First Visit
Your Chiropractor is primary health care trained. He will take a history specific to your presenting complaint along with general medical history questions.
Questions the will ask will be such as how long have you had it, where is the pain and what is the nature of the pain, Was makes it better or worse
When he is satisfied that he has all the information that he need he will carry out a neurological and physical exam to gain more information on what your complaint is.
When he has finished the examination he will tell you what he has found and what he can do to help.
You will be adjusted on the first visit.
If you are in pain then we will give you advice on what you can do to help before your first visit.
Report of Findings
The Chiropractor will, again, run through the findings of the examination with you. He will then propose a plan of care based on these findings and how he expects your body to heal based on his experience.
He will discuss with you the benefits of Chiropractic adjustments, the benefits and what is likely to happen in the future should you decide not to start care.
The Chiropractor will then adjust the levels of the spine and / or extremities that have been found to have Chiropractic Subluxations and confirm the adjustments have been successful by re-examining you.
Future Visits
Care is gradually broken down into 3 key stages.
Stage 1 is acute care. You have symptoms and your body is not able to heal itself. More regular visits are needed to support your nervous system and body to enable it to start to heal. At this stage you may not see much movement forward, but the tests that your Chiropractor runs may show some early stage.
Stage 2 is rehabilitative care. Your body has started to heal and your symptoms are lessening. Less frequent visits are needed to keep the momentum moving forward. This is a relatively unstable phase and we occasionally see bodies slip back into "old habits". But usually it is easy to move the momentum forward again quite easily.
Stage 3 is the optimal health phase of care. This we recommend for long term wellness. It is impossible to heal patients as they will, often not be able to make the lifestyle decisions that can keep them in good health.
How quickly you move though the stages will depend on many factors. severity, chronicity, general health, attitude. We will give you as much support as we can to help you through your journey.
Reviews
These reviews can be considered as snap shots of your life that take into account the chemical, physical and emotional stresses that you are going through and how your body is responding to your care. Based on these results you will hopefully be able to make better lifestyle decisions.
Optimal Function/Wellness care
We recommend some form of continuing care for all our patients to help improve their health status.
Our lead Chiropractor, Richard Southam, has been receiving regular Chiropractic adjustments now for over 25 years and he regularly adjusts his family to maintain the balance of their nervous systems.
Research is showing that some form of ongoing care can have a wide range of effects on health. Please see our research section for some examples.
Acute care
On going care is not for all. We have a lot of patients who attend for symptomatic relief from their aches and pains.
Whatever you decide is best for you we will support you. Our interest is in your health and in supporting you in any way that you feel meets your needs.