Being involved in the LPGA tour, educational TV shows, and wellness centers, Andrew Mowry, DC, cannot help but build a successful practice, all the while promoting the profession

Taking a chiropractic practice to the next level can be as simple as turning on a light. Actually, that’s harder than it sounds—the part about turning on a light, that is. Andrew Mowry, DC, LCP, knows it only too well: a key facet of his Mowry Chiropractic Health in Powell, Ohio, is its emphasis on brightly illuminating the dark recesses of the mind in order to help patients unleash their fullest potential for being well.

“The greatest impediment to an individual achieving full human potential is the ‘subluxation above atlas’—the restrictions created in his or her own mind,” says Mowry, who, in 2001, was inducted into the Palmer Legion of Chiropractic Philosophers for exactly this kind of insight. “The subluxation above atlas is the most difficult subluxation of all, because, being that it exists in the mind, you cannot diagnostically measure it, let alone lay hands on it.”

Since the subluxation above atlas is an intangible condition, only the patients can do anything about it, Mowry explains. “All that I can do is shine light on whatever might be creating the interferences, with the hope that this will give patients a new perspective,” he says. “At the same time, I set out on a path to educate patients on the traditional principles of chiropractic, and how they can apply those principles to the other six areas of their lives and see what other subluxations could be limiting their life potential. I help to facilitate that discovery by forming long-term relationships and engaging them on a path of exploration and ultimately the manifestation of their life’s greatest purpose.”

Most chiropractors in Mowry’s market (Powell is a suburb north of Columbus, the state capital) do not approach care from that angle. Some find it time-consuming. It is, Mowry agrees, but observes that investment of extra time to work with patients above atlas actually shortens the course of physiologic treatment in the long run because patients become self-equipped to get better, faster. “No matter how much subluxation correction you do in their physical spine or in their body, if the patient can’t remove the interference within the mind that ultimately is responsible for causing the subluxation or neurological stress, then almost invariably you end up having to work overtime trying to fix that subluxation in the spine,” he says.

People seem to welcome Mowry’s approach. A year ago last April, Mowry’s practice recorded for that month 927 patient visits. This April, the 30-day tally stood at 1,004—an average of roughly 250 per week.

Most of those patients are white-collar, upscale, well-educated men and women and their families. “I started out trying to appeal to everyone,” Mowry says. “But, after about 8 years, I realized that the people most likely to choose me as their chiropractor were those who desired to see their lives changed. And, as it so happened, the people most likely to want change in their lives were community leaders, business owners, executives, and professionals.”

Andrew Mowry, DC, LCP, and his practice team members, (L–R) April Roden, CA, office manager; Douglas Darr II, DC; and Christine Martin, CA, patient accounts. Karen S. Kelley, PRCA, (not pictured) rounds out the team with her work as the public relations and marketing specialist.

Mowry says he never had to advertise for that particular demographic mix; the patients in that category came solely on the basis of the recommendations of their family, friends, and trusted associates.

About 40% of Mowry’s patients are covered by insurance, 4% are workers’ compensation cases, and 2% are personal injury. Fully half pay cash out-of-pocket—and Mowry is doing what he can to encourage more of that. “The trend in health care is for insurance to reimburse less and less for services while demanding more and more of providers,” he laments. “So, rather than expend time, effort, and money in making the insurance company happy, we’ve decided to invest that in our patients to increase the value of our services and products.”

Mowry believes the insurance game has reached a nadir that actually is helping doom the current health care system. “It’s crashing. To be a subscriber to our existing health care paradigm is scary,” he says.

Part of the message Mowry wants to get out to the community is that individuals must more than ever take responsibility for their own health care. “They need to find health care coaches who can lead them along a path to a life that is at its fullest potential, not wait until crisis occurs before due diligence is paid.”

On the Air
One way Mowry plans to convey this message is via television programming. He currently is involved with two productions on that front. The first is a local Columbus show, which began its broadcast run in June called “A Beauty, A Body and A Spirit,” which is targeted to women ages 25–45 and airs every Sunday morning.

Patterned after ABC television’s successful morning chat-fest “The View,” the taped show is hosted by three women who each share expertise in select areas: the beauty part is overseen by a fashion model; the features on body issues are handled by the editor of a muscle magazine; and the segments related to spirit are presented by a local holistic health expert. Producers acquainted with Mowry asked him to be a guest on no fewer than two of the episodes this season, but he is insisting that he and other chiropractors who appear do so expressly for the purpose of promoting the profession in general and not their individual private practices. (Helping Mowry develop an outline for his appearances on the show has been fitness guru Bill Frank, Sr, whose own TV show airs on the Discovery Channel. Frank has been a Mowry patient since early this year.)

The second TV show with which Mowry is involved is still in development. It is a program he conceived—a weekly, hour-long show dealing with health, wellness, and joyful living. The Discovery Channel is expressing interest in carrying it. “My vision is that the show will be sponsored by a national chiropractic organization, and that sponsor’s name will be part of the title of the show—just as Mutual of Omaha was the sponsor and part of the title of ‘Wild Kingdom.’” Mowry is declining to serve as the host of this proposed show, but has agreed to be an occasional guest.

Tee Party
To further spread the good word about chiropractic (and other forms of health care the public has yet to discover or embrace), Mowry founded a nonprofit organization called the Central Ohio Health Awareness Foundation (COHAF). “Our primary goal with COHAF is to create a multidisciplinary platform that creates a team atmosphere to educate the community about the different entities, as well as to open up the lines of communication between all professions,” he explains. “Then, we find projects in the community where the involvement of multiple disciplines is necessary, and we bring those disciplines together for those projects.”

A recent project that represented a hole-in-one for COHAF was Mowry’s idea to provide free chiropractic care to visiting players of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tour when the event came to town last year. “We had heard that the LPGA tour was stopping here, so we approached the organizers with a proposal to treat the contestants before, during, and after play,” he recounts.

Mowry gives a diversified technique adjustment, which “turns the power on” in the spine by removing any interferences. His commitment and passion to the chiropractic philosophy is infectious to his loyal patients.

Mowry anticipated the organizers might welcome such an offer, coming as it did from a practitioner who has worked in the past with athletes of all stripes. More to the point, he believed he could interest them because his proposal was couched in ways that made its value to the LPGA and to the local organizers readily apparent. “We knew in advance what it was they needed,” he tells. “And what they needed was increased community exposure for the event, as well as increased value to the players so the players would want to come back to this location.”

How would chiropractic provide increased community exposure for the event? “As president of both COHAF and the Central Ohio Chiropractic Association (COCA), I could offer the LPGA event organizers direct exposure to a network of business executives, doctors, and others who would be in a position to help them achieve their goals for the event.”

When the tour arrived, Mowry and his colleagues held for the players a clinic in which postural analysis, surface EMG, and digital scans of their feet were performed. “We talked to them about muscle tone and asymmetry and neurological tone,” he says. “The discussion about neurological tone covered how their nervous system was functioning and what interferences might be limiting their potential on the golf course. We also prescribed orthotics as necessary to facilitate better posture.”

Mowry insists there was no direct, tangible benefit to his own practice from his LPGA involvement. “I did this to advance our profession,” he says. “I did this because the players deserved to know about chiropractic, increase exposure for [the profession], and show the community the benefits of what [chiropractors] do and how we go about doing it.”

Chiropractors in various other parts of the country benefited from Mowry’s work with the LPGA players, since none of the touring golfers lived in the central Ohio market area.

“We exposed these players to chiropractic; when they went home, many of them sought the services of a chiropractor to continue what was started here. We saw to it that the players received a travel card and chart with my notations from each visit during the tournament.”

So successful was the arrangement that, according to Mowry, sponsors for the LPGA, as well as the Professional Golf Association and Senior tours, have asked him to provide the same service package when they return to the Columbus area this year and, possibly, at other stops along the way. “We’ve been talking about this with Parker College of Chiropractic, the Chiropractic Leadership Alliance, and various product manufacturers,” he says. “The idea is to take a template created here in central Ohio and have it followed by chiropractors in the cities across the United States and overseas where the tour goes.”

There are still some kinks to be worked out before all can agree on the right template that will work in all locations and situations. But Mowry is optimistic that a solution will be found.

A problem Mowry encountered in his initial overture to the LPGA event organizers was opposition from local medical doctors, who had arranged their own service package for the players and fretted that the chiropractors were attempting to horn in on them. But Mowry was able to convince the MDs that he and his colleagues in chiropractic would relieve the responsibility in addressing certain time-consuming musculoskeletal and neurological challenges the medicos were not keen to tackle.

“We learned what the concern of the MDs was and then set about helping them recognize that we weren’t threatening to intrude on their turf, but to assist them in achieving their goal of increasing the performance level of the players,” he says. “Our participation was meant to be a win-win for them, and we worked hard to demonstrate that. And after they formed relationships with us, they were happy about it.”

Childhood Dream
Mowry’s decision to become a chiropractor traces back to his childhood in Columbus. He was about 9 years old when his father, a factory hand, sustained a herniated disc that left the family breadwinner increasingly disabled. Within a matter of months, he could no longer walk or even sit and eventually was forced to take all of his meals while lying on the floor. MDs concluded that surgery was the only way to correct the problem, but gave the senior Mowry at best a 50-50 chance of regaining the ability to walk.

A family friend recommended chiropractic be given a try before going under the knife. Mowry’s father agreed and was admitted to a top chiropractic clinic several hundred miles away. About a week later, he returned home, restored to health and once more walking. For young Mowry, it was nothing less than a miracle. And, that day, he pledged to himself to become a chiropractor when he grew up. “I wanted to be able to change people’s lives just like the chiropractor who worked with my dad changed his life,” he remembers.

After graduating from Palmer College of Chiropractic, Mowry planned to set up shop in North Carolina. But a Columbus chiropractor prevailed upon him to consider instead practicing in Powell. As a courtesy to that chiropractor, Mowry grudgingly had a look around Powell. When he found an office space there that might do, Mowry—not really wanting to be in Powell—made an offer so outrageously low he felt surely the property owner would reject it, and that would be the end of that. To his amazement, the property owner accepted the offer, which prompted Mowry to conclude it was meant to be that he should put down stakes in Powell. He has been in the same 2,200-square-foot space and is happy as can be.

Contributing greatly to his happiness is the staff he managed to assemble over the years. “I see my practice as a team effort,” he says. “It’s a team effort about delivering wellness care to each and every patient on a one-on-one basis. The goal is to deliver the greatest amount of focused attention, love, and energy, which takes a good team.”

Some of those he invited to join his team were originally called to his attention by patients who thought they would make a good match. Others were grateful patients who offered to come work for him, so fervently did they come to believe in his approaches and his concepts. “The strongest employee you can have is the one who is not motivated by a paycheck but by having caught your vision and wanting to be part of it,” he confides.

At present, Mowry is participating as a consultant in the development of a $130-million age-management and wellness center being built on a private island off the coast of Florida and just outside the territorial boundaries of the United States. The facility will cater mainly to affluent Europeans. When it opens, Mowry will serve as its director of chiropractic. Much closer to home, in Dublin, Ohio, a $21-million wellness center also is taking shape. Mowry likewise may be its chiropractic director. He says he would like to be involved in that capacity with as many as 50 such ventures by the end of 2006.

Of course, doing so will shift the focus of his work from hands-on clinical activity to educator of the public about chiropractic wellness. “There’s never been a better time to be a chiropractor,” he says. “When people discover in their community a good chiropractor, they’re thrilled because it changes their life for the better. All we need to do as chiropractors is let people know who we are, what we do, and how we go about accomplishing it.

“And, most important, we need to tell them how it affects them and their family, how it increases the quality of their life. We need to help them turn on those lights.” CP

Rich Smith is a contributing writer for Chiropractic Products.