EP19: Queer Spaces in Wellness: Inclusive Chiropractic on Long Island with Dr. Van Broome
Jan 22, 2024Season 1Episode 19
Jenene & Kit
Joining forces with my life and business partner Dr. Vanessa Broom, we've embarked on an adventure to redefine chiropractic care. Dr. Van brings her warmth and expertise as we unveil our vision for an inclusive practice that truly celebrates and honors the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities. We peel back the curtain to share our personal connection with the queer community and our dedication to providing a sanctuary for everyone. Mark your calendars—our doors in Oakdale, Long Island open on February 6th, ready to welcome you into a space where you are seen, valued, and cared for.
Chiropractic care is often pigeonholed into the 'pain relief' box, but what if we told you its magic extends far beyond? In this episode, we uncover the lesser-known preventative superpowers of chiropractic treatments and how they can be your ally in cultivating a resilient nervous system and a vibrant life. Be sure to catch the end of our chat, where I reveal a slice of personal history involving a snowstorm, familial heroics, and a birth story that's sure to captivate and charm. Ready for a new perspective on your health journey? Tune in and let us guide you to balance and well-being.
Joining forces with my life and business partner Dr. Vanessa Broom, we've embarked on an adventure to redefine chiropractic care. Dr. Van brings her warmth and expertise as we unveil our vision for an inclusive practice that truly celebrates and honors the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities. We peel back the curtain to share our personal connection with the queer community and our dedication to providing a sanctuary for everyone. Mark your calendars—our doors in Oakdale, Long Island open on February 6th, ready to welcome you into a space where you are seen, valued, and cared for.
Chiropractic care is often pigeonholed into the 'pain relief' box, but what if we told you its magic extends far beyond? In this episode, we uncover the lesser-known preventative superpowers of chiropractic treatments and how they can be your ally in cultivating a resilient nervous system and a vibrant life. Be sure to catch the end of our chat, where I reveal a slice of personal history involving a snowstorm, familial heroics, and a birth story that's sure to captivate and charm. Ready for a new perspective on your health journey? Tune in and let us guide you to balance and well-being.
We have a very special guest on today's episode. For those of you who know and love Kit, they will be back next week. I'd like to introduce today's interviewee Well, not really interviewee, we're just going to have a conversation and make some news. This is Dr Vanessa Broom. So Dr Vanessa is my business partner and I believe you all know by now that I am a chiropractor. Dr Vanessa is also a chiropractor. She is my business partner and my life partner.
Speaker 2:
Hey everyone, I'm so excited to be here. Thanks for having me, you are welcome.
Speaker 1:
It's nice to have you. It's nice to actually do our first interview on the podcast. So, dr Van, that's kind of a new nickname for you lately, huh.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that's a little new.
Speaker 1:
When did you start?
Speaker 2:
using it, I don't know, within the last few months, and how do you like it? I think it's fitting.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, okay, so Dr Van, explain to me that her name it's a dime a dozen. There's a lot of people with the name Vanessa and we are opening up our new chiropractic office, which is part of the news that we're going to tell you today, and I'll let Dr Vanessa tell you a little bit more about that in a second. But Dr Vanessa decided to go by Dr Van just to be able to differentiate herself between other Dr Vanessa's and other healthcare providers. That's right, you want to tell the listeners about our news.
Speaker 2:
Oh yeah, so some news. We've decided to open up our practice in New York. We found a space.
Speaker 1:
And, to be more specific, we've been looking for a place to practice, as in build our own practice and so that we can have our own practice, members come in and see us, whereas before we were working in other people's offices, and the reason why that's so important to us is, well, one of the most important reasons, especially because we are queer. We understand that there's a need in the queer community for people to be able to get care in an affirming space, in all inclusive space and a safe space, and we want to be able to be one of those providers that are able to provide that for our community.
Speaker 2:
You said it perfectly. So for us, it's really important to have a space where everyone is feeling welcome. So it's very important that we have language to support everyone who walks in the door, and so, for us, we're really committed to being in a affirming practice for all people.
Speaker 1:
And that includes gender affirming. We don't care what your gender is, what it's transitioning into or has transitioned into, sexual orientation, color of your skin, it doesn't really matter to us. Our doors are open and actually our website says that we are an LGBTQ plus and bi-affirming practice, which means, for those of you who don't know what BIPOC is, it's black, indigenous people of color, and so, yeah, we're just you're free to be who you are in our office.
Speaker 2:
So it's pretty awesome that we're able to be on here today to be able to speak to you about some of these topics and some of these things that have been long in our minds. And when Jeanine says that we don't care about who walks in our door, I think it's more about who we do care about, and that's all people, whether you're gay, bi, lesbian, transgender any-. Questioning. You know, it's your straight grandmother Exactly.
Speaker 1:
Or your queer grandmother, whatever, yeah.
Speaker 2:
I mean. For us, it's about welcoming people into a safe space so that everyone feels included.
Speaker 1:
And just acknowledged. Right, I was just thinking. One of the things that I would actually love to really see is queer couples that have families. That's what I would love to see, because it's a rare occurrence that I see or that I think we see in general. Or couples that have children and we see them go out in public. It's just something that you know. Queers our community tend to gravitate toward safe spaces, and it's something that I've realized attending more queer events that they're more comfortable being who they are and bringing their families out in public. But just on the streets it's hard to differentiate, sure.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think one of the most recent events we went to in the city we encountered some of that and we saw that people showed up and it was just really cool experience just to witness all types of relationships present sort of in one space, and for us that was affirming yeah, we went and we saw the New York City Gay Men's Chorus and it was really cool because it was an audience that, first of all, was sold out and, secondly, was an audience full of queer people and probably some queer allies.
Speaker 1:
But it was really amazing because you saw this intersectionality of people that were in the disability community or in the BIPOC community or the Latin community or they're in some other type of marginalized group, but they're also in the queer community and they came out and we were seeing people that, for example, elderly couples that are in the queer community, that may or may not have been afforded the opportunity, but now they're out in public and maybe in their generation it wasn't as comfortable to be out, and but they can go to these places where they can. So it's just really cool. I hope that we get to know some people queer people that have families, kids and so on that will come into our office once we open. By the way, when are we opening?
Speaker 2:
Oh, that's a good question. We're actually opening next month, on the 6th. It's going to be a Tuesday, february 6th, and we're going to be opening our office in Oakdale, long Island. Is that Long Island?
Speaker 1:
Long Island? Yeah, how do you say that You're a Long Island native, right?
Speaker 2:
I am, yeah, born and raised. Okay, so we saying it right, yes, long Island, it's.
Speaker 1:
There's a, it's Long Island. Oh, there's a G in front of the eye, kind of thing, something like that.
Speaker 2:
So, so, yeah. So we're going to be opening up our doors here very soon and we're really excited to see you, your family, your friends, your parents, your children. And it's going to include language-ing so that when you come in, you know you're in the right place. Yeah, tuesday.
Speaker 1:
February 6th, opening up Oakdale, long Island. Originally I know from some of the listeners you might have been following that we were looking in New York City and that was the case. We were practicing, we were renting space in New York City for a little bit while. We had our eyes on something a little bit more permanent and it just so happened that we had an opportunity come down the pike sort of surfaced that we weren't expecting and it was. It checked all the boxes and so we decided to kind of pivot. We do plan to do some pop-ups in the city once we land on our feet and we kind of get some momentum going in the right direction.
Speaker 1:
But just to speak to what Dr Vanessa, dr Van was saying about using language for inclusivity, is that you know we definitely we're in affirming practice. We also have our website is congruent with that language and also our new patient paperwork is also congruent. You know we ask for your pronouns, we ask for the name you go by, et cetera, and it's just. It feels good too. We're not just talking about it, and I think a lot of times you have small businesses or other health providers that talk about being a safe place or being an all inclusive practice or small business, but then they don't. They don't actually have the systems in place. To what am I gonna say?
Speaker 2:
It's not reflected in the new patient paperwork or the signage that they have in office, just in their actions, systems, operations et cetera. So for us that's a vital part of our practice, both in our messaging in our paperwork and in our presence in the neighborhood.
Speaker 1:
So, dr Van, why is this so important to you? Oh, by the way, so before we got on here, I said what do you think that we should talk about in our recording, you know? And she said oh, I think that we should just talk about how fucking gay we are.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, we are pretty gay, yeah, pretty gay. So a quick story. So there have been several times where I have been in a clinic, chiropractic included where gender identity it wasn't honored. So what you're saying is, a person was misgendered. Yes, so the person was misgendered and unfortunately it caused quite the disruption and changes did come down the pike eventually in some arenas, but we've got a lot of work to do.
Speaker 1:
I think situations like that tend to surface, to show people and give them the message and give them opportunity to grow.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I mean, things are not perfect. We are not perfect, but we certainly are striving to create a space that's inclusive and affirming to every single person that walks on this earth.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I had a couple instances too in my experience, both when I was in the chiropractic program and then when I got out into my externship, where there were some really embarrassing situations and circumstances because the systems in place did not reflect just an inclusive environment. And at one point in my one externship I asked the owner do you think we can at least add an option for pronouns on the new patient paperwork? Because there was a situation where there was actually a trans man that came in for care and he had been completely misgendered by all the doctors and all the staff and I just felt really bad. It was actually a mortifying moment for me and it just woke me up to the fact that there is a need and if that never happened then even somebody like me who is in the queer community may not have actually known that that was needed.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I have similar stories. I mean, we hear about that happening more often than not and it's just something that we need to change the paradigm and we plan on being part of that change and evolution.
Speaker 1:
So if there are people that are interested in chiropractic care, how might they go about getting in touch with a stocker van?
Speaker 2:
So of course, you can see us or reach out to us on our social media pages. Sound chiropractic. We individually have public figure pages. Mine is Dr Van Broom that's an E at the end of Broom, jeanine Chourney, c-h-e-r-n-e-y. We also have our webpage, which is wwwsound-chiropracticcom. It's currently getting an adjustment here, but it will be live within the next few days or so. Publicers or so.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, we also have a sound chiropractic page on Facebook as well as Instagram. It's been quite a journey to actually get open. We are going to be picking up momentum with regular posting and doing some stories and reels. You know, when you're in that startup phase, there's just so much to be done. And social media I don't know if it's the same for everyone else or just me, but seems to be like a time suck that leads me down a rabbit hole. So I am working on being more efficient so you can definitely follow us there and we will be definitely posting a lot of stuff moving forward.
Speaker 2:
You can also reach out to us anytime at 631-699-2104. That's our office number. Feel free to give us a call if you want to talk chiropractic and or just have a conversation.
Speaker 1:
We believe that everybody that has a spinal cord should be under chiropractic care, because all disease processes, even aging and any kind of dysfunction or breakdown in the body, the root cause it always stems from the spine. Even Hippocrates said back in the 1800s look well to the spine for the cause of disease. And so when you understand that chiropractic care is much more than back in neck pain, which everybody thinks it's about, it's much more bigger than that and really our conversation is, we want to also shift the conversation that we have with people in our practice to look at it more as a proactive approach and preventative care and anti-aging, especially in the advent of all of the technology evolution. Everybody's on their phones and on laptops and I have.
Speaker 2:
We're seeing teenagers coming in with straight necks and with or curved reversal in their necks because they're looking down at the phone or device or computer. And so for us, we envision a world where people are under chiropractic care and that they're connected at the highest level so that they can go throughout life.
Speaker 1:
Connected Brain and spinal cord are connected. The nervous system is the boss of everything. The way I explain it to some of my patients is that the neck, especially where your brainstem is, where your brain turns into your spinal cord, is what I call the power throttle. It's your stadium lights. So imagine a football stadium with all the lights in a football field. If you throw that throttle down, all those lights go pshh and they light up. Everything else below the neck has an environment that it can function more optimally. So this isn't the place to talk about chiropractic care, but just to tell everybody that come in because it's not something that's reserved just for pain. In fact, pain is one of the last things in a process of dysfunction to surface.
Speaker 2:
We can impact your nervous system. Obviously, our goal is to keep you connected and well, throughout your lifetime.
Speaker 1:
So doing that, so you don't get to that point in the first place. Right, it's, chiropractic care from a preventive lens definitely helps your improve your quality of life. But anyway, you can read about us on our website. It's again sound-chiropracticcom. You can read about the two of us, you can read about our new practice and on our contact page you fill in your information if you would like to schedule an appointment with us.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, thank you for having me today.
Speaker 1:
I really appreciate that it was a blast Kit, and I usually end with a fun fact, dr Van, oh, really, yeah, would you happen to have anything fun in your back pocket?
Speaker 2:
Sure, so I was born on a bunk bed in the middle of a snowstorm. Actually, who delivered you? My grandmother and aunt. That is amazing. Thank you for sharing.
