We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jason Vanderford, DC, DACBR. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jason below.

Alright, Jason thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

I am a chiropractor and went to school to obtain the training for that. Along the way, I came to understand that the chiropractic profession has specialties. Among those are sports, nutrition, neurology and others. The one that really caught my attention was radiology. I took my first x-ray anatomy class and fell in love with diagnostic imaging. I loved everything about imaging and excelled in my radiology related classes. On top of that I really liked the radiology teachers I had, all of whom held specialty diplomate status. All through school I seriously contemplated pursuing the radiology residency program following graduation. That was an additional three year full time study, teaching, working program to prepare for the radiology board exam. I also focused on being as good at chiropractic technique as I could be. I wanted to be a very capable chiropractor. I was torn about what to do when graduation came, do I go find a job, open a private practice, or pursue radiology?

During my student internship I came to the decision that I would pursue the radiology residency. I knew myself well enough to know that I would not return to do the training in the future once I had started down the path of private practice. I was accepted into the residency and trained for three additional years living and breathing radiology to pass my board exam. I passed that in 2000. There weren’t a lot of radiology jobs for chiropractic radiologists. I was however fortunate enough to get a teaching position at a chiropractic school in Texas. Not only that, I would be leading their radiology residency and training their residents to pass their boards. I was at the beginning of solid academic career within the profession.

I was good at teaching the student chiropractors the radiology subjects. I was competent, I believe, in training the doctors in the residency to become experts. Yet, there was something that was gnawing at me. I didn’t love it. I was good at it, I loved radiology, but I got to a moment that I understood this path was not for me. In that moment I understood I had resign my position as an assistant professor and a leader of the radiology residency to go into private practice. I did not become a radiologist or a chiropractor to become a full time teacher regardless of how good at it I might have been. I knew I should not continue along the path of academics.

What I learned from that moment was that our steps along a career path are not always straight or upward trajectories. Sometimes the way up requires some backwards movement or to the side. It is easy to settle into something because we are good at it but not passionate about it. We can move into positions that are prepared for us or create or we can take advantage of opportunities that are presented.

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 background and context?

I went to college after high school and struggled in determining a carer for myself. I was very into martial arts and really wanted to spend my life doing that. Unfortunately, there weren’t any majors that really spoke to me that would tie into that interest. I was finally pointed towards chiropractic. I didn’t know anything about it at the time. I started to investigate it. The more I learned about it, the profession really spoke to my interest in martial arts. I had a friend who is a chiropractor and had him adjust me. I knew right then that was what I wanted to do. I got my major in line to prepare me for life as a doctor of chiropractic. Following graduation, I applied and was accepted to chiropractic school.

One thing I am very proud of is being a board certified chiropractic radiologist and earning my diplomate in that specialty. Our certificates are numbered, and mine is 259. So, I was the 259th person in the history of the chiropractic profession to achieve this certification. Certainly, others have followed but it remains a relatively small group.

I provide general chiropractic services. I help people suffering from a number of musculoskeletal complaints like neck pain, mid back and low back pain. Headaches, hip pain and shoulder pain are also common things I help people overcome. I do this primarily through the chiropractic adjustment. I will also provide my patients with exercises they can perform at home to solidify the office visits and increase their participation in their care. I offer kinesiotaping to help with pain control and injury recovery.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

As I mentioned earlier, I did not take a straight path to where I am now. For several years I ended up working in an administrative job and doing some minor management. I found the position through a friend who I highly respected. The company was looking for those with clinical training to fill positions to perform their primary service, and ultimately I was offered a position helping run their program given my background, specialty training and performance in the roles I had performed for them. I stayed with that company for a number of years. However, a culture shift that occurred following a merger I had to pivot and leave.

Opportunities were not as plentiful as I had hoped. I found a position working clinically as a chiropractor. Yet, I knew I needed to start my own practice. An opportunity was presented to me by a doctor I had consulted with on a radiology matter several years before. I opened my practice in his office in 2020.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

There have been times in my career where I would have said yes. But being a business owner and getting to help people through healing touch, I would absolutely say no! I would choose to pursue a career in chiropractic. Chiropractic does not offer the breadth of choices of career paths that other health professions might. Most chiropractors are in private practice, many entrepreneurs. I recognize now that while I feared facing building a business from nothing, it was always what I had signed up for. Building a business that helps people improve the quality of their lives is absolutely worth it.

Contact Info:

• Website: vanderfordchiro.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-v-66a5469/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/jason-vanderford-dc-san-marcos-2
• Other: Google: Jason Vanderford, DC