Intuitive Medicine

Though Brooke had experience with life coaches in the past, she never considered becoming one herself before last year, when it was suggested that she join an intuitive life coach program. She graduated from the program at the end of March and now offers life coaching in addition to her chiropractic services.

As the name suggests, intuitive life coaches use their intuition and that of their clients to provide direction and guidance. “Life coaches, in general, basically guide a client to find the answers themselves for the solutions they need,” she explains. “For me, I feel a lot in my body. Sometimes, it’s just a ping in my head [that] says, ‘Stop there, talk more about that.’”

Brook knew she wanted to be a chiropractor since middle school, as she often visited a chiropractor while growing up in Iowa. Her family still went to a traditional doctor for certain circumstances but visited the chiropractor once a month for minor ailments and injuries. 

Brooke’s father was particularly zealous about making sure they never skipped an appointment, regardless of the obstacle. “He worked for a utility company, so one time, he actually loaded us up into his bucket truck and drove us a half hour to get adjusted,” she recalls. 

To follow her chiropractic dreams, Brooke studied medicine at a chiropractic college in Minnesota, where she went into practice for awhile before moving to her husband’s home state of Illinois and becoming an associate at a practice there. Brooke and her family lived in Illinois for six years before a grueling polar vortex winter prompted them to leave for sunny Ocala, Florida in 2015. 

Brooke always envisioned opening her own practice, but didn’t quite know how to go about it and says she made a lot of mistakes in those early days. However, she says she experienced personal growth through life coaching and joining networking groups like Toastmasters International, which focuses on promoting leadership by developing public speaking skills. “It has been a really great source for building confidence in me with public speaking,” Brooke says.

Given that chiropractic medicine follows a similarly holistic healthcare model, Brooke states intuitive life coaching complements her general wellness philosophy. “The view I take of chiropractic is the body is self-healing and self-regulating,” Brooke says. “My job is not to fix you but to actually remind your body of what it’s designed to help assist your body in healing itself.”

“People come in for what they’re ready to receive,” Brooke says. “For me, I want to give them more. It’s a hard thing to want to give so much and then not everyone wants to receive it.”

Brooke sees coaching as another way to serve patients beyond her physical practice and improve her patient interaction skills, as many patients fail to look beyond their immediate complaints. Coaching questions help them reflect on where their pain stems from.

“In almost 17 years of practice as a chiropractor, I can, without a doubt, say that mental and emotional stressors are the biggest sources of dysfunction in the body,” Brooke declares.

For instance, Brooke says chronic pain has far-reaching consequences beyond its immediate effect. “I had a baby that I saw,” she recalls. “I think he was 4 months old at the time. He had difficulty turning his head and difficulty breastfeeding.”

After Brooke adjusted the boy three or four times, both he and his family saw an immediate improvement. “His mom said after the first two visits, ‘I just have to thank you, because I didn’t even really want to be with my baby and now we’re enjoying each other.’”

When it comes to life coaching, Brooke prefers to work with mothers and pregnant women experiencing similar issues to the one who came in to get her baby adjusted. She also likes to work with teenagers and help girls navigate their lives in tune to their menstrual cycles, much to her eldest daughter’s chagrin. “You can be a healthier person, but that passes that healthy gene expression onto your children that is literally creating a healthier society,” Brooke says. “If you can impact someone earlier in their life, then it changes the trajectory of our entire society.”