26 Apr “High Writings” with Dr. Chris: “More” Than A Chronic Pain Clinic?
As I sit down to write, I’m about to smoke a bowl. (Have you seen Workaholics? Its one of my top 5 favorite shows if you like shenanigans)
Give me a second …
Ahhh, there you go.
You’re probably thinking:
Why is Dr. Chris, the Clinic Director of Barefoot Rehab starting a blog post telling us he’s smoking cannabis?
I’ll get to that.
First, meet Olesya.
Olesya was first — our patient.
Olesya came to us at our PERMANENT pain relief clinic after suffering for years with severe neck pain and numb hands when working at her computer.
Heres a 2 minute 11 second movie of Olesya’s story.
Short story shorter — Olesya is 80% better (As of 4/26/21 – Olesya corrected me –> 90%!) after not being able to find an answer after multiple failed treatments.
But this isn’t about her pain.
It’s about the world we seek to create because Barefoot Rehab exists.
Barefoot Rehab is a Stubborn Weed (lol)
See the pun?! — “Weed”!
LOL – I’m so funny.
Dad Joke Leg Specialist Dr. Jeff WOULDN’T approve – heh – look what he did to Dr. Nacho Nico:
…
At this point, I don’t view “Barefoot Rehab” as mine, as a business, or even as a pain clinic.
I perceive “Barefoot Rehab” to be an organic entity growing straight out of the dirt. A 1200′ square foot building growing straight out of Downtown Denville, NJ.
Like a stubborn weed that refuses to anything but the highest (kinda like me right now) heights.
You see, I don’t control Barefoot Rehab anymore.
It has a potent, hard-to-kill energy that controls itself and grows in very unique ways for a doctor’s office.
An energy that desperately lays it’s whole heart on the line to see people heal.
A type of healing that not only relieves people’s suffering, but connects humans back to their tribal dynamics where status is minimized and empathy is a necessity.
Because this is THE ONLY type of healing that will heal our world …
Heal Yourself, Heal Our World
At some point, we can no longer “band-aid” a fire by unplugging the fire alarm. We have to put out the fire.
When Olesya walked in, sure, we knew we could help her.
But we saw something else.
A woman who no longer wanted to suffer … alone.
And a craving for deeper emotional and spiritual healing (like every other member of the Heal Team 6 Staff and our growing tribe).
Whether in herself or in people she’s come to “love”.
Greg Asks Amber to Get Married
Not sure if you saw this on Instagram, but our video guy Greg asked our Officer of Delight Amber to get married …
… at our staff meeting (Click the image to watch the video).
Weird, right?
Who gets married at work?
Greg went on to share that he never thought he’d have a future before Barefoot Rehab.
He always thought he’d be dead.
I’ll let him tell you in his own words why he did it — he shared this with the Barefoot Rehab family in our internal slack channel:
In case you’re a little lost:
- PFH – Our 10 Week Pain-Free & Happy Program designed to heal our deepest wounds
- @Mary Poppins – Our patient Allison who healed her fibromyalgia and asked to run the PFH course cuz she knew the journey through firsthand experience.
- @Josh Nadeau – Sound Healer & Meditation Coach in the PFH Program Who Leads 3 Meditations a week for our Tribe of “Wounded Healers”.
What’s hitting me is this.
If you’ve met Greg, you know how powerful of a man he is.
This guy has a heart of gold.
Still, something (or many things) from Greg’s past caused him to think that he WAS NOT WORTHY of a future, losing weight, healing, being happy, or marrying the woman he loves.
At times, every one of us might need a kick-in-the-ass in the form of a gentle stare from a loved one that says:
You’re better than this. You can achieve healing and all of your wildest dreams can come true.
Fuck – I can’t tell you how often I am down and doubt myself EVERY SINGLE DAY!
I forget how precious this life is.
Then, Olesya randomly shows up at a staff meeting.
While I’m wondering why she is there with a sneaky smile, Big Bear of a Man Greg gets down on one knee to wake Chris up.
How did Olesya go from being a patient to learning what would go down at our staff meeting and demanding her attendance?
Olesya & My Partner, Katie, Go on Toddler Dates
It only took a year for Olesya to become friends with my partner and mother of my 2 children, Katie.
In that time:
- Olesya’s been over to my home for meals
- Has sat in spiritual ceremony with me
- She goes on Toddler dates with my partner Katie (who often tells me Olesya is the most hilarious person she knows)
- As of yesterday, has attended our Barefoot Rehab Heal Team 6 staff meeting.
Olesya isn’t the first patient or friend of mine who has attended our staff meetings.
“We must be doing something right, Chris” (talking to myself)
Chris, you’ve had such little self worth all your life, celebrate something, would you ass***?!
… forgive that short digression …
Taking a break from writing her first book, Olesya told me that she channelled her first writing that is about our staff meeting, “coming out with no effort”:
I NEVER cry outside of “Rudy” and “Free Willy”.
Haven’t cried in 15 years.
But for some reason, cannabis makes me feel more at times.
And I can almost feel a tear trying to form behind my eye.
Olesya validated everything I’ve ever dreamed that Barefoot Rehab would be.
I finally saw a manifestation of the possibility that Barefoot Rehab could become.
Out of the Quantum Field and straight into reality.
A Place Where, (Kinda Like Cheers)
Where everybody knows your name.
Where doctors don’t hold a higher status than a patient or employee.
Where patients become friends with doctors and healing goes deeper from physical pain to emo-spiritual pain.
Where admins look you in the eye and greet you by name, asking you not how the weather is, but, “How are you really?”
Where one HT6 member gets engaged to another HT6 member, at a staff meeting.
What a psycho (but we love the crazies – after all, ” We Are Unapologetically Weird and Delightfully Fun is our Middle Name” is one of our core values).
I don’t believe in doctor status.
My patients call me “Chris”.
I tell them they can call me “Shithead” if they allow me to help heal their pain and their life.
We’re all human.
I have visions of tribes living tens of thousands of years ago where all members of the tribe contributed to the sustenance of survival.
Where a patient suffered real, emotional suffering and saw a shaman who proceeded to use Mother Earth’s principles to heal that person.
When they then hugged.
And that individual went and brought in harvested berries in an equal exchange of humanity.
Olesya points out that which makes us human, a species that I am proud to call myself.
No, we don’t pay ourselves with glitter (YET).
Yes, we have mundane business problems — it’s the nature of the beast. All that energy in the form of money patients pay allows us to live our lives as we figure out the best way to serve.
No, we don’t do 100% of the things we want and need to do. But as another core value states, “We Pursue Excellence As We Make Our Bed.”
How Barefoot Rehab impacts the world continues to be a courageous work in progress of individuals who I dare you to ask, “Just how badly do you want to see your fellow tribe of humans heal?”
Haven’t we all suffered enough?
More than anything else, Barefoot Rehab is a place that brings our attention to that which needs healing the most — our collective humanity.
“I Didn’t Know You Had a Vision, Mission, and Core Values”
At the end of the meeting, we asked Olesya for feedback.
We always want to know what we’re doing well and what we can do better.
One of the things she mentioned was, “I didn’t know you had a vision, mission, and core values.”
“It makes me realize you have a plan.”
We do have a plan.
And YES – we do want to take over the world.
“Taking over” means we’ve helped tens of thousands of people heal.
With more resources, I dream of how we’ll be able to more deeply impact those who are suffering.
- Functional Medicine doctors to heal inflammatory issues
- Psychotherapists, Counsellors, and Social Workers to heal the mind
- Shamans and Energy Healers to heal the energetic body
- Personal Trainers to strengthen the physical body
- Meditation coaches to teach mindfulness
- Life coaches to develop our daily habits
To keep us aligned and stay the course, we read our Vision, Mission, and Core Values after every single staff meeting:
Barefoot Rehab’s Vision:
Barefoot Rehabilitation Clinic is the tri-state area’s most trusted and premier musculoskeletal pain and suffering clinic. Our doctors are NJ’s Top Doctors.
Barefoot Rehab’s Mission:
We need to fulfill 3 Strategic Goals to fulfill our Mission:
- Patient & Employee Support & Success – we are continually refining our skill sets, systems, and operations to ensure patient and employee success and get even better PERMANENT pain relief results, joy, and fulfillment moving forward.
- Human Enrollment – our operation hinges around a transformational conversation where we help patients, employees, and the public get to the truth about what’s not working in their lives in regards to their pain and suffering and where they truly want to be so they can make the decision to change and get their health and happiness back.
- Healing Revolution – no one else is going to teach our society about adhesion, healing or tribal dynamics, so we will bring them to mainstream healthcare and conventional society.
Barefoot Rehab’s Core Values
These are the 6 Core Values that act as our compass, telling us HOW we fulfill our mission and vision:
- We Believe in Everyone and Enable No One.
- We Generously Act in Loving Service
- We are Heal Team 6.
- We Are Unapologetically Weird and Delightfully Fun is our Middle Name.
- We Come From Mother Nature + Bow to Her Principles.
- We Pursue Excellence As We Make Our Bed.
—
After we finish reading, 2 or 3 Heal Team 6 Members are invited to share what’s resonating based on the previous week of work.
Since we implemented this practice 3-4 years ago, our Core Values have become a way of being for each of our staff, making Barefoot Rehab less of a hierarchical entity and more of the stubborn weed that continues to make it’s presence known today.
I share WHO WE ARE with you for one reason alone.
Generally, prospective patients and the public aren’t really luke-warm about us.
Chances are, you either:
- Love us
- Hate us
To be honest, it’s perfectly fine if you do hate us.
We would rather you hate us WITHOUT ever asking for our help with healing from chronic pain or anxiety or depression.
The sooner we get you to decide if we are “your people” or not, the sooner we’ll all save energy, time and money because NO ONE has ever fixed their chronic pain unless they’ve trusted us.
Cannabis & A Last Word on Trust
The cannabis is now wearing off, but I’m about to smoke again.
It appears the “Munchies” are on the horizon, like what happened at El Mejicano in Denville.
I share about my use of cannabis because “Chris is someone who uses cannabis.”
I want you to know who we are so you can decide if you want our help.
How do you know if you can really trust us?
What healing is possible if you don’t really know WHO you’re asking for help?
A few more things to make you aware of:
- I personally use many Schedule 1 psychedelic drugs for emotional and spiritual healing. I wrote about a patient who told me to f*** off and some of my experiences with the Schedule 1 drug Ayahuasca.
- I’ve hurt, pissed off, and upset many more people than this patient above.
- One individual in my past called me a “Walking Human Allergy” – meaning that I just seem to irritate people by “being”.
- I ruined the CrossFit gym I owned for 5 years and caused immense pain for one of my business partners.
- Two patients in the past year left an exam with me and told Richie, “I feel like I’m just a number to Chris, he was very swift and I didn’t feel heard. I won’t be coming back.”
- I don’t use good grammar and curse a lot.
- You can expect my naked body on Instagram once every 6 months or so.
- We won”t get into the pains I’ve caused those closest to me — my family.
Barefoot Rehab is a fallible bunch.
We make mistakes just like the rest of humanity.
Fuck-ups are a guarantee in the future.
But underneath it all, I argue that there isn’t a group of people more committed and focusing to helping someone to suffer less physically or emotionally than the Heal Team 6 Staff at Barefoot Rehab.
These are fighting words and I stand firmly behind them.
Barefoot Rehab isn’t for everyone.
But we are for people who want:
- a human-human connection with an imperfect and often depressed clinic director
- a track record of >60 5-star Reviews on Facebook, >75 5-star reviews on Google, and >60 Youtube Video Success Stories.
- a chronic pain staff that bleeds and sweats healing enough to get married at a staff meeting
- MORE than a chronic pain clinic …
and who have said:
I’ve suffered enough and I intend to take my healing as deep as I can possibly go.
This might be the CRAZIEST post you ever read from a doctor, curious of your thoughts?
P.S. Very Random & High Thoughts
These are a few very random and high things I want to share with you:
People like me so much more when I’m high. I’m not anxious or worried. I hope you liked me more too.
- Yes, I do have a deeply embedded subconscious desire to be liked.
- But I want to love myself more than I want to be liked.
- Still, I want you to like me.
I’ve noticed I do best when I smoke no less or more than twice a week (this may change with time).
- After finishing a 3 day fast with 2 coffee enemas, my mind feels uber-sharp and focused. So I am celebrating with this bowl that’s letting the magic of this blog post happen.
- I’ve been wanting to write for months it’s funny to me that I’m doing at the end of my fast after drinking a coconut, celery, nut smoothie.
You cherish food way more when you don’t splurge every moment of hunger.
- The Stoics practiced putting themselves in uncomfortable situations to become grateful of the little things in life.
- Almond butter + bananas or apples are one of the best high treats. Dark chocolate (>70%) might take the cake.
I get why so many moms and dads of young kids drink a glass of wine or smoke at the end of a long day with the 2 or 3 year olds.
- Being a parent is hard. But many of us are in it together.
I’ve had many friends and biz coaches tell me how I shouldn’t post things like this.
- But if the world won’t accept me the way I am, I figure the world will ostracize or get rid of me. I believe 2021 is ripe for this type of expression.
No Comments