Four Pillars of Chiropractic Success

This year Life West added four incredible chiropractors to key leadership positions on campus. These brilliant hearts and minds are already making a shining mark of excellence on the campus.

Dr. Bourla: Dean of Clinics

As the Dean of Clinics, Dr. Bourla is responsible to oversee the clinical portion of each student’s experience on campus.

What brought you to chiropractic? My first wife had an amazing story with chiropractic where she regained use of her legs after having awakened paralyzed for no apparent reason. That experience began our years of chiropractic care, not for symptom relief, but because we understood that a body free of vertebral subluxation was a body better able to self-heal, self-regulate, and adapt. My son’s incredible story at birth during which a chiropractic adjustment enabled him to live is what keeps me in chiropractic.

What brought you to Life West? I still practice and I am active in a number of chiropractic organizations. I believe that when we are called to serve at our highest ability, we never can do enough. I have been a big fan of Life West for years, despite not being an alumnus. The vibe here is one of encouragement, progression, diversity and acceptance. Those qualities fit in with my personal life preferences. I heard about the open position at Life West, I met the incredible team, and I wanted to contribute.

What do you LOVE about Life West? I love working with POSSIBILITIES. We often see people settling for what is probable. Life West offers the ability to expand to what is possible. We are exposing our students to that which makes our profession separate and unique — our philosophy. This will distinguish us from all other chiropractic colleges and ultimately from all other healing arts.

What do you plan to accomplish in 2018? We desire to have our graduates described as the best trained DCs to leave a chiropractic college. They will leave with the certainty of why, what and how they do what they do. We are building a business institute in which our students and recent graduates can participate to improve their communication and business skills, leading to excellence in building value for their patients and improving patient retention in practice. We are planning the expansion of our sanctioned service trips to include China, Fiji, Latin America and more. 2018 will focus on fine-tuning our processes so that our graduates possess those skills and have those resources that are needed for them to serve their communities with the utmost confidence that their patients deserve.

Dr. MacIntyre: Dean of Clinical Education

Dr. MacIntyre is responsible for bridging the gap between clinical education and the reality of clinical practice. Ultimately, her job is to ensure the transition from student to doctor.

What brought you to chiropractic? When I was in University, my father died from brain cancer. As a young neuroscience student, it was my first up close and personal experience with conventional medicine. I was underwhelmed with the allopathic approach. This began my lifelong pursuit to understand the complex, incredible nature of body, mind and spirit. Chiropractic provided so many unanswered questions for me. I am inspired every day by the capacity of chiropractic to facilitate our body’s ability to heal from within.

What brought you to Life West? My wife tells this great story about following a girl to chiropractic school. I was that girl. I guess it’s payback time because I followed her here to Life West! A mentor once told me that you know you are on the right path in life when everything you do leads you to this moment. Every day, in every way, I am fulfilling my life path. Right now, that means turning students into exceptional chiropractors.

What do you LOVE about Life West? That’s the easiest question to answer — the students. My mission has always been to empower people with a greater understanding of health, the human body and its expression. My mission gets translated in to reality every day working with students. What I love is also what I am most grateful for.

What do you plan to accomplish in 2018? Personally, I plan to carve out more time to focus on something I love — creative expression, which for me is working with pottery. Professionally, I am excited to be evolving clinical training for our chiropractic students that is next level. You’ll have to stay tuned for more on that.

Dr. Tayal: Philosophy Department Chair

Dr. Tayal is responsible for the classes in the philosophy department, including the business and research courses. While not heavy on boards material, these classes are crucial for success in life and practice.

What brought you to chiropractic? I never had the adjustment that changed my life. I thought I would be a traditional MD until I met a chiropractor at a career fair at my undergrad school in Canada. She simply asked “have you ever thought about being a chiropractor?” I hadn’t. I realized in that moment that I didn’t know anything about chiropractic, so I asked her what they do. She told me that the spine protects the nervous system, and misalignments in the spine can cause the nervous system to work improperly. The idea of the subluxation inspired me from the get-go. It sounded like such a big idea, and when I investigated and saw chiropractic in action, I couldn’t deny it. It’s amazing how such a simple concept can be so profound for so many.

What brought you to Life West? I went to school here, graduated from here and really love the college. I am grateful for what Life West provided for me and I couldn’t be happier to give back. I love practicing chiropractic and I also love teaching, so I’m looking to get my license in CA and hopefully be able to do both. Teaching chiropractic students how to be successful is very important to me, and I couldn’t be more thankful to come back to Life West to make this happen!

What do you LOVE about Life West? I love the community at Life West. We understand the ways of the Universe and understand how we can apply universal laws to our health, our bodies and our lives. We care about humanity and are excited about making an impact.

What do you plan to accomplish in 2018? I plan to bring about many positive changes to the philosophy and business classes here at the college. In philosophy, I’m implementing ways to not only strengthen their understanding of the roots of chiropractic, but also focusing on developing their ability to communicate the uniqueness of what we do. In the business world, Dr. Jack Bourla and I are going to be creating a ‘Business Institute’ for our students and graduates to give them a solid resource to help develop their business skills. My goal is to get the program to the point where our grads can all point back to this program and say that this is why they were successful.

Dr. Bhogal: Technique Department Chair

Dr. Bhogal’s role is to oversee the technique education at Life West. His focus is to empower and celebrate the technique faculty as they work tirelessly to share the finer points of the art of chiropractic while providing students with a smooth and well-rounded educational experience as it relates to quality instruction, accessibility to information, and exposure to budding thoughts and technology.

What brought you to chiropractic? In my early 20’s, I was dealing with debilitating health concerns. Chiropractic found me just as much as I found it. Little did I know it chose me to perpetuate the principles as an educaTOR.

What brought you to Life West? After 15 years of teaching at Palmer Davenport, it was time for a change. I needed a more congruent environment where my skills and passion for chiropractic had a deeper and more lasting meaning and impact. As hard as it was to pull up the anchor I had dropped in Davenport, I felt I still had 25 more quality years left of teaching and learning to do. Life West was the best fit.

What do you LOVE about Life West? I absolutely LOVE the thirst for knowledge and the vitalistic energy here. I can’t go ten steps down the hallway before I’m immersed in a genuine conversation about chiropractic. I live for this stuff! The kindness from everyone has made the transition so smooth. I come to work every day and my GPS tells me, “You have arrived.” I always answer, “YES, I HAVE!”

What you plan to accomplish in the next year? I will continue to get to know the amazing technique faculty here. They are a very hard-working group and I admire their dedication. I will be working with the team to reorganize the existing curriculum for better flow. This will include a focused emphasis on subluxation analysis and its application in all technique circles. I also want to create more opportunities for students to practice the art of detection as well as correction. Working with Student Council has been incredibly productive and I look forward to more exciting student-centric changes.

Written By: Mary Lucus Flannery

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