described miracles.

“We needed stories that illustrated the other criteria of Chicken Soup® books.” So Mancini sent out a second e-mail describing the ten different types of stories that they were looking for. In all, Mancini collected more than 5,000
stories about chiropractors and their patients.

A committee of readers is selecting the stories that will be included in the final product, which will be published in March.

Because the book is written for patients (or potential patients) — not specifically for chiropractors, many chiropractors may want to give the book to patients, said Mancini. But since it may not be cost-effective to give a book to every person who comes in for an evaluation, Mancini said a sampler containing four selected stories will also be published and available for a nominal cost. “The sampler will be priced as a give-away,” he said.

Distribution of the book hasn’t yet been decided, said Mancini, but one of the national bookstores has indicated an interest. “We anticipate getting national TV coverage and hope that the coverage will spur the big bookstores into carrying it,” he said. Health-food stores will also be a natural market for the book.

Mmm, mmm good!

Take some Chicken Soup®, a bit of imagination and a desire to make your practice grow. Stir thoroughly and let it warm your heart. What you have is a recipe for success.

Beginning in April, Parker Seminars will help you refine your recipe when it offers a class on how to use Chicken Soup for the Chiropractic Soul as a marketing tool. “We’re going to develop a class on how to utilize the book to build the largest practice you can build,” said Fabrizio Mancini, DC, president of Parker College.

Here are some ideas to simmer until you have a chance to take the class:

• Give aways. Give a copy of the book to each patient who makes a referral who turns into an active patient.
• Sampler incentives. Market your practice by giving a copy of the sampler to each person who comes in for a free evaluation.
• Radio and TV talks. Notify your local radio and television stations about the book’s publication and your availability to talk about it.
• Wellness talks. Use selected stories to illustrate points in your talks.

Chicken Soup for the Chiropractic Soul sneak preview
The battle within a man

The Vietnam War is what brought Ed to our office. From the moment that he walked through the door 1 could see that the war hadn’t really ended. I could still see it raging in Ed’s eyes.

The day I first talked to Ed, he was on the other end of the phone and I was wondering what help chiropractic could possibly offer this man. He could barely walk, hadn’t sat down in years and couldn’t remember the last time that he had slept for longer than two to three hours. Still new to the chiropractic profession, I felt emptiness in my heart because I feared that there was no help for this man.

Day One arrived and Ed arrived an hour early for his appointment. A ghost of a man walked through the door and we all took a minute to catch our breath. When Ed came to the front desk and introduced himself, I explained that I would help him fill out his paperwork but he had to let me know where he would be most comfortable.

In the blink of an eye he was on the floor on his knees. “This is the only position that I have.” As we continued it became evident that this man’s life had been stolen by an unmerciful thief – his war injury.

War wound blasted away his life

On November 14, 1969, Ed Kerestesy had been shot in the back of his left leg and his hamstring was blasted apart, as was his life. For eight months Ed lay in a hospital bed pumped full of morphine. He received a skin graft before his release but was never instructed to seek further care once returned home.

Back on American soil in 1970, Ed used crutches and wore a brace because the substantial injury to his hamstring had left him with what the medics diagnosed as drop foot. Ed then decided to help himself because he bad been told no one else could help him. He placed weights on his bent left leg to try and curb the drop foot and stop the leg from bending in order to help him walk.

The weights worked to straighten the leg, but the results were hardly enough to satisfy a man who wanted his life back. As he bent his leg back, his body became twisted and he had difficulty moving and sitting on his buttocks.

One day, he woke up to realize that he could no longer sit; his contorted frame would not allow for it. Furthermore, he began to experience excruciating low back pain, intense burning hip pain, arm numbness, constant fatigue, loss of appetite, joint pain and stiffness, continued leg pain and difficulty walking.

Thus began Ed’s personal battle. In 1970 he began working in the mines because in the mine a man could work on his knees and no one would question him. At night he lay on the couch with one leg hanging over the back. He lay on the couch, but did not sleep. Sometimes he could escape the constant pain for a few short hours and experience a most unpeaceful sleep.

When the mines closed in 1982, Ed was left without a livelihood because there was no work for a bent man who could only remain productive while crouched on his knees. Years of family turmoil, anger, mental anguish, exacerbated physical pain and solitude began. Ed never left his house because he didn’t want pity and didn’t know where to go for help.

After eight years of confinement to his house, Ed found something that he could do — play pool. Bending over a pool table can be rather easy for a man who is already bent. One day at the pool hall, Ed told a story about how he had caught a glimpse of himself on a TV monitor while walking through Sears one day. He didn’t recognize the man he saw in the TV: His eyes were sunken with dark circles and his body was twisted and bent. The image terrified him.

A patient from our clinic overheard the story and told Ed about the wonderful results she and her husband had both experienced while under chiropractic care. She convinced Ed to give chiropractic a chance.

Before me sat a man with little hope and fewer expectations whose hopelessness I began to feel. But chiropractic offers hope and there was definitely hope for Ed. He may have given up, but his Innate was still fighting for him.

Dr. Fanella took Ed into his office and sat on the floor across from him. If Ed was comfortable on his knees, then that was where the doctor needed to be. When it came time for the actual adjustment, Ed became apprehensive. Because lying flat was painful for Ed, the doctor adjusted him while he sat on his knees.

Healing takes a toll

Ed walked back to the waiting room and dropped to his knees because his back went into uncontrollable spasms. The next day he called to ask what was happening to him. He said he felt like a zombie, he could barely hold his eyes open and his family had to help him move his body. He was almost asleep at all times — he couldn’t talk but could hear everything around him.

This condition went on for weeks. Ed would come in to get adjusted and return hone to sleep. What was happening was that his body was healing.

Just as suddenly as it had begun, Ed’s healing time of constant fatigue lifted. He could sit on his buttocks. He stood taller, his leg pain decreased and he began to sleep the entire night through. The results just kept getting better.

Ed walked in one Monday morning a few months after his initial visit to exclaim, “Guess what I did this weekend!” Ed had driven to Ohio to see his daughter. He sat on his buttocks and drove a car for three straight hours — and most importantly — he did so with no pain!

Most mornings Ed walks through our door excited. He is thrilled because he now has things to look forward to. He is always working — making up for lost time. Ed enjoys the simple things that he had been missing from his life for 30 years — like walking.

Ed impacted my life greatly. His life is evidence of the miracle of chiropractic and the perseverance of the Innate. Chiropractic gave Ed a life filled with hope and expectations. For 30 years Ed had been angry and pained, but all that has changed now. “The most profound change is my state of mind because I am actually happy now.”

— “The Battle Within A Man.” Reprinted by permission of Sarah Dixon. ©2001 Sarah Dixon. From Chicken Soup for the Chiropractic Soul.

What kind of story makes it to the Chicken Soup® pot?

Once you read Chicken Soup for the Chiropractic Soul, you may become inspired to submit your own story. According to Fabrizio Mancini, DC, president of Parker College, Parker Seminars plans to put up a Web site where you may submit stories for future editions of the book.

Not every story submission makes it into a Chicken Soup® book, however. To aid individuals who want to submit a story, editors Mark V. Hansen and Jack Canfield have come up with a formula to assure consistency and quality in the book series.

According to their guidelines, a Chicken Soup® story is first and foremost a story. It has to have a beginning, a middle and an end.

Although the theme of the 30+ Chicken Soup® books varies, all of the stories fit into ten basic chapters, which have stories on:

• Love — the healing power of love; acts of tenderness and compassion; acts of generosity; events that transcend racism, sexism, ageism and nationalism.

• Parenting — stories that demonstrate love and caring in parenting and grandparenting.

• Teaching and learning — stories that show caring, compassion and creativity in teaching.

• Overcoming obstacles — accounts of triumphs over personal obstacles.

• A matter of perspective — stories that show there is more than one way to see and interpret the same event. Often these stories are humorous.

• A matter of attitude — stories about how attitudes and beliefs control a perception of reality and behavior.

• Death and dying — narratives about the power of the human spirit to confront the loss of loved ones through spiritual understanding, healing acts of love and through humor.

• Aging — stories about people over 60 who make remarkable contributions to society and who challenge the stereotypes of aging.

• Living your dream — tales about the power of believing in a dream.

• Eclectic wisdom — stories that don’t fit into any other chapters but are about aspect of life that is emotionally moving, touching, inspiring and insightful.