…looking for answers and studying body-mind medicine, an interest of mine as an undergraduate student. The clinical and scientific reality of the relationship between our life experiences, our physical ailments and our emotional state have been well documented by the Medical, Bio-medical and Psychiatric communities over the past 10 years, but prior to that they were diagnosed and treated separately.

But not in my practice. In order to treat my patients wholistically I became certified in Cranio-Sacral Therapy, Network Spinal Analysis, and Hakomi - Body-centered psychotherapy.

As an example, early in my practice I noticed some patients didn’t respond to treatment the way I expected. Even though most recovered as planned, it was those that didn’t that began to get more and more of my attention. As with so many of us, I was putting more focus on what wasn’t working, rather than all that was. I was determined to discover why some responded to treatment, and a few didn’t.

One day I was treating a woman with debilitating low back pain and noticed the severe spasm in her back muscles. I touched her gently where the spasm was the worst and asked her what she noticed. She burst into tears as she described how her life was coming apart, both at home and work. After the session, her tension and pain had substantially released. It became clear to me how the impact of mental/emotional strain or trauma could be held in the body. Before this I held the still common misperception that mind and body were separate.

The injuries, wounds, and trauma that most people experience are far more complex and layered than what is taught at either Chiropractic or Medical schools…and for good reason. Burdening doctoral students with more than the anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, biomechanics, neurology, nutrition and other coursework is not possible. But the answer is not to separate mind/emotional health from physical health – it is to bring them closer together.

All mainstream approaches to health and healthcare remain in the body-as-machine paradigm. My practice operates in an emerging paradigm in order to achieve real healing for my patients.

After many years of learning and practicing, I am so grateful to work with each patient as an individual with their wounds, resources and motivations. From this starting point, a client can literally choose the level of change they wish to bring to their life; from simple pain relief to becoming the best version of themselves possible.