We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jackie Romanies. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jackie below.

Alright, Jackie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the best advice you ever gave to a client? How did they benefit / what was the result? (Please note this response is for education/entertainment purposes only and shouldn’t be construed as advice for the reader)

One of my goals as a wellness practitioner is to help my patients learn to advocate for themselves and for their health and wellbeing in any medical situation. Women in general have been on the back burner of health research until very recently, and we have a lot of catching up to do. Being a woman, our pain is often dismissed as a hormonal or psychological problem related to poor stress management and rarely have I found that assumption to be clinically accurate. To me teaching women to advocate for their health and to have their concerns heard and is a huge part of my chiropractic practice and my personal mission.

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?

I always knew I wanted to work in healthcare, I love the science of how the body works, and I love the idea that our bodies are designed to heal intrinsically. When I was a young adult, I was in bad car accident, I went from hours of ballet practice a week to hours of physical therapy but I was determined to return to dance. Athletes, dancers, and anyone with a dedication to a physical craft (musicians, artists, soccer players) develop a strong connection with their body, an intuition, a motion fluidity. Having that connected motion disrupted by an injury can be really impactful in someone’s life. When working to recover from an injury knowing when to push harder and when to rest is so important, and often overlooked in healthcare. I noticed when recovering from the car accident that outcomes where focused on a clinical “normal” not pre-injury functionality. With athletes and mother’s alike that “getting back to normal” is often not the normal the person was used to before the injury, or the birth. During physical therapy I realized that their is so little information on the healing process particularly for women, our cares and concerns often go unheard even though we are the authority on our bodies. That is when health advocacy became important to me, which each individual patient I like to focus on their goals, their version of optimal function instead of the text book version. I think everyone deserves personalized health and wellness care, and should have equal access to it. I had the opportunity to establish my own practice after being in the field for seven years and the rest is history. I love taking a whole-istic, whole body, whole mind, whole life approach to my patient’s health care. I think that physical stress, mental stress, emotional stress are all things that need to be considered and managed in a patient’s care for the best outcomes. When you come to Emerald Wellness Company we want you to feel heard, nurtured and empowered we work with out patients to advocate for themselves in any medical or wellness setting to reach their optimal individual outcomes.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Treating people well, caring for your patients with the same level of concern you would want your family members treated with. So many times in healthcare I think that providers forget what it is like to be on the other side of the table. When something is cornering in your health it is human to be scared, have fear or frustration over the injury or the unknown prognosis. I think the humanity factor is crucial, being will to listen and gently guide the conversation in a way that allows you to understand the patient’s true concerns and goals for their health. When a patient and provider work as a team to solve the health concerns the outcome is so much better, our patients deserve full autonomy, understanding, and good referrals where it makes sense. Having a good network of providers in your area is necessary to proving well rounded, whole body health care.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Don’t be afraid to create your own space in healthcare. I worked in many settings as a healthcare professional where I was expected to remove the human factor from my care. While industry and safety standards are imperative, treating a patient like a number, or a person like a condition is not acceptable. The people you are treating are mothers, fathers, children, grandparents, husbands, wives, friends. People want good health care, they want to understand what is going on in their body and how to improve how they are feeling. Don’t be afraid to create the environment that you would have wanted to heal in with regards to being a provider. Make sure you define what your patient’s optimal function is in order to best help them achieve their health goals. The lesson I needed to unlearn was waiting too long to realize my experiences were not unique, many people have experienced dismissive healthcare and we truly value is being approached differently. If you are a provider that wants to create a better space for your patients don’t be afraid! Do it! Create a supportive space in healthcare, it is desperately needed.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://emeraldwellnesscompany.janeapp.com
• Instagram: @emeraldwellnesscompany
• Other: @drjackiewellness

Image Credits

Lumos Creative