From the Faculty

CSI - CollegeTown Service Initiative

by Beth Roraback, D.C.

ABOUT CSI:
Hundreds of students from Spartanburg’s six colleges and universities came together to make Spartanburg a better place on Saturday, April 10, as they participated in “CSI: CollegeTown Service Initiative,” providing services to about a dozen service agencies around the community. It is the seventh service initiative undertaken by students through CollegeTown. This year, students participated in groups of varying sizes to provide much-needed services to a variety of Spartanburg service agencies and neighborhoods. Read more here.

All the volunteers met at 9 am, and registered, and signed a injury waiver at the Hangar in downtown Spartanburg.  There were about twenty sign up posters for various projects, everything from weeding and clean up of walking trails and a historical cemetery to pulling off a roof with Christmas in Action.  Habitat for Humanity had two housing projects. 

I walked around and looked at each, looking for one with the fewest volunteers.  I ended up going to the Ellen Hines Smith Girls Home.  When we got there, Lowes had donated a load of mulch.  I shoveled mulch into the wheelbarrow and eight of the SMC students spread it around eight trees and a couple of shrub and flower beds.  Six others weeded around the hedge by the house before we mulched there.  By the time we finished mulching, we had 90 minutes left before returning for lunch. 

There were several front porch rockers and a wooden bench needing sanding and spray painting.  There was a bit of a mix up as the sandpaper was missing.  Some of the female SMC college students went into the home and sorted donated clothing as the third project on our list.  Several of the other SMC students started painting the rockers not in need of sanding.  As we had a rainbow of colors, several of the female students painted the bench with several cans of white and put red polka dots on the thin patches.  Near the end of our session, youngest girl living there, 11 years old, came out and visited with us for a while. 

Those who chose not to participate missed an excellent opportunity to share with the community what Sherman College is about.

Visualizing Technique

By Bob Irwin, D.C.

Visualization and practicing your technique go hand in hand. In golf (and other sports), one of the most important aspects of executing a perfect shot is seeing it in your mind's eye. As the golfer steps up behind the ball, he or she "sees" in the mind and "feels" in the body what the perfect shot will look and feel like.

In my class, we go through a visualization exercise to make this part of your chiropractic adjustment. I used this skills development technique all throughout my years of practice. I cannot tell you how many times I had a very difficult case that was challenging to correct the subluxation or get the patient to hold an adjustment, and after visualizing the adjustment prior to making the thrust...the problem was corrected.

There are many articles and versions of visualization techniques. I am sure of you Google or Bing them you will have a plethora of beneficial reading ahead of you. Try it! You will be amazed. You need it and your patients will benefit from it.

Snow Days!

By Bill Fehl, D.C.

One of the many EXTRAS that come with being a Sherman  student is SNOW DAYS!!! Yes, we do get some snow here in the sunny south. Though it is in short supply, when it comes we get to thoroughly enjoy it because all the schools, including Sherman, close. Hooray!!!!! 

Last time it snowed, my daughter was home on spring break from her college and we braved the “dusting” to go out to one of the many super restaurants nearby called Paisanno’s. The food and the company (my daughter) were fabulous.

You don’t get these opportunities above the Mason Dixon Line, so come on down here for fun snow days, great food and, of course, a super chiropractic education.

Head Start on Spring Cleaning

by Beth Roraback, D.C.

It has been a busy quarter, nothing new there. I decided early on this quarter it was time to doing some purging of fifteen years of accumulated paper, books and other assorted detritus. As I have been going through my various cubby holes in my office, workspace and even at home, I have discovered many interesting articles, a few treasures and a couple lost items. Much was old, outdated and ready for the recycling bin.

Reexamining the past has helped me recall old memories and goals. I find it has certainly been a worthwhile past-time to let go of what no longer serves me and to rediscover a few articles worth saving, and sharing. I do not usually get to spring cleaning before August. Feels good to get a head start.

New Beginnings April 16-18

New Beginnings: The HOME of Chiropractic Philosophy
Join us April 16-18th, 2010 In a Revival of Chiropractic!!!

featuring Philosophy, Fellowship, Success & Fun!
CHIROPRACTIC PHILOSOPHY..........
pure and simple
NO ARTIFICIAL INGREDIENTS ADDED!

New Beginnings come at all stages of your life!! Dare to Change Your Life!
Come join the Revival of Philosophical Chiropractic and family values...

Special guests & Nationally known speakers

No boring long talks to sit through!
20 minutes up to one hour from each speaker
with FRESH & Exciting Information!

C.A. / Front Desk program featuring Phyllis Frase
Sign up your staff for this incredible two hour program
offered Saturday morning starting at 9:00

Join the "Chiropractic Nation" with the passion to lead through philosophy & fellowship

 Featuring
Council of New Jersey Chiropractors www.anjc.info 
Mass. Alliance of Chiropractic www.macp.info
Chiropractic Fellowship of PA www.chirofellowpa.com
New York Chiropractic Council www.nycouncil.com
Rhode Island Chiropractic Association

New Beginnings will host a weekend at Sherman College Sep. 30-Oct. 3, 2010.

 

Perspective on Fundamentals

by Mitzi Schwartzbauer, D.C.

I just returned from a trip to New York City. I was there for my birthday and was visiting my good friend who was a classmate at Sherman College. We had a great time eating, walking, visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, seeing the show Stomp and also, a lot of what friends do best – talking! We talked about anything and everything. It was great!

Why would I blog about this on the Sherman College website? Well, one of the conversations that we had was about chiropractic analysis and spinal biodynamics (but of course, can you put two chiropractors together and not discuss it?).

Here I am in this world of education, and all of these concepts that I teach are at the forefront of my mind. I teach palpation – static, muscle and motion. So we are in this discussion, and I realize, as I look at the confusion in my friends face as I’m explaining something about how vertebrae move, that there is so much fundamental understanding that we lose. Well maybe it’s not lost, but let’s just say forgotten. When we’re out in practice, our thoughts shift onto different things. However, these fundamentals are key to delivering the best chiropractic care.

So I guess what I’m getting at through all of this is for those of you out there practicing: remember to take out those old Kapandji books or Spinal Biodynamics notes and remind yourselves! And if you don’t feel like looking at books, come back to Lyceum and get refreshed about it all and have fun visiting your old friends at the same time. It’s all good!

Vitalism Conference

Bill Decken, DC, LCP

Life University hosted a conference on vitalism on April 17 and 18. The conference had a well-planned agenda and variety of presenters. While I was not able to listen to all the speakers, those I did hear explained how they see vitalistic principles at work in their fields of expertise.

    Monica Greco, PhD, from Goldsmith College, University of London., shared a thought-provoking presentation on “Metaphysical Constructs of Classical and Contemporary Vitalism.” While expressing that metaphysics an important component of chiropractic philosophy, she also cited discussions in medicine that refer to vitalism as an ethic, exemplified through behavior, rather than a theory.

Does that mean a chiropractor, practicing chiropractic, which is founded on vitalistic principles, should be held to standards that reflect the vitalistic rather than the mechanistic nature of life? That would make an interesting discussion in the politics of chiropractic education, licensing and regulation.

Peter Fisher, clinical director of the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital spoke on “Homeopathy: Reinventing Vitalism.” He referenced the learned Homeopaths that went before him in asking, “What do we mean by vital force”? He says using the term “energy” is too vague because nothing is said about what animates the energy. I thought this appropriate to chiropractic as many DCs refer to energy as a substitute term for the innate intelligence of the body, and while energy may be a component of the mental impulse, it is not equated with it.

“Vitalistic Philosophy – Chiropractic” was the presentation given by David Koch, DC, DPhCS, from Life University (and Sherman College graduate). A major conference theme was Vis Medicatrix Naturae, the healing force of nature. Koch jumped right into explaining that chiropractics approach is more Vis Intelligere Naturae, describing the intelligence that directs the healing force.

The speaker representing western medicine, Molly Roberts, MD, co-director of Lighthearted Medicine Clinic, drew a laugh from the audience in opening her talk by stating “There is no vitalism in medicine.” Her experience, first in psychology, is what attracted her to investigating healing with a perspective beyond mere mechanism.

With so many chiropractors publicly presenting the allopathic approach to health care to the public, this conference on vitalism was a nice switch. Furthermore, I have learned through the dogma of chiropractic education that information isn’t all that bad, so now I can say I have more information.

 The information projected by the presenters from the fields of Naturopathy, Ayurveda and Acupuncture did not interest me because, like Homeopathy, they seem to be focused on manipulating the healing force of nature rather than allowing the intelligence of life to direct what needs to take place. The removal of interference to this intelligence being expressed is, of course, the focus of chiropractic, and Koch did a fine job of communicating that.

The exposure to fields other than allopathy was interesting, but to include these fields in the practice of chiropractic would be confusing and incongruent with chiropractic, as is allopathy. So, the challenge remains.

Will we rise to the occasion of teaching people about the above-down-inside-out principle and the effects of subluxation on it? Nobody else is doing this, and no other profession focuses on it.

A Clash of Two Cultures

by Philosophy Department Chair Bill Decken, D.C.

What is the most challenging thing experienced by a new student or instructor? Culture shifts. In the case of Drs. Luo and Wu, both from China and both of whom are fairly new to the Sherman faculty, it has been adjusting to the American student and, more specifically, the culture of the American student. Likewise, the chiropractic student is challenged to compare the outside-in, below-up (OIBU) culture of American health care with the above-down, inside-out (ADIO) culture that lies at the root of chiropractic philosophy.

Dr. Wu, having taught for twenty years in China, knows that Chinese students are steeped in tradition, with a majority of students adhering to policies and codes even when they are not written down. This, of course, runs parallel to the majority of American students enrolled in Sherman College, who have an OIBU mentality about healing ingrained in their thinking processes. Without having anything “on paper,” and often without any knowledge as to why certain procedures are done, American students tend to obey the norms of the land.

Dr. Luo explains that in China, only the best students are enrolled in higher education; it is a privilege, and the students tend to have excellent behavior. Luo taught as an assistant at Clemson University before joining Sherman College, and he sees a greater breadth of student ability here in America.

The principles of chiropractic are written down, and all students of chiropractic are encouraged to examine them, to inquire as to their rationality, and to make their health care decisions based on sound principles. This translates into sound advice and patient education once they get into practice.

Chiropractic education does not seek a student who will obey the norms of American health care just because that’s what “has always been done,” nor does it seek a student who will subscribe to the principles of chiropractic without thinking about them.

These two doctors and Sherman students have at least one thing in common, though: they are leaders in their own ways, striving to share their knowledge in the context of a different culture.

Bill Decken is an associate professor of clinical sciences and chair of the philosophy department. He has a B.A. from Marist College (1979) and a D.C. from Sherman College (1986), and he teaches Philosophy I and II, Subluxation Theories and Communications. He has been with the college since his graduation in 1986. He enjoys people and helping them grow; he also enjoys building, bicycling and spending time outdoors.

Copyright Fair Use - Dr. Bob Irwin

Of great concern should always be making sure students and faculty understand copyright law. Whether you are writing a paper to turn in for class work, publication, or preparing for a class presentation, you should abide by ethical use of information.

From time to time the question of what constitutes fair use of copyrighted materials will arise from a faculty member or student. The media Education Lab at Temple University, the Center for Social Media at American University and AU's Washington College of Law collaborated to come up with a report; The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education. You may access it:

http://mediaeducationlab.com/files/CodeofBestPracticesinFairUse.pdf

Now you will never have to worry again!
Bob.

Robert L. Irwin is Vice President for Academic Affairs and an assistant professor of clinical sciences. He has a D.C. from Life (1979) and an A.S. from SouthWestern Michigan College (1976). He has been with the college since 1998 and teaches Clinical Reasoning and Upper Cervical Technique. He enjoys golf, reading and fishing.

Sweetheart Day in Health Center - Dr. Beth Roraback

Just thought I would check in with the blogging community. It has been a hectic quarter so far. My mom ended up in the hospital, and I went to help her for a few days, and I feel a few weeks behind.

Today is the last day for me to cover review material for entrance and exit exams in the classroom.

If you are taking either, reviewing only in the class and not doing so by actual practice will not help much. Hands on is the way to go. Often multiple small errors have a bigger effect than one might assume.

Tomorrow is Sweetheart Day in the health center and is a great day for you to slip in some extra practice time in PE as we will not be starting any new patients. I wish each of well, and I hope you breeze through the exams.

-- Dr. Beth

Beth A. Roraback is an assistant professor and a member of the health center faculty. She has a D.C. from Sherman College (1990) and a B.A. from Michigan State University (1993). She has been with Sherman College since 1986 and teaches Orthopedic/Neurological, Examination I and II, Physical Examination and Diagnostic Review. She enjoys sketching, ethnic cooking, cats, art films, East/West philosophy, motorcycles, canoeing, camping and laughing. "Turning stumbling blocks into stepping stones improves your outlook," she says.