Our next Member Spotlight focuses on someone who truly does it all. Gitte Tønner is a 2004 University of Southern Denmark graduate who has been keeping herself busy since entering the profession. Within two months of graduation, Gitte was moved and starting practice in the Netherlands.
Gitte believes in the use of any modality she can rationally justify to get her patients better in the short term and healthier in the long run. She endeavors to run an ethical practice. To her, this means informing people in what she does, meaning working with their GPs or specialist when deemed necessary and that if her patients wish to work towards longer term results, she'll then talk posture, exercise, diet and supplementation.
Her leadership resume in itself is impressive::
- 2002, 2003 SDU Head Delegate to the World Congress of Chiropractic Students
- 2004 Vice Chair of the World Congress of Chiropractic Students
- 2005 Chair of the World Congress of Chiropractic Students
- 2005-2008 Secretary and Executive Board Member of the Netherlands' Chiropractors' Association
- 2012 National Organizing Chair, European Chiropractors' Union
She currently serves as the Convention Academic Organizer for the European Chiropractors' Union (since May 2013) and as Treasurer for the Netherlands' Chiropractors' Association (since October 2013).
You can find her featured in the following publications:
http://www.chiropractic-ecu.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Backspace-Oct-2014.pdf
Check out her website too!
FTCA: What experiences did you have as a student that helped mold you into the chiropractor and female leader that you are today?
GT: One of the qualities I admire most in others is what I try to cultivate in myself: curiousity. So out of curiosity I arranged a student trip to the AECC in 2001 – 28 Danish students invaded the English college for a few days to see what it was all about. There I met a few WCCS members and they made us a formal invitation to apply for membership, and I founded/headed the delegation that travelled to Davenport in 2002. As a writer for our faculty magazine, I traveled to CMCC and Western States to interview key people, and as head delegate for our WCCS Chapter I’ve been to UQTR, Sherman and University of Johannesburg. Through these visits and WCCS meetings, I’ve built up a nice network of colleagues around the world.
There’s no escaping the fact that I’m a girl, but I don’t think my gender matters tremendously in the positions I hold. If I’m a leader, I’m a reluctant one at that – I think we should all play to our strengths, and I like to organize and facilitate. As a chiropractor, I’m very influenced by the experiences I underwent as a student through the treatment by Carsten Noddeskou in Denmark. After 10 years of daily headaches, he was my 4th chiropractor and because he assessed my whole body and not just neck, we got lasting results that I hadn’t achieved in the past. I blame my foot fetish on him.
FTCA: What advice do you have for current students who want to practice as you do?
GT: Work for someone else, you’ll learn from it regardless. Before I opened my own practice, I worked in 9 practices for longer and shorter periods of time – this has given me an idea of different practice/management styles and techniques, and made it very easy to avoid pitfalls for my own business. Part of the reason I was needed in those short-term positions was that some colleagues were suffering from stress; they’d worked too much in the beginning of their career and were falling apart. So I take it easy, as I want to never have to retire because my body/mind can’t handle it anymore.
FTCA: What advice do you have for other female chiropractors?
GT: The same as for male chiropractors… get involved, there’s always positions to fill in your local organization. If you don’t like the current status of it, change it from the inside. There’s enough that sit passively by and criticize – roll up your sleeves and get on with it!
FTCA: What makes you so freaking awesome!?
GT: (blushing) I genuinely love what I do. I’m in it for life and to improve lives, not the money.
FTCA: How do you balance your personal and professional lives?
GT: Not very well, or the lines are at best blurred. I’ve chosen not to have children, and that certainly gives me a freedom to work more on extracurricular things like the national association and ECU. I’m not saying you can’t do both; just that this works for me.
FTCA: How long do you spend with the average patient?
GT: I work without a receptionist, so I book 30 minutes per patient (that includes payment and making a new appointment). If it’s a neuro case, I’ll sometimes book 45-60 minutes.
FTCA: If you could only recommend one seminar, which one would it be and why?
GT: What really made my understanding of complex physiological matters jump to a new level was the Neurochemistry and Nutrition series from the Carrick Institute, and especially being taught directly by Datis Kharazzian and Brandon Brock.
FTCA: What's the most rewarding part of your day?
GT: Beginning, middle and end: beginning with looking down on my list of patients; middle where the stuff we do every day is still so much fun, so simple and profound; end where I lock up my practice and know I did what I could that day.
FTCA: What drew you to the Netherlands after finishing school in Denmark?
GT: A sense of adventure, of being not done with travelling and if that entailed learning a new language, so be it. What has made me stay is a sense that I can put my energy to good use to advance my profession here, in any small way I can.
FTCA: How has your international experience made you unique in practice?
GT: I don’t know if it’s made me unique, and if I am if the international aspects have added to that - but I think I’m more likely to think outside the spinal box than had I stayed put in Denmark.
FTCA: How has being a member of the FTCA been beneficial to you?
GT: As most active members (on Facebook) are in the States, it’s been enlightening to observe the issues going on over there, and I hope to bring a European perspective to the game.