How you price your practice is not a business decision. It's a worth decision.
Most chiropractors don't see it that way — and that's exactly the problem. We dress up our scarcity in generosity. We call it patient-centered. We call it accessible. But underneath the frustrations with insurance, fears around charging cash, big care plans or heavily discounted rates is programming our whole profession struggles with: I don't fully trust that what I offer is enough.
This week Dr. Alex shares what happened when she asked her patients a simple question — what could make this better? — and what the answer revealed about the worth work she still had to do.
What you'll explore in this episode:
- Recognize when your pricing structure is driven by worth wounds rather than values
- Understand what "giving it all away" or staying trapped in the insurance racket actually signals about your relationship with your own legitimacy
- See how the insurance system trains chiropractors to outsource their sense of worth — and what it costs
- Hear how one small feedback conversation shifted an entire pricing model without drama or discounting
- Understand why spiritual grounding isn't optional if you want to set your fees with conviction
- Begin to notice the difference between serving from fullness and serving from need
Resources + Community: practicebeneaththepractice.substack.com Find Dr. Alex on Substack at The Practice Beneath The Practice for deeper conversation between episodes
We'd love to hear what comes up for you on this episode: dralex@rootedpractice.co
CHAPTER SUMMARY
The System We Keep Fighting to Be Part Of [00:45] Drawing from a Kabbalah training where two healthcare providers in completely different worlds both said the same thing — the system's broken, so I've been doing my own thing — Dr. Alex names the undertone that runs beneath chiropractic's worth wound: why are we still trying to belong to something that we were never designed to fit into?
The Pediatrician With Three Practices [04:19] A real example of what happens when a servant heart runs the business instead of a grounded one. A pediatrician with a traditional clinic, a mental health program, and a mobile practice — the one he was most passionate about getting the least of him. The dilution that comes from trying to fill every need is not generosity. It's a worth problem wearing a mission statement.
The Dark Side of the Servant Leader Heart [06:07] Most chiropractors were taught to give, serve, and pour out. The problem is almost none of us were taught to fill back up first. Dr. Alex names the shadow side of servant leadership — when giving comes from emptiness rather than fullness — and connects it directly to how that dynamic shows up in the structure of our practices.
The Unlimited Trap [09:57] The teaching case at the center of this episode. Dr. Alex walked her subscription patients through a simple feedback question — what could make this better? — and what she heard back cracked something open. Nobody needed the unlimited visits she thought made a subscription "appealing". Nobody was using them. The option was never for them. It was a mirror to her own worth conversation.
What You Give Away When You Take Insurance [12:41] A frank account of what it actually cost to be inside the insurance system — not just financially, but in terms of power, integrity, and identity. When a company can reach back one to three years and reclaim money already spent, you don't have a billing arrangement. You have a relationship built on someone else's terms.
The Even Exchange [15:38] What it looks like when pricing comes from worth rather than fear. Not a dramatic overhaul — small, clear corrections from a steadier place. And the deeper truth underneath all of it: your fees can only be held with conviction if your sense of worth is rooted in something that can't be taken away.
Worth Has to Come From Somewhere [16:25] The close. A real conversation about why the external world — the economy, the patients, the profession — will never be a stable source of worth. And why the spiritual dimension of this work isn't a luxury add-on, but the foundation everything else is built on.
