Understanding Empowerment: Therapy vs Coaching

Singapore’s 1st no-adjustment chiropractor

I started as Square One Chiropractic because as a chiropractor that made sense. That was expected of me.

Then I realised people weren’t getting good long-term results. I know research very heavily emphasised that active care (e.g. exercise) is the gold standard treatment to chronic pain so that’s what I did.

I rebranded to Square One Active Recovery. I dropped all manual therapy and passive modalities from my clinical practice.

This means no chiropractic adjustments and no dry needling. It was a big leap of faith because both were top sellers! Also nobody in Singapore would have attempted what I was trying to achieve – a successful practice utilising only exercise, education, and advice.

(Who even pays for that stuff when you have Instagram rehab?!)

As I started to integrate more and more exercise-based recovery, people started to get faster and faster results. With time, I became known as the chiropractor who helps patients achieve their recovery goals in 4 to 7 visits. With nothing more than exercise, education, and advice!

(This is when most people ask, “doesn’t that make you a physiotherapist?” To the best of my knowledge, no physiotherapist in Singapore does a 100% active care approach. Most physiotherapy clinics in Singapore are very hands-on and manual therapy-focused.)

With the new self-driven pain relief approach, I came to another realisation:

Knowing is not understanding. Knowing is not doing. And knowing is certainly not half the battle won.

Most smokers would know that tobacco-use is bad for their health. Most smokers also know that it’s expensive to smoke. They also understand the benefits of quitting smoking. However, that understanding or knowledge alone is not enough to elicit behaviour change!

Perhaps, the common sense in effective and sustainable change is not as intuitive as we thought?

When it comes to chronic pain, it’s as important for the sedentary back pain sufferer to increase their physical activity as it is important for the weekend warrior to not over-train themselves.

In both context, it requires a lifestyle change that is not so different from quitting smoking.

So, what now?

To be given freedom from pain vs. to find freedom from pain

It’s important to understand that therapy (i.e. counseling, chiropractic treatment) and coaching are opposite ends of the same conundrum.

In therapy, we look at bringing individuals who are living with a problem to a state where they are living without the problem.

Let’s say if you have back pain, it will be about trying to make your back pain go away.

Let’s say if you have depression, it will be about trying to make your depression go away.

Let’s say if you have cancer, it will be about trying to make your cancer go away.

You get my drift.

In conventional healthcare treatments, we look at helping people get from a negative health to a state of absence of disease/symptoms. It is a problem-focused approach.

We accept that that is healthcare.

Is it though?

World Health Organisation defined health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.“

So how did we become so fixated on being pain-free?

If you are ready to pay my fees, you are not only looking at being pain-free. Trust me.

If you a quick-fix pain solution is what you are after, you’d probably be going for a massage, tui na, acupuncture, conventional chiropractic adjustments, etc you name it. These services are not only cheaper and more shiok, they also give you instant results.

The problem, as you are already familiar with, is that they don’t last.

You are still here because you want more.

You want to know:

• How can I manage my pain so I can have better work productivity?
• How can I manage my pain so I can contribute to the relationship I have with my partner?
• How can I manage my pain so I can have better overall well-being/quality of life?

How can I manage my pain so I can _______.

All of you here have higher goals and aspirations.

All of you here, in one way or another, have also come to realise that your pain is in the way of what you truly desire.

Here is the good news. You are not alone. I have built my entire practice for people like yourself.

What is coaching?

Coaching is about working with you so you can find new solutions to bring you from point A to point B.

Instead of solving your problem, I work with you to co-construct your own pain solution. It’s an active, dynamic process that involves you.

Instead of telling you the answers, I ask you questions so you can develop your own clarity.

Remember, you are here because you want more.

You are not here for the easy way out!

When it comes to clinical guidelines for musculoskeletal pain (i.e. symptoms of your muscles and joints), evidence-based health professionals have come to realise and accept that education or advice is not a mere delivery of content.

It’s no longer about telling the smoker that smoking kills.

As most of us would have experienced firsthand for ourselves, teaching doesn’t mean learning.

A student who had been taught might not actually have learnt.

Coaching fills the in-between gap between being taught and learning.

In working with me, we are focused on finding solutions through learning AND application. It’s not about head knowledge or information.

Your pain is a gift

Your pain experience is an opportunity for change.

It doesn’t matter if you are motivated by personal or professional goals. Pain represents itself as a chance for you to come out of this different. The difference, however, determines of the choices you made.

Are you looking to be pain-free or are you looking to find freedom from pain?

In the former, the absence of pain becomes the destination whereas to be freed from pain is about – as the word suggests – being free.

The question for you becomes, what do you want to achieve?

Square One Active Recovery delivers modern-day pain management with a twist.

I am the only pain solution provider in Singapore who works alongside you so you can achieve 100% symptom-resolution with ZERO dependency on me.

Remember, my goal is simple: To make my own services redundant to you.

If you are suffering from chronic pain and you want to discover the difference the right care can make, book an appointment with me today via the form below. Join us and be given find freedom from pain.