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Hi, my name is Dr. Nathalie Beauchamp. Welcome to today’s show of Empowering Women in Chiropractic. I have a guest today, so I’m super excited. Dr. Tami Hartman will be joining us. Tami’s gonna share. Her journey into chiropractic. She’s been in practice for over 20 years. She’ll de give us the details on that.
She’s gonna share her journey in chiropractic in terms of her personal journey, but also we wanna get a look and feel on how she’s practicing because she is focusing on pediatrics. Thank you. Big thank you to ChiroSecure, to putting those shows on. This is all about sharing and Empowering Women in Chiropractic.
Hi, Tami. Hello. Hello. How are you? Awesome. So great to see you. So Tami, we’ve known each other for 15 years plus probably . Long time. Long time. And we’ve, Obviously don’t live in the same country, but we’ve stayed in touch throughout the year. So I have a good understanding I think of how you’re practicing.
But I think it’d be great to share that with people. But first, you had an interesting journey when it comes to your health. And you had to put all stuff, as we say, and really take care of yourself. So I’ll let you explain what happened, because I think it’s important for us doctors to know that we can’t take our health for granted as well.
And we do a lot for our health, and we’re in this field because we are health-minded. We live the chiropractic lifestyle. So it must have been extra challenging for you because you were already doing all of that. So I’ll let you run with that in terms of telling you, telling the audience where you practice and that challenging journey that you spend the last few years navigating.
Okay. That would be the last eight to nine years I’ve been navigating that. I’ve been in practice for 26 years. Started I, I started on my own, but I had bought into a pediatric practice, and that was in 1998. And I was on my own for about three years. I doubled that practice within the first year.
I, pediatrics and prenatal care was always my thing which is why I think it grew so well and became so successful because I never talked about anything else. I didn’t have back pain ads. I, my, my focus, my intention, my message was always that around the three year mark, I was, I. Quite busy.
I needed an associate, hired an associate, we grew the practice again, cuz that’s what happens when you bring, when you add more capacity, right? The universe of pores vacuum. So it fills up, which was a beautiful thing. We had a great run. Shall I say, my brother also became a chiropractor within that timeframe, and then he joined the practice too.
So then there was a time where we had. I had two associates, the, five staff members we were having the time of our lives. My one associate then moved back to Canada and it was my brother and myself. And then I met my soon-to-be husband. We got married, we had a couple of kids. And that’s when I started to see my health decline.
I am so thankful that I had my brother still with me as another doctor in the practice. I don’t know if I would have a practice today without that. But what wound up happening was it really started with crazy fatigue. That it was just, it was, I felt so weak and it. It’s amazing what fatigue will do to you, especially if you are a high energy person, which I’ve been my whole life.
You actually start to question, at least I did. If you should even still be a chiropractor, I started to think maybe this just wasn’t my purpose anymore because I had nothing to give anybody. I wound up taught I that this is where I learned about functional medicine. So everything has, everything serves right.
So I learned about functional medicine. I learned that I had amalgams that were most likely stealing my health, that I throughout when I was a kid, I had a lot of mercury put in my teeth. So I learned that from Dr. Dan Pompa. Thank you, Dan. That was amazing. But it just kept unraveling. So I would get a little bit better when I worked on the dental component.
And then I started getting these neurological symptoms. Then I wasn’t sleeping. I probably went about two years, sleeping about two to three hours a night. And then I learned I had Lyme, and when I started healing that I then we then found mold in our home. I then learned that mold triggers Lyme and makes your symptoms worse.
So there was a time where I thought I had Ms. Because those were, I had similar symptoms. It was a rollercoaster. I went through every emotion you could imagine. Again, you said it in the beginning of this interview, right? That we live this chiropractic lifestyle. This isn’t supposed to happen to us
It happens to other people. It doesn’t happen to us. I was doing everything right. How could this have happened? Anger, guilt. I feel as though when I graduated I made a I don’t know, a pact with the universe, that I was going to change the world and all of a sudden I couldn’t change a thing.
I wasn’t doing anybody any good. My kids too, right? So I had to totally stop and I think if I, we’re sharing to the women in chiropractic, I think this is really big because we do live in a culture that teaches us that we are worthy if we’re producing. If we’re creating value, if we’re helping people, especially as women, if we’re the helpers, I had to relearn all of that, and I had to slow down.
And I recall, I remember patient Gary B came in one day and he was just ranting to me. He was just rushing and rushing, and he finally sat down. He got adjusted and he said, I don’t get it. He said, where are we all going ? Where are we all rushing to, like toward death? Like why are we trying to rush through life?
And that was very powerful. Cause that was at a time, I wasn’t feeling that great. Mind you, I still looked fine, right? , this isn’t th these things I’m talking about don’t show up really physically so people still think you’re okay. I still had a staff that was Totally packing my schedule going, you can do it, Dr.
T, you’ve got this. Cause no one really understood I had to totally slow down. And I thank Gary for that little aha moment because again, I’m here. I am so frustrated thinking I’m doing all the things. But what do I tell my patients? We are mind, body, spirit. We’re not human doings. We’re human beings.
. So the first half of my career I spent working around the clock and I loved every minute of it. I never felt burnt. I felt like I was living out God’s purpose for me. But I also realized that in that hustle, I wasn’t really doing anything for me. , I, so I was getting adjusted.
I tell everybody needs to know not really the people that are listening to the show, but I tell every single patient that if it weren’t for chiropractic, I don’t know where I’d be today. Chiropractic and my brother taking over the practice when I really couldn’t do it right. But at the very least, it gave me that foundation.
Of which to continue to heal. I already had a strong foundation going into this. Turns out, I don’t know when I got the tick bite, it could have been years ago. It was a chronic situation that, that became triggered over a series of stressful events. But either way, I found myself in a situation where I needed to literally come to a halt, and that was so hard and my lessons in that.
Were so many, congruency was a big one because inside out is how we live, but I realized that a lot of is how what we preach. And of course I always knew that with health, but everything else was outside in. And even the sicker I got, the more I looked to the gurus, like the more I kept thinking someone else had the answer.
. And I it took a lot of deep inner work, a lot of work with my life coach. I have a lot of, my life coach. I have to thank, I think everybody needs some sort of mentoring, some sort of coaching that, that she really pulled me through a lot and kept reminding me in my darkest days that God is using this right, that God is using this for fuel.
I will come back stronger. And it’s really beautiful to see the, I’m on the other side. I still have some work to do. Sleep isn’t great, but six hours, six, seven hours a night is really good. From two to three, cognitive not, I’m still working on it, but I’m getting there. But what I had to do was go from this mindset of I’m doing everything to who am I being?
So I had to come back to myself and I had to take a moment to stop pouring into everyone else and take all of that love and all of that energy and bring it back to me. Yeah, but I think we are problem solver, right? This is what we do all day long with our patients and in your case with the kids and so forth.
I can only imagine how it must have been hard to not be able to solve your own problem. And I’m assu I can only assume with. Your cognitive function not being there, that even if you had some knowledge, you can’t even think. True. I have a friend of mine who had a diagnosis of cancer years ago, and she phoned me up and she says I need help.
I can’t think, and took the lead with her for, a few weeks just so she can get her bearings and find out and figure out your, her strategy. But I think it’s just a normal feeling. Considering the situation and I so agree with you that we all need mentoring. I love that word more than probably coaching because, we need guidance, especially when it’s new territory.
So happy that you’re on the other side, Tami, and as you said it’s still a work in progress. And thank you for sharing this lesson. But from. Where you are right now. What’s different about Tami today versus Tami nine years ago on who you are? Oh, so I dropped the superwoman image belief story.
It’s gone. I have a lot of help. I have a nanny a few days a week. She does my grocery shopping. She does a lot of the cooking. She does a lot of the cleaning. I get to just focus on my genius. I no longer have to be all things to all people. I get to spend my time and energy on my own self-care, my own spirit, my practice members, and most importantly, my, my children.
I no longer go. I savor the transitions of life. I hope I could share this message really powerfully. Life is meant to be enjoyed and truly lived. I have such a peace now, years ago, peace to me. Seemed boring. . I felt I’ll be peaceful when I’m dead. . I’ll when I’m dead.
And now that, this sense of peace, it, there used to be a sense of angst. I what was next? What I ha, what did I have to do? So now there’s this calm, there’s this peace that is beautiful for my own self because I’ve regulated my nervous system. My nervous system feels calm. But I’m also transferring that energy to my practice and my children.
So I get to see how that has shifted as well. I spend a lot of time in nature. I spend a lot of time in reflection. I do I do earthing every single day. I, there I, there’s not a day where meditation isn’t. A part of what I do. So I, yeah, that, that’s huge. That’s huge. A lot of the pretenses are gone and it’s just my heart and that’s where I’m living from now.
My, not my head, not what I should be doing, but what I, every day I ask myself, what do I need? Because you can’t give from an empty cup. We all know that. And I’ve told people that for years. I’m just actually living it now. Yeah and we can feel it who’s out of you, which is wow. Like it’s just such a good reminder for us to live in the moment and be satisfied because you said it at the beginning that we are taught that to be.
Successful, we have to be producing and always, and society, let alone in the chiropractic world, in society. It’s just constant phone, constant dopamine hit, and what’s next? What’s next? So it is even more important now to. Get out of the technology, go in nature and make sure that we re resource.
I always say to, to my patient, why is it that we need a life event for us to pay attention to our health? And your case, it’s not like you had planned it, it’s just sounds by the sounds of it Course of situation that had you unfortunately have the perfect storm to have those symptoms.
But I think it is part of what we could do as chiropractor is to shed some light. For our patients on their behavior, and hopefully teach them, but also empower them to take control of their health as best as they can. And also that, they’re not humans doing they’re human beings and bringing that component into your practice.
How are you doing it, Tami? If I went to your practice nine years ago and I’m in your practice now, what does it look like? I actually have breaks in my main shifts. Okay. Where I just, I, the break is for me. I’m not going from now I do have blocks of patients that I see and then I will take a little break and.
Years back, my break would be, okay, let me answer some emails. Let me, no, I, there’s no technology. It’s just breathing. It’s breathing, it’s re-centering. It’s just reminding myself why I am doing what I’m doing. I wanna stay centered and grounded. That’s, I am the best chiropractor I’ve ever been right now.
And I’m seeing more people than I have in a really long time. Cause I had a, I had to work my way back up to that. But we have a waiting list right now for new patients to come on in, which is, Great. I don’t want them to wait all that long but it’s where I’m at.
But I’m also, I have boundaries around that, whereas before, okay, I don’t want the new patient to wait. Maybe I even came from a scarcity mindset that maybe they’d go somewhere else. There’s none of that anymore. Before I’d maybe come in a little bit earlier, maybe I’d stay a little bit later.
Now it’s snow. Here. Here it is. Here it is cuz I still have to take care of me too. So that’s really important. And I, even though I’ve always been pediatrics in pregnancy, I have more moms and babies now than ever. And I think it’s because I can relate. I couldn’t relate to the moms before. Even though I was them.
I didn’t think I was in my in my mind. . Yeah. It’s, I don’t know. I don’t know what that, what you call that but being in that position, I now see it so clearly and I come from a place, I’ve lived it. I have been there and I can help them. And I tell them just what you said, I please don’t wait for a life event to change everything.
I do believe we learn the most through adversity. I do believe that, and I no longer fear adversity. I know I have such a confidence in myself now that I can handle it. That was a huge thing my life coach said to me at one point. She’s do you hear yourself years ago when something happens?
The first thing you say is, oh, no I don’t think I can handle this. And I had changed that self-talk and then I had to live it to show that no, I can handle it, and if I don’t have the answers, I will find someone that does, but I can handle it. So I get to impart that wisdom onto my new moms especially.
And reminds them. What I had to be reminded of is that we are powerful, magical, sacred beings, to take care of their minds and their spirit as well as their body. And never, ever forget never forget that exists within each and every one of us. That is powerful.
So we could chat for hours on your practice and so forth. If there’s younger female chiropractors, you’ve been in practice 26. I’m on 27. And is there, if you were listening to this 15 years ago, we’ll go even further. What do you think? You could hear that would have an impact on designing your practice and designing your career.
And I know sometime we have to hit a wall, unfortunately, that’s just our patient, ourselves included sometime. We do need that hard stop, but what would you want to share with the young female chiropractors that are maybe juggling it all right now? Like a couple wis wisdom pearls of wisdom.
Find your boundaries. Take care of yourself, we, and be in integrity with the message that you’re giving your patients. So if you are telling your patients to slow down and do certain stress relieving techniques, and you better be doing it, . You don’t need all the things. I wish I would’ve known that I would’ve saved myself thousands and thousands of dollars.
What I need are my my, my hands, my heart. Yeah. I need to speak, words that come from the heart. Enter the heart, right? So I don’t wanna talk to the parents from this. Dr. Lee Book, smart Place. I’m talking to them from my heart, what I know to be true. Whoever in the conversation, the person with the most certainty wins.
So being certain of who you are, what you have to offer, knowing that children need us now more than ever. Helping parents understand their own stress responses, how that’s wiring into their children. How that stress response gets stuck. If it gets stuck within those first three years of life, they could literally spend the rest of their lifetime dealing with the consequences of chronic stress and chronic fight or flight.
Most importantly, you’ve got your hands, you’ve got your heart, you’ve got good communication. I love the C technologies. I think that’s important. . Bringing it back to the nervous system and being be the person who, if find someone to emulate or just know in your heart who the highest vision of yourself is, and live into that every day.
That’s so I can’t add much to that. This was so empowering, Tami, so thank you so much for sharing your insight and being, being raw about, your situation as well and not being shy to, to share. I think there, that’s, This shows so much strength from you to be able to do that.
So I thank you. I probably needed to hear that today and to slow down. So thank you so much. Tami if people wanna reach you, I’m sure your clinic is in New Jersey if they want to. Yes. Door is always open to other female chiropractors. My email is Dr. Nathalie, DrNathalieBeauchamp.com. What is your email, Tami, if people wanna reach you?
Hello? It’s they can either do chiro Tami, c h i r o t a m i 72 gmail.com. They can go onto our website, which is totalwellnessofnj.com and I am actually going to be looking for a female associate soon. So if someone’s looking for that, reach out to me as well. There we go. Again, thank you so much.
I so appreciate you. Thank you very much. Thank you for the opportunity. Thanks. So this was Dr. Nathalie Beachamp with my good friend Dr. Tami Hartman. Thank you so much for tuning in to Empowering Women in Chiropractic, and thanks again for to ChiroSecure for putting these shows together. And don’t be shy to reach out if you have any comments or questions.
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