You Don’t Have to Build This Alone:

Why Mentorship Changes Everything for New Chiropractic Docs

Graduation feels like the peak, but the truth is that it is only the starting line. When you step into practice, you are suddenly balancing two worlds at once: patient care and professional survival.

And here is the truth nobody puts on the graduation flyers:

Being a good doctor and running a good practice are two completely different skill sets.

School prepares you for one.

Mentorship prepares you for both.

This is why mentorship is not optional for new doctors. It is essential.

Clinical Skill Is Only Half the Job

Adjusting well matters, but real-world chiropractic care comes with challenges that no classroom can fully prepare you for:

• The case that does not match any exam you ever took

• The patient who questions every recommendation

• Knowing when to adjust less, not more

• Managing expectations and chronic pain behaviors

• Communicating a plan clearly when you feel anything but clear

• Getting through days when nothing adjusts the way you want it to

Clinical mentorship gives you calibration and confidence. It sharpens judgment. It accelerates your growth in a way school simply cannot.

The Business Side Is Its Own Education

Every new doc eventually hits the moment where they realize one thing:

“We did not learn any of this.”

And “this” includes:

• Structuring your schedule

• Understanding overhead and collections

• Avoiding overwork and underpayment

• Leading and training staff

• Documenting efficiently

• Communicating expectations to patients and coworkers

• Making business decisions without feeling qualified

• Thinking like an owner even when you are not one yet

These skills are not fluff. They are survival skills.

Mentorship is what teaches you how to use them.

Mentorship Protects Your Mindset

New graduates often feel clinically prepared but emotionally overwhelmed.

Mentorship helps you navigate:

• Imposter syndrome

• Self-doubt

• Decision fatigue

• Performance pressure

• Comparison

• The identity shift from student to doctor

A strong mentor does not inflate your ego. They stabilize you. They help you see the bigger picture when you are drowning in the details of a patient, a schedule, or a clinic role you are still learning to navigate.

Great Mentorship Shows You What Is Actually Possible

Most new docs only know the clinics they trained in. Mentorship widens your world.

It shows you:

• Different ways to practice

• How to build a career that aligns with your values

• How to create systems that help you breathe

• How to lead without burning out

• How to design a practice and a life that complement each other

Mentorship expands your vision long before burnout narrows it.

A Mentor Worth Mentioning: Dr. Lisa Goodman

This article is not meant to sound like a sales pitch. Mentorship is not a product. It is a relationship that shapes careers.

But it would be incomplete not to acknowledge someone who represents the level of mentorship new chiropractors deserve.

Dr. Lisa Goodman is one of those mentors.

She is a chiropractor, entrepreneur, and educator who has spent years developing systems and leadership tools for new doctors. Her book, The Manual for the Chiropractic Entrepreneur, fills a gap that chiropractic school leaves wide open. If school teaches you how to treat patients, that book teaches you how to build, run, and sustain a practice without burning out.

And now she has created something even more impactful for new graduates: The Practice Fox mentorship program.

Its value is not in a brand name. It is in the intention behind it.

The Practice Fox provides what most new chiropractors wish they had during their first year:

• Guidance

• Clear structure

• Business training

• Leadership development

• Operational systems

• Real-world decision-making support

• A place to ask questions without judgment

Dr. Goodman does not offer shortcuts. She offers foundation. She offers direction. She offers the kind of support that turns uncertainty into confidence.

She is not the only mentor out there, but she is an example of what strong mentorship looks like: experienced, grounded, strategic, and genuinely invested in the next generation of chiropractors.

Final Thought

Whether your mentor is a doctor in your first job, a community chiropractor you trust, or someone like Dr. Goodman who has dedicated her career to developing new clinicians, the message is the same: do not try to navigate this profession alone.

Your adjusting skills brought you here. Your passion keeps you here.Your vision pushes you forward.

Mentorship gives you direction. Mentorship gives you structure. Mentorship gives you support you did not even realize you needed.

And one day, you will look back on your early years and see the truth clearly:

You did not succeed because you knew everything.

You succeeded because someone taught you what actually mattered.

-JG