Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dr. Taylor Smeenk. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Dr. Taylor, appreciate you joining us today. What’s something you believe that most people in your industry (or in general) disagree with?
This question jumped out at me because I feel so passionately about my answer. It was either this one or “what do you think it takes to be successful” and honestly, I could write a novel on both.
The thing I believe that most people in my industry, and in general disagree with is this: there is no quick fix, no magic pill, no one-size fits all approach, no doctor or practitioner, not even a complete holistic health care model such as the one Empact Wellness operates by who will heal you, except Y O U.
That’s not to say that there isn’t a purpose for doctors, practitioners, wellness clinics, supplements, medications, and modalities. There absolutely is. The best doctors and practitioners will guide and empower their patients along their healing journey. That is their purpose, to be a sounding board and help translate the signs and symptoms their patient’s bodies are communicating, putting together the individual’s clinical picture and then guiding along the path of healing. Emphasis on path here, because there still is not one thing that is going to bring someone to optimal health. And even with medications or supplements and modalities, the deepest healing has to come from within the patient. They have to commit to doing the deep work within themselves and for themselves. There are often layers to healing. Physical symptoms and patterns of disease develop over time and the longer they linger without being addressed the deeper and more interconnected the layers become. But with every single disease whether it’s cancer, a herniated disc, irritable bowel syndrome, or depression and anxiety, the entire human being (physical body, mental health/conscious awareness, and energetic/soul/subconscious operations) needs to be addressed and committed to healing in order for true healing to happen.
Too often patients have a health complaint and look to health care providers to fix them. I hear it every single day “so if I just drink more water i’ll be better” or “if I take this vitamin i’ll have more energy”. “If you do acupuncture here and adjust me, I won’t have tendonitis anymore”. The list goes on. The missing link here is that the patient believes that there is an external factor that is going to fix their complaints. They are still not taking responsibility for their own suffering. They are not truly committed to healing and achieving optimal health because they are looking outwards for people and things to take their suffering away.
I have hundreds if not thousands of examples of this in my experience working directly with patients. I have my sister as another prime example. And I have myself.
One of the most powerful patient stories that sticks with me was a young 36 year old women came in to see me for chronic neck pain. It had been kinked on the right side for 3 years, she said. I began treating her physical body with functional integrated chiropractic care and acupuncture, and we achieved some improvements but nothing ever really stuck. Then one day during treatment she remarked that the kink started after she learned about her husband’s affair and went through a nasty divorce with 2 young children. She was curled up in the fetal position, angry sad and very emotional for months, and that is when the kink developed. I knew then that manual treatments alone would not help. She had stored the emotional and energetic trauma of her divorce on the right side of her neck. There were other health concerns that she complained about as well; acne, irregular periods, constipation and irritable bowels, ADHD, etc. These had also started or worsened since the divorce and the only treatment she was receiving from her doctors were prescription medications to mask the symptoms. We discussed a root-cause approach and over the months that followed we added reiki into her manual therapy sessions, she began seeing a psychotherapist, she actively participated in mindset shifts and lifestyle modifications that enabled her healing. She was actively involved in her care. Yes, she used some medications and supplements, she visited doctors and practitioners, but she chose better for herself and actively took the steps required to heal, and that is the most powerful shift of all. She no longer operated with the mindset that she was a victim of circumstances. She didn’t rely on the pills and people to heal her. Instead, she looked at those modalities as tools to help her take steps forward. Now she is living her best life, pain free, acne free, medication free, and she has learned numerous tools to help her overcome life’s inevitable curveballs as they come.
The healing journey is not linear. When you zoom into the upwards trajectory, there will always be hills and valleys. Overcoming the set backs is what propels healing forward. But this has to come from within each individual in order for true healing to occur. No one and no thing can do it for you. It is all within Y O U.
Realizing this was how I came up with my brand “Empact”; EMpowering you to make an imPACT on your life. And it is how every practitioner under our roof engages with the patients they treat.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
MY BIO: Dr. Taylor Smeenk is the CEO and Founder of Empact Wellness, an experienced chiropractor and certified functional medicine practitioner dedicated to being a transformative force in proactive health and optimal aging. She uses root cause diagnosis and whole-body interventions to create lasting change for her patients.
Taylor’s approach is deeply influenced by her own personal and familial experiences with injury and illness. She has witnessed firsthand how a comprehensive, integrative approach, that addresses the root causes and considers the body, mind, and spirit, can profoundly improve quality of life. These experiences inspired her to not only become a doctor but to establish a healthcare ecosystem that goes beyond traditional models, empowering patients to take control of their health journey.
Her mission at Empact Wellness is to help people achieve optimal health and timeless resilience, ultimately fostering a community that thrives on self-advocacy and deep healing. Dr. Smeenk invites her patients and community to join her in shaping a future where optimal health and well-being are accessible, personalized, and deeply rooted in compassion.
______
The story behind this mission is rooted in my family life growing up. At 15, my sister was diagnosed with a connective tissue disorder. Watching her struggle with chronic pain and a multitude of other symptoms was devastating. But the lack of answers, support, and ultimately the dismissal from the medical system was infuriating. The more questions we asked, the more frustrating the responses were to hear. They had no answers and worse than that, they seemed to have no compassion or interest in digging deeper. The only solutions were prescription medications to masks her symptoms, and then more prescriptions to manage the inevitable side effects of being on so many medications. Our basic questions about sleep, nutrition, and movement were ignored. There was no hope. Until we found Functional Medicine; a discipline that strives to find the root causes of disease. At this time I was in chiropractic college and working as a health coach with a chiropractor and functional medicine practitioner. I began putting the pieces together through what I was learning in school as well as in my work as a health coach and I shared what I was learning with my sister and family. In a few short years of rigorous work, we witnessed a miracle. My sister was off all medications, out of bed, working full time, enjoying her 20’s and chasing her dreams. This is when functional medicine became more than just a career for me. It’s my calling. And it reinforced the importance of asking my favourite question – “why”.
Early in my chiropractic and functional medicine career, simultaneous to my sister’s journey, I began recognizing many patterns and gaps in our health care system. As hard as I would try, it was impossible for me to meet every single need for every single patient. I was increasingly more aware of the emotional, psychological, and energetic components of human illness and although I had a good network of health care professionals in my community, one of the biggest gaps in our health care system I recognized was incontinuity of care. The patient complains of XYZ and the family doctor refers them to three different specialists who not only do not communicate back to the family doctor but also do not communicate between each other. The medical system operates as though every different system in the human body is managed by a different “-ologist” and none of them communicate. Meanwhile in reality, every system in the human body communicates and works synergistically together to create one whole human body and human experience. This is where the mission and vision of Empact Wellness was born. Instead of reaching out into the community, I reached within and created a holistic health care model that strives to address the whole person – body, mind, and soul. I curated a multi-disciplinary team of practitioners who hold the same values and believe in the same mission. Who truly want to collaborate with different disciplines, and make a difference in their patients lives. This is a health care model where there is no competition between providers, only support and communication. Where the patient is put first always. And we work together to diagnose, treat, and manage the root causes of our patient’s health concerns. Because we are all aligned on this model, our patients feel supported and not only do they heal but further than that, they then strive for optimal. People who are not sick but want to be better seek us out as well. We embody the fullness of life in our approach to health care; body, mind, and soul. And so we attract people who want to live a full life.
The human body has an incredible capacity to heal. Sometimes, it just needs someone who will really listen, ask the right questions, and provide whole-person (holistic) support. And that is the mission of Empact Wellness. We have a full staff including chiropractors, functional medicine practitioners, naturopathic doctor, registered massage therapists, psychotherapists, reiki master, hypnotherapy, acupuncturists, holistic nutrition, somatic therapy and private yoga instructors,
MORE ABOUT ME AND MY JOURNEY:
I did not enter into the chiropractic and functional medicine world with the intention of starting my own business. To me it has never been about business itself, but always rooted in providing the highest quality care and empowering my patients to achieve the healing and optimal health that they desire. Something that makes me stand out from the rest is that I often (always) have my own way of doing things and if i’m told something isn’t possible or it’s very hard, whatever resistance is put in front of me I will find a way to make it happen, to do it anyway, no matter what. If I set my mind on something I will get it done. Sometimes this results in failure, but that is how I learn, and then try again, a better way.
My journey into entrepreneurship fell into my lap, and it cracked me right open. I learned early on that as an entrepreneur and leader, you cannot hide from your fears or self-limiting behaviours and beliefs. Even if you try to sweep them under the rug, they will eventually slap you in the face in the form of one problem or another. In my recent history, I have gone through substantial challenges both in my personal and professional life that have made me face myself head-on. These challenges have expedited my growth as a person, as a leader, and as a business owner. What I want prospective patient’s to know about is the above discussion; the why behind Empact’s mission. What I want the reader to know about me and my own personal brand is that I am relentless in my pursuits. This means that sometimes I fail and I fail hard. But I always learn valuable lessons in the process, and I get back up and I continue on my forward path. I believe that our mindset is the key to our success. And I wish more people would face themselves, get out of their own way, and put in the work to achieve the life they say they want for themselves. Create your own definition of success and empower yourself to achieve it, no matter what.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
The Gap and The Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Ben Hardy
This book was recommended to me by a mindset coach I was working with at the time. He had recommended a few books for me to read and they were all helpful, but this one stood out and has stayed with me long since reading it. This book discusses the difference between being in “the gap”, a place where we are never satisfied with our present circumstances, always ruminating about what we didn’t achieve in the past and reaching for the next thing to achieve in the future. Versus being in “the gain”, presently aware and happy with our current circumstances, reflecting on previous achievements or pathways and patterns, and operating from a place of fulfilment. The lessons in this book were striking to me. It opened my eyes to how I had been operating in the gap most of my life. I think a lot of entrepreneurs stay stuck in this cycle without even realizing it. It’s often part of the entrepreneur “blueprint” to be a person who identifies gaps and strives to fill them with a product or service they are selling. In order to build a successful business it is required to continuously look out for short comings and strive for better. That is all well and good, but it is also limiting and can create more stress within the person. It keeps us in the gap. Reading this book made me sit back and think of all of the good I had accomplished, all of the mistakes I made and lessons I learned. It not only shifted my perspective to a more positive outlook, but drastically improved my stress levels and made me a better leader. It made me a better leader and manager because this mindset is rooted in positivity. When I felt grateful for the business’ current success it spilled into gratitude for each person who was involved with the business as well. I modelled a behaviour of being in the gain and empowered my team members to do the same. We still reviewed the past but we first focused on what was accomplished and done well, and anything that was not done well we focused on the positives of how we overcame the challenge and the lessons we learned in the process that will make us better in the future. With this shift in my own mindset and perspective I noticed my team members shifting as well. And when everyone is synergistically working in the gain mindset well, that is where true magic happens.
Gratitude is often talked about but I don’t think the true power of gratitude can be felt or understood when you are living in the gap. On a surface level yes, but on the deep high vibrational level not so much. I felt this shift within myself when I shifted my perspective to focus on the gain. In the gain you live in a state of gratitude. And this is one of the strongest energetic places to be. Gratitude is magnetic to success. However you may define it. By actively acknowledging and appreciating what you have right now and how hard you have worked to get there you are in a state of gratitude. Doors open, products and services sell, team members are motivated and happy, it all comes full circle when you operate in the gain.
Of course as an entrepreneur I am generally always moving in a forwards direction and have many projects on the go that are destined for the future. But to first start from a place of peace and gratitude for everything that is right now allows for more space and clarity to create better for the future.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
There was a time in my life that really tested me. I was in the middle of expanding my practise while navigating a shared lease agreement with a co-tenant who was dishonest. The details of this are long and tedious but in the end, we as co-tenants were facing eviction. One day I woke up to find out that my co-tenant was evicted and I was given 3 months to find a new location for my business. Within the same 2 week period I found out that my boyfriend, who I lived with, had cheated on me and we broke up. This meant that I was facing the need to move my business and myself personally at the same time. This meant having to pay first and last months rent for a commercial lease as well as a personal lease. Among many other things. I was heartbroken. This was my first real heartbreak and my first business was on the brink of failure. But I pulled through. I had a strong sense of purpose and I knew that I was the only one who could overcome the challenges in front of me. I leaned on my community and my support system. I used the hurt to fuel my passion and I did it. Within 3 months I signed a new lease, managed the build out of my new business location and maintained a cash positive financial flow while doing so. I continued to serve patients full time and manage my team of practitioners at the same time. I celebrated my brother winning gold and bronze at the Paralympics and experienced many other highs with my family. I moved myself out of my shared (broken) home and into my own apartment. And in the end, me and my business are better off. We are happy we are stable we are successful and prosperous. I am grateful for every single person who helped along the way but I am eternally grateful to myself for the mental and physical resilience I showed. I proved to myself that I can do absolutely anything and no one can stand in my way. Taylor Swift said it best “I can do it with a broken heart”. No song has ever represented a period of my life so truely.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://empactwellness.com
- Instagram: @drtaylorsmeenk @empactwellness
- Facebook: Empact Wellness
- Linkedin: Taylor Smeenk / Empact Wellness
