We were coming to the end of our education in Toronto at the chiropractic college and, like everyone else in our class, we had a lot on our plates. We were implementing what we learned on how to assess and treat patients, trying to get our assignments and requirements in order to graduate from school, and trying to study as much as we could to write our 3 board exams in order to be licensed chiropractors at the end of all of it. We knew we were coming to Fredericton, but we weren’t sure what exactly was waiting for us there in terms of a job market. We had met and shadowed several chiropractors in the area but neither of us were from Fredericton, so we didn’t have a lot of connections. Nevertheless, we interviewed with several clinics and e-mailed as many people as we could get into contact with to see what we could find.

One of the problems was we never found the perfect fit. Not because there aren’t any good clinics in town, but because over the previous 4 years of learning about chiropractic, Vanessa and I had set an extremely high standard for who we wanted to be as doctors and how we wanted to practice. We wanted to give people enough time to elaborate on all their aches and pains and things going on in their lives. We wanted to have enough time during our assessments to understand all aspects of our patients’ health. We wanted to ensure that we could stand behind the recommendations we give to our patients. Most of all, we wanted to provide high-quality care to our friends, family, and community. We knew all these things long before The Wellness Zone was even a consideration in our minds. These principles would become our “Core Values” that we wrote down for ourselves after the recommendation of Vanessa’s mentor. Compassion. Thoughtfulness. Thoroughness. Expertise.

All of this led to us giving a call to my mother one day and asking, “What do you think it would take to start a clinic of our own?” We’re fortunate – my mom is a financial advisor and was already familiar with healthcare clinics, their books, and what it takes to get them going (and keep them going). So that call was the beginning of a long and incredibly worthwhile journey. It took months of work – just to start working more when our clinic finally opened just last year. These days, we are so thankful we made that call. These days, we have people telling us they’re grateful for our compassion and our thoughtfulness. Thankful for our thoroughness and expertise.

All of this, I suppose, was to give anybody taking their time to read this an idea as to why we took on the challenge of starting our own clinic. It’s not the usual path to start your own clinic right out of school, and it certainly wasn’t easy. We’re so glad we did it, though, so that we can deliver the high-quality care that our friends, family, and community deserves.

 Theo Ramsdale – Chiropractor & Owner of The Wellness Zone