We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dr. Erin Hallahan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Dr. Erin, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.
If you told me while I was in Chiropractic school that I would open my own practice right after graduation, I would have definitely said you were absolutely nuts! I feel like that’s how a lot of good beginnings start, right?
I am Canadian and after graduating from Chiropractic school in San Jose, CA. I moved down to San Diego with a 1-year working visa. I already knew how much I was going to love living in San Diego and I already felt stressed that a year was going to fly by way too quickly.
I really only had 3 options for staying in the United States after the year was up. I could start a business and apply for an E-2 investor visa, try and find someone to hire and sponsor me through the H1B visa, but even with that I only had a 30% lottery chance of getting, or get married. Well, at the time I was single AF, so marriage was out of the question. And leaving San Diego was also out of the question in my mind, so there was no way I was leaving it up to chance in a visa lottery. So I had one choice, and that was when I decided to immediately start my own Chiropractic practice.
So here I am, with absolutely no entrepreneur experience, navigating my own solo practice! It’s been quite the adventure so far.
Dr. Erin, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am just a gal from up North, who went and got a business degree in college, started into the corporate world…and hated my life. It just was not for me. The desk life is not for me. But I had no plans to leave.
Fast forward a couple years later and my Dad passed away suddenly of a heart attack, he was only 55. That really put life into perspective for me. Life is way too darn short to be doing something everyday that you dislike.
I knew I wanted a career where I could make a difference in someone’s life. Sounds cliche right? I explored various alternative medicine careers and ultimately landed on Chiropractic.
I really love the wide scope of practice I have with being a Chiropractor. There are so many niches and techniques and I find the profession really allows for individuality and your personality to come through in your work.
I am a soft-tissue and movement-based Chiropractor. In essence that means that I really put high importance on the soft tissue therapies (think cupping, scraping, muscle release techniques etc.) because that typically provides some pain relief while the patient is in front of me. I also highly emphasize and preach movement, corrective exercises and rehab when needed. I want to help people find resilience in their bodies and be able to arm them with the tools they need to continue to feel that way when they are not physically working with me. That could mean anything from easy stretching and mobility that could be done at home, or a full functional movement workout program for someone to do in a gym. Every single patient is different and gets a fully individualized care plan from me.
I treat everything from acute injuries, to low back pain, to sports injuries and pregnancy, general wellness care and everything in between. I treat both men and women alike, anywhere from age 20-60. I am quick to refer people out to physical therapy, acupuncture, massage and various other forms of care when I feel that would best serve my patient.
This is where my vision really started when I started my business, The Carbon Collective. Carbon, because it is an essential element to life. Collective, because in the near future, my business will become just that. I am in the early stages of growing the The Carbon Collective into a place where people can come and strength train, get chiropractic care, see a physical therapist, have an acupuncture session or a massage, and many more things, all under one roof. It will be a place of community and a place where people can get any kind of care they need and feel heard by their Doctors and therapists. I want to revolutionize healthcare and create a collaborative environment where patients truly feel taken care of.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Oh man, with starting a business from the ground up all while trying to get all the intricate pieces together to get my working visa…I’m honestly surprised I didn’t lose my mind. Everything with my business was really accelerated due to the visa process. Everything with my business had to be so airtight in order to get approved for my working visa. I always joke with people that if they’re a problem to have, it would find me. Everything from my corporate lawyer filing my company as the wrong entity, to the visa consulate changing my interview (with no reason), leaving me without a working visa for more than 6 weeks, and literally everything in between. I think most people would have given up. But I was so darn determined and could always see the light at the end of the tunnel. The day the lady stamped my documents and told me my visa was approved, I felt an immediate sense of relief.
Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?
I truly think that what makes a great successful Chiropractor is communication, empathy and honesty. And those may sound super basic, but not all clinicians, in any healthcare setting, have those abilities unfortunately. I spend a great deal of time with my patients. I take a whole hour during their first session to get to know them, get to know their pain points and create a solid relationship. I take 30 minutes for follow-up appointments. Not only does this allow for me to do more things and get people better, faster, but it allows for me to really get to know them on a personal level, as there are so many factors to pain. Really getting to know people tends to help me navigate their pain better. Being honest when I don’t know things right away really goes a long way.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.thecarboncosd.com
- Instagram: Dr.erinhallahan
- Facebook: Dr. Erin Hallahan-Chiropractor
Image Credits
Carina Fleckner Photography