We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lisel Lewis a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lisel, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. We’d love to hear about how you went about setting up your own practice and if you have any advice for professionals who might be considering starting their own?

This is my best advice for a new graduate who is building their reputation/book of business, regardless of profession: Live and hang out in the area where you work. Go to the gym, get your nails done, eat at resturaunts within a few miles of your business. Meet people who actually live close enough to attend your office.

When I lived in San Diego with my parents, I had to commute to work. The clients I would meet could have lived in any part of the city, and if it meant hitting traffic, they probably wouldn’t come to my business.

When I moved to LA and began practice as a chiropractor, the whole traffic thing became an even bigger dilemma. My first office was in Santa Monica and I lived in Venice, 4 miles away. The people I would meet in Venice wouldn’t venture into Santa Monica for repetitive treatment 1-3x a week if it meant sitting in traffic. Now, my office is in Venice, and I live in Venice. When I meet someone at a grocery store or at the beach, I can say, “come to my office. It’s right there”. They can pop in and out even if they’re only available a few minutes per day.

Lisel, 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 played competitive tennis for 17 years. I got a full scholarship to a division 1 university, and so did my sister. My dad saw that he had 2 daughters, didn’t want to pay for college, and heard about Title 9. He knew that girls needed to receive more scholarships than boys, and had heard tennis & golf were easier to get scholarships. So, starting at age 4, we were on a mission to get college scholarships. We played tennis 6 days a week, did running drills, hit hundreds of balls a day, had coaches and prescheduled matches weekly. My parents were from a third world country, so I was a first generation American. Discipline and respect were a big thing in my house. Tennis was life. Thankfully, I didn’t have many injuries, but when I did, my dad would take me to the chiropractor. I didn’t know what the chiropractor was doing, but I knew it helped. My first adjustment was when I was 12 and I would go whenever I had an injury.

I got my full scholarship and went to college in Idaho. The weather was sad and gloomy. I was sad and gloomy. I started to feel “depressed” and went to the free student health clinic. They gave me Prozac like it was candy. The next day, I had a seizure in the middle of statistics class. I never had a history of seizures before this. This was obviously a chemical reaction to the Prozac. The next day, I went back to the student health clinic and told them what happened. They said oops, gave me a different antidepressant, and I stayed reliant on that for the next 4 years. When you are on a mind altering medication, you can’t just stop one day. You get dependent on the thing. I wish I would have been given other options rather than taking medication. I had no idea that therapy, meditation, or even chiropractic could have helped me get through the temporary hump I was experiencing. Getting prescribed a medication that was so obviously a problem for my body, made me realize there needs to be a natural way to help people. There had to be a way to feel better without the use of drugs or medication.

That’s where chiropractic changed my life. A few years after graduating college, I was introduced to a chiropractor who explained the nervous system to me, and how the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system can be affected by your spine. Getting adjusted regularly helped me with my physical body, yes, but helped me with my mind as well.

My friend was in chiropractic school and invited me to Cabo San Lucas with a dozen of her classmates. By the end of that trip, I realized chiropractic was a lifestyle and I wanted to be someone to teach it to people. I started chiropractic school 3 months later, and it has immensely improved my life for the better. Not only has it changed my own life, but now I can teach chiropractic and natural remedies to my patients on a daily basis. When patients tell me they are off their pain medication or able to exercise again or pick up their kids without pain, without the need of surgery or medication, I know I’ve done my job.

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

Absolutely. Being a chiropractor takes grit. There are some people who doubt or don’t understand chiropractic. It is important to be able to explain and not get offended by people who question the profession. It is my duty to educate people that chiropractic is used to improve the body and central nervous system without the use of drugs or surgery. I am dedicated to that message.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I am living proof of the chiropractic lifestyle. The people who come to my office have an attraction to our philosophy and message. They want to see what it’s like to be healthy in a natural way, and I am happy to be an example of just that.

Contact Info:

• Website: Thelachiropractor.com
• Instagram: Dr_lisel
• Yelp: The LA Chiropractor