I have a thing I say when the school year winds down and kids start talking about moving up to the next grade. In my house, we talk about who is a rising third grader or a rising fifth grader. And when I sat down to introduce Diana Palacios to this podcast, I realized I had the perfect version of that for our world: she is a doctor rising.
She is not quite licensed yet. She is in that beautiful, terrifying in-between space where all the work is done and the finish line is right there. And I wanted to share her story now, before the ink is dry on the license, because I think the journey is worth knowing.
Born and Raised in LA, Raised on a Dream
Diana grew up in Los Angeles, born to parents who immigrated from Central America with a dream to build a better life. As she got older, her family kept moving to safer and safer neighborhoods, each move a reflection of what her parents were working toward. She internalized that drive early: get a great education, work hard, do something great.
She always knew she wanted to be some kind of doctor. She just did not know which kind yet.
Her first introduction to chiropractic was not a great one. She was in a car accident and her insurance sent her to a chiropractor who gave her an adjustment with no explanation and no follow-through. She did not go back. She filed chiropractic under "not for me" and moved on.
Years later, a second rear-end collision. This time she just pushed through it, took medication, and kept going. But years of being misaligned caught up with her eventually in the form of back pain and a feeling that she could not fully breathe. Her primary doctor was about to prescribe antibiotics, which she knew made no sense. She knew she was not sick.
A coworker at the ophthalmologist's office where she was working said: I have a chiropractor. Go see her.
That one conversation changed the entire direction of her life.
The Adjustment That Opened Everything
Diana walked into Dr. Anita Morgenstern's office and received her first real chiropractic adjustment. When she got off the table, she could breathe. The pressure that had been sitting in her chest was gone. Everything seemed brighter.
It was traditional chiropractic, not Blair upper cervical, but it did exactly what it was supposed to do: it showed her what was possible when the body is given the right environment to heal. She walked in skeptical and walked out converted.
At the time she was taking prerequisites for nursing school, already in her thirties, already building toward something. One adjustment later, she changed course completely. If chiropractic could do that, she wanted to be the one doing it.
She enrolled in chiropractic school.
How She Found Well Connected
Diana found her way to Well Connected through a practitioner she had worked with, who had been a patient of mine. She reached out, came in, spent time getting to know the practice and the philosophy. And eventually she came on as a student intern.
That was about 18 months ago. In that time, she has become one of the most dedicated, warm, and genuinely gifted young doctors I have ever had the pleasure of training. She takes care of me. She keeps my head on straight so I can keep taking care of everybody else. I do not say that lightly.
What She Lost and What She Carried
I want to say something about the timing of Diana's board exams, because it matters and because it says everything about who she is.
She lost her dad. Suddenly. Right around the time she was supposed to be sitting for her boards.
She took them anyway. Not right away, and not easily. She told me it was her dad cheering her on that pushed her through. He had been so proud of the path she had chosen, so invested in where she was going. She sat for those boards carrying his pride alongside her grief, and she kept going.
I told her: the adversity you have had to overcome, most people would not have stuck it out the way you have. Every setback, she treats as a lesson. Every hard moment, she uses to get better. That is not something you can teach. That is character.
We have survived 100% of the hardest days of our lives. That is a really good track record. And Diana Palacios has one of the best I have ever seen.
A Doctor Rising
Diana is finishing her final board requirements and will be seeing patients at Well Connected very soon. I have full confidence in her clinically, professionally, and personally. She brings a warmth and a presence to this practice that makes everyone around her better, including me.
She is the embodiment of what I want this practice to be: a place where people come in with their life and their set of circumstances and their trauma and their desire to move in a better direction, and they find someone who genuinely gets it. Because Diana has lived it.
Her parents came here from Central America with a dream. That dream became a daughter who is about to become a doctor. I have no doubt her dad is watching and he is so proud.
Welcome to Well Connected, Dr. Palacios Rising.
Listen to the full conversation with Diana Palacios on the Well Connected Podcast: Live Your Life in Alignment. Available wherever you get your podcasts.
Find us at wellconnectedchiro.com.
