What One Chiropractor’s Journey Reveals About Leadership, Legitimacy, and the Future of the Profession
Finding the Way Back
Every profession develops its own myths about success. Chiropractic is no exception. Growth is often measured in patient volume, expanding clinics, financial benchmarks, or increasingly sophisticated business systems. Those achievements have value, but they can also obscure a more difficult question. What happens when professional success no longer resembles personal fulfillment?
This May 2025 On Purpose discussion brought together Dr. Christopher Kent, Dr. Matthew McCoy, and Dr. Alex Swenson-Ridley for a conversation that moved well beyond clinical science or practice management. Instead, it explored the lived experience of practicing chiropractic, examining how burnout develops, why professional identity becomes fragile, and what might be required if the profession is to mature without abandoning its philosophical foundations.
Dr. Swenson-Ridley’s story is remarkable, not because it is extraordinary, but because many chiropractors will recognize parts of it in their own careers. After building a thriving seven-figure practice, navigating overwhelming professional pressures, enduring an insurance audit that ultimately led to bankruptcy, and stepping away from chiropractic entirely, she eventually returned with a fundamentally different understanding of practice, leadership, and purpose.
“Sometimes the greatest professional growth begins when we stop asking how to build a bigger practice and begin asking why we entered the profession in the first place.”
When Success Becomes Unsustainable
Burnout rarely arrives without warning. It develops gradually, hidden beneath responsibility, ambition, and the constant demand to keep moving. Chiropractors often enter practice with a genuine desire to serve, yet many discover that the systems surrounding healthcare reward administrative complexity more readily than meaningful patient relationships.
During the discussion, Dr. Swenson-Ridley reflected on building a practice that was almost entirely dependent on third-party reimbursement. Financially, it appeared successful. Personally, it became increasingly unsustainable. When insurance payments abruptly stopped during an audit, years of growth unraveled with startling speed, exposing how vulnerable even successful practices can become when their foundations depend on systems outside the chiropractor’s control.
Dr. Kent observed that the experience illustrates a broader reality facing healthcare today. External validation often comes with external control. A profession that defines itself primarily through reimbursement structures inevitably risks allowing those structures to shape its identity.
Redefining Practice Around Values
Returning to chiropractic did not mean recreating the same practice. It meant rebuilding from different assumptions.
Today, Dr. Swenson-Ridley operates a cash-based pediatric practice in Alaska, intentionally limiting her patient population to the area where she feels she can contribute most effectively. Rather than measuring success by volume, she evaluates her work by alignment with her values, her physical well-being, and the quality of care she provides.
The shift reflects more than a business decision. It represents a philosophical repositioning.
Instead of asking how to fit within existing healthcare systems, she asked how chiropractic could remain true to its own principles while serving patients more authentically. That distinction may appear subtle, yet it changes nearly every aspect of practice, from financial models to professional relationships.
“The goal is not simply to build a successful practice. It is to build a practice that allows the chiropractor to remain healthy enough, emotionally and professionally, to continue serving for decades.”
Leadership Requires New Voices
One of the most compelling portions of the conversation examined leadership within chiropractic itself.
Drawing from her graduate work in organizational development and positive psychology, Dr. Swenson-Ridley argued that many of chiropractic’s longstanding debates may not ultimately be philosophical disagreements at all. Instead, they may reflect deeper organizational challenges involving legitimacy, identity, and leadership.
The profession has spent generations debating definitions while often overlooking the systems that shape professional culture. Questions surrounding burnout, mentorship, education, debt, business preparation, and leadership succession receive far less attention, despite their profound influence on the future of chiropractic.
Dr. McCoy noted that many of the same leaders have occupied influential positions for decades, while younger practitioners and women remain significantly underrepresented in shaping the profession’s direction. The conversation was not framed as criticism of individuals, but as recognition that meaningful innovation rarely emerges without fresh perspectives.
Leadership, the discussion suggested, is not simply about preserving tradition. It is also about creating conditions where thoughtful evolution becomes possible.
Letting Go Without Losing Identity
Perhaps the most thought-provoking moment came when the discussion turned toward the concept of legitimacy.
For decades, chiropractic has often sought validation by comparison, measuring itself against conventional healthcare rather than clearly articulating its own unique contribution. This pursuit can create a cycle of defensiveness, internal conflict, and uncertainty about identity.
Dr. Swenson-Ridley proposed a different approach. Instead of asking how chiropractic can become more acceptable to others, perhaps the profession should first understand how patients themselves experience chiropractic care. The answers may reveal strengths that are already present but frequently overlooked.
Dr. Kent expanded on this idea by observing that stepping outside chiropractic’s internal debates often provides valuable perspective. Professionals from other disciplines frequently recognize both the remarkable strengths of chiropractic and the unnecessary conflicts that continue to divide it. Distance, paradoxically, sometimes makes essential truths easier to see.
“A profession grows stronger not by abandoning its principles, but by becoming confident enough to examine itself honestly.”
Building a Sustainable Future
What emerged from this month’s Science segment was neither a blueprint nor a manifesto. It was something considerably more valuable, an invitation to think differently.
Sustainable chiropractic cannot depend solely upon larger practices, higher patient volumes, or increasingly sophisticated marketing strategies. It also requires emotionally healthy practitioners, resilient leadership, sound business education, and the willingness to question assumptions that no longer serve either chiropractors or their patients.
The conversation demonstrated that adversity does not necessarily diminish professional purpose. In many cases, it clarifies it. Dr. Swenson-Ridley’s journey illustrates that failure, recovery, and reflection can become powerful sources of wisdom, not only for individual practitioners but for the profession itself.
If chiropractic is to thrive in the decades ahead, its future will likely depend less upon defending familiar positions and more upon cultivating thoughtful leaders who are willing to ask better questions.
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About On Purpose
The On Purpose Podcast is hosted by Christopher Kent DC, JD, MBA, ACP and Matthew McCoy DC, MPH. Since the early 1990s, On Purpose has been the spearhead of the Chiropractic Freedom Movement. It began as mailed cassette tapes, evolved into CDs, then online audio, and now lives on Substack with full-length video segments in Science, Philosophy, and Politics.
Tagline: When You Are On Purpose, You Are Not Alone.
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