Tell us about Vitality Chiropractic & Wellness.
It’s a wellness center incorporating everything from chiropractic and nutrition to massage therapy, cranio-sacral and muscle-based therapies. People can choose to take it all in or just come in for chiropractic care, depending upon their health goals.
My main focus is chiropractic care, which is based on the body’s innate intelligence. Everyone is born with the ability to heal their body themselves. When you have a paper cut and mom kisses it and puts a Band-Aid on and it heals, it’s not the Band-Aid and the kiss that healed it, it’s your own body. That healing is organized by the nervous system, the communication from brain to body through our nerves. Chiropractic is all about removing interference from the system so the body can heal to its best potential. Then we support that with whatever services might be needed, whether that’s nutrition, so your body has the building blocks to heal itself more thoroughly, or fascia care because you have scar tissue that’s inhibiting the way you’re moving. We’re looking at the whole body and getting it to a place where it can create its best healing.
I have a wide variety of training, from trigger point type work to fascia release, either hands-on or with a metal tool. I’m also trained in using kinesio-tape. I work with a very light, gentle touch. My care is not the same as most traditional chiropractors. There’s no force—no rapid twisting, no ‘snap-crackle-pop.” I utilize all of these tools to release the body—the fascia, the muscles, the bones in misalignment, and the body as a whole, which can leave people a little bit more sore because they’re going through all these layers, but they tend to get better results and hold on to care much longer.
What prompted you to go into this field?
I actually didn’t know what chiropractic was. My first degree was in Medical Office Specialty- which is billing, coding, medical transcription. My husband and I had relocated to Wisconsin for his job, and I found a position with a very large chiropractic office. I slowly began to fall in love with chiropractic as I watched patients heal without surgery, without medication, by their own bodies’ abilities. Gradually, I became more hands-on with them, doing therapies and histories and taking blood pressures as a chiropractic assistant, then as an x-ray technician.
I was probably about twenty-three when I herniated a disc in my lower back by very stubbornly moving furniture all on my own. Instead of going to the emergency room and getting pain killers, I chose to go to the chiropractors. They helped me heal completely without taking anything more than ibuprofen and it was amazing! After seeing how they could help me heal from something so severe, I knew this was something I needed to do.
I went to Palmer College of Chiropractic, which teaches one of the largest varieties of techniques available. You learn seven different ways of moving any one bone, plus they offer thirty different electives. So I have a base of a dozen different techniques I draw from, such as Gonstead, Diversified, and Thompson. I don’t practice from any single technique; my chiropractic draws from all of them as well as my soft tissue techniques and energy healing–LaHo-Chi, Reiki, Angel Light. My method is very different from person to person, based on what’s needed and what each body best responds to.
What have you learned from having this practice?
I’ve learned how incredibly powerful our healing capabilities are. When I started my practice in July 2016, I was using force chiropractic techniques. The more I introduced light touch, muscle, fascia, and cranial work, the faster patients’ pain went away, the longer the pain went away, and the more they were getting results like better energy, easier movement, and increased stamina in their workouts. The more I relied on their bodies to do the work and really communicated with their bodies versus forcing the body to move and hoping it accepts that force, the more I saw great results. I’ve moved to completely non-force tonal techniques, working with the tone of the nervous system, and my patients love it. A lot of my patients are scared of the “snap-crackle-pop.” My practice offers a safe space where they don’t feel intimidated or worried.
What do you enjoy most about your work?
I love being hands-on. Fifteen minutes is usually standard for a chiropractic appointment. Mine are a half-hour because we’re working head to toe. That gives us time to talk. Some say nothing; they just completely get in the zone, sometimes even snoring. Other times, we talk about anything and everything. That might include what’s going on in their lives and with their health. That might mean talking nutritional strategies. That’s what I love the most: when we can take the time one-on-one to dive deep into their health and healing, and discover what else we can do to support their health nutritionally and emotionally, so it’s not only about coming in and getting adjusted.
What are your biggest challenges with your work?
Leaving my work in the office. Being in a small community, I see my patients everywhere. If I see a patient who’s hurting and there are no openings, it’s hard not go in on off hours to help her, and sometimes I have. But I realize my family and my husband need time, and I need time to be the best caregiver I can be.
What are the latest developments in your practice?
The care I give is always evolving. The more I learn, the more I can bring to the table for my patients. Recently, I traveled to Minneapolis for training in network spinal analysis. I’ve been incorporating these new techniques and seeing some great results.
We’re looking at how to offer some deeper-dive sessions, especially for my auto-immune and inflamed patients. They can get in a cycle where they feel better after some care and then inflammation creeps back up. We’re looking at ways to break those sorts of cycles, which might mean more intensive care kinds of sessions and incorporating more things into their care.
What are your hopes and plans for the future?
We’re thinking in the next year or two we’ll expand our team. Our schedule has been beautifully full, so I have started putting feelers out for a second chiropractor and maybe a second massage therapist, so we can serve more people and make it a little easier for them to be scheduled at times convenient for them.
Next year, I’m taking leadership training in California and training in Colorado next fall where I’ll immerse myself in all the different non-force, tonal chiropractic techniques available.
What else do you think people should know?
Chiropractic is really for everyone–the brand-new baby, pregnant mama, children, adults, elderly, athletes. Everyone can benefit from it. The birthing process can be traumatic to the infant’s spine and back, so getting those into alignment early on allows that baby to be its healthiest and heal to its fullest. That can affect things like lodging with breastfeeding, colic, and more. Chiropractic releases your healing ability, so it’s really for everyone.
Excerpted with permission from Health & Happiness U.P. Magazine, Winter 2018-19 Issue, copyright 2018. All rights reserved.
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