Frequently Asked Questions

So, who are chiropractors? They are people that focus on health and wellbeing, who have studied the spine, the nervous system and how the body functions in order to express health and quality of life.

What are chiropractors? Chiropractors are people who analyse, detect and adjust vertebral subluxation.
Now, let me give a really clear distinction between what a vertebral subluxation is and what it’s not. Most people, when they come to a chiropractor, they feel like there’s a “bone out of place,” and that “bone out of place” is causing them either pain, mobility issues or functional issues.

Firstly, there isn’t a true “bone out of place.” It’s way beyond the scope of this Q&A to answer exactly what a subluxation is or what a “bone out of place” is or isn’t. Suffice to say, normally, there is mechanical dysfunction—meaning, the joint doesn’t move through its full and natural range of motion. It’s not that it’s out of place or in place; it’s that it’s not moving the way it’s intended—and that change in movement alters the nervous system function and how the brain and body communicates and connects.

So, to analyse and detect a vertebral subluxation means to analyse and find where the subluxation exists, where there is a change in function of the spine and how it alters the nervous system.

As chiropractors, we analyse the spine and nervous system, and when we detect altered function (mechanical or neurological), then we adjust that area to restore function. To do this, we apply a gentle force, called an adjustment.

That adjustment allows the normalisation of spinal function and mobility AND normalises the brain-body communication and the body’s ability to express health.

Who are chiropractors? Highly trained and highly qualified people who analyse, detect and adjust vertebral subluxation to remove interference to your body’s healing potential so that you can express better health and life.

Summary:

Chiropractors are highly trained professionals who specialise in analysing, detecting, and adjusting vertebral subluxation, which is a change in function of the spine that affects the nervous system. They apply gentle adjustments to restore spinal function and mobility, allowing the body to communicate effectively and promote better health and quality of life.

The first question is, “Why would a baby, why would a child, why would a teenager see a chiropractor? If our kids are not in pain, what’s the purpose of chiropractic?”

The answer is… you don’t need to see a chiropractor when something is wrong, when there’s pain, when there’s a problem! Chiropractic isn’t only about physical trauma or pain as a result of that trauma. It’s so much more!!
Most people wonder, “Why would you take my child to a chiropractor if there is nothing wrong with them?”

The answer to that question is: You take a child (or take your whole family) to the chiropractor to express better health! The purpose of chiropractic isn’t limited to pain or dysfunction; the purpose of chiropractic is to analyse and detect vertebral subluxation, to remove interference to the brain-body connection and communication, to allow the nervous system to coordinate function within the body and express better health and create a better quality of life.

Or, simply put, a person who comes to a chiropractor, who has dysfunction within their spine (chiropractors call this subluxation), has reduced function of the body and this limits the expression of health.
Or, even more simply put, you’re better when you’re well-adjusted and unsubluxated in every area and avenue of your life; including:

• How you feel—pain
• How you move—mobility and range-of-motion
• How you heal—your body’s self-healing mechanisms
• How you adapt—your ability to respond to your environment so that you can adapt positively to stresses and strains that may be taking place

Yes, children can have dysfunction within their body at an early age because the birthing process can be very traumatic (there can be suction, pulling of the head, the baby can get stuck within the birth canal, and the mother can be under stress as well, and those stress hormones can alter the physiology—not only of the mother but the baby as well). So, in that regard, the birth itself could be a trauma.

Then there’s the falls, bumps, spills kids have. Children can also go through frights and scares, and that can change the nervous system as well. Chiropractic may help in all of these scenarios.

However, even if nothing is wrong; a baby, child or teen is better when they are adjusted.

So, people who come to a chiropractor with their families are recognising that it’s not that there’s something wrong with this child; it’s just that they want to check if this child is functioning in a way that they can function—at the optimum, peak levels of performance—so that they can develop the way that children are capable of developing through life—without necessarily experiencing trauma, whether it be physical, chemical or emotional.

And so, the question is, can children—and why do children—come to a chiropractor?

It’s because sometimes things happen in the pregnancy, in the birth, during the early stages of their life or even when they’re toddlers or young children—or even as teenagers; where they’ve had falls, bumps and spills, or they’ve got exams that are stressful or they have relationship conflicts that are difficult. All of those influence the nervous system, alter how we adapt, challenge how the body functions and then make the body not perform at peak levels.

People bring children to a chiropractor because they want their child to experience and express health at the highest possible level. Obviously, sometimes parents bring their kids to chiropractors with conditions such as colic, reflux, bed-wetting, behavioural disorders, learning difficulties, mobility issues—and these are are addressed by the chiropractor from the perspective of being subluxation free can enhance the expression of health in the child. Not, “Is Chiropractic the way of curing or fixing these problems?” Chiropractic does not cure anything. It’s designed to help the body experience and express better health by removing interference to the nervous system’s control and coordination of the body.

So, we certainly see a wide range of paediatric symptoms and presentations, and children invariably benefit from that. Though the real purpose of Chiropractic is to help whole families experience better health and a greater quality of life.

So, the short answer is, yes! If you’re pregnant, you can receive chiropractic care. If you’re pregnant and have back pain or other challenges as a result of the pregnancy, chiropractic may be able to help as well.

It’s certainly worth coming in and getting analysed and checked to see whether or not there’s a chiropractic consideration for why you might be feeling the way you feel—and we do this all the time here in our practice, and we know we’ll be able to help you, too.

Because Chiropractic enhances and improves people’s health and quality of life across a vast area of different influences, chiropractors can individually work in different areas such as sports, stress levels for executives, paediatric and family care, arthritic and degenerative conditions specialising in back pain.

So, depending on what type of a practice a chiropractor has and the approach they take—your chiropractic care may look different according to the chiropractor that you go to. Chiropractors also learn and have preference for individual techniques—just like a person may like one style of music and their partner or family may like a different style of music.

Those differences that individuals have are also reflected in the care that they deliver. Some chiropractors prefer to do manual adjusting; others may prefer to use instrument adjusting—like the Activator. Some use NetworkSpinal—which is a gentle, low-force technique. It will depend on the chiropractors’ own preferences, the skills that they have, the schools that they went to and the techniques that they learned.

(By the way, we’ve got some great videos on our website of all those techniques, so feel free to watch those and discover more about the different chiropractic techniques).

Now, the reason I went through that was to bring your awareness to the simple truth: every chiropractor will be different, and they will also be different from other professions.

The osteopath may use a gentle form of mobilisation or manipulation of the spine—which will look very different to a chiropractic adjustment of the spine. Or they may use a chiropractic technique of adjusting the spine.

Interestingly, 30-40 years ago—you used to graduate as a DC, DO, which is a Doctor of Chiropractic and a Doctor of Osteopathy. Both qualifications were gained at once because there are strong similarities between them. As such, in some cases there are few differences between chiropractic and osteopathy.

The key distinction between them is not the care that you receive or the way that the technique is delivered in all cases; it’s the philosophy behind the two professions. An osteopath believes that the circulation, the blood circulating around the body, is the prime emphasis and focus of the care they deliver. The chiropractor focuses on the nervous system, and the nervous system—governing, coordinating and controlling all function in the body—needing to be free of interference so the body can then self-heal.

Meaning, the practitioner may deliver your care in a very similar way (as we observe it), however, the philosophy, and the purpose of care, is distinct.

Now, let’s talk about physiotherapy—and that approach to care is entirely different from chiropractic. If you come to me and say, “Look, I’ve pulled a muscle. I’ve got this joint that’s been injured in a car accident and needs some rehabilitation”—that’s the domain of physiotherapy. Rehabilitation and musculoskeletal work is particularly beneficial when you see a physiotherapist.

A chiropractor focuses on the nervous system, and the nervous system governs and coordinates healing in the body.
The purpose of physio is to restore mechanical dysfunction—usually in peripheral joints. Their specialisation—unless they’ve done additional study—isn’t the spine, disc or nervous system, it’s the muscles, ligaments and tendons; whereas the chiropractor’s focus is on the spine, discs and nervous system, to optimise health, to optimise the expression and function of the body. And when you apply an adjustment (as opposed to a physio mobilisation or strapping), you’re working on different parts of the body—and for a different purpose.

We also have big distinctions and differences between massage therapy. Massage therapy works on the muscles: the tightness of the muscles, releasing tension within the muscular system so that the body can feel and function better.

Chiropractors don’t massage. Chiropractors don’t do soft tissue or therapeutic massage work. They restore spinal and nervous system function to express health and better quality of life.

Is it going to be beneficial to have a massage before or after a chiropractic adjustment? Absolutely. Can chiropractors work with physiotherapists? Without doubt. And all of them work together to create a better human, a better healing human and a better functioning human.

Now, when we talk about other modalities such as herbalism, homeopathy, naturopathy—they, again, have nothing to do with chiropractic; they are focused on the internal physiology of the body—and that is, again, not the focus or domain of chiropractic.

Hopefully that gives you an understanding of the distinctions between these different approaches to your health. Ultimately, I think chiropractic is unique and special amongst all of those approaches. Almost all of those other conditions are focused on treating symptoms. You go to a physio because you’ve pulled a muscle, because you’re rehabilitating a joint; you go to a naturopath because there is a biome issue in your digestive system; and you have massage because you’ve got tension and stress.

Can chiropractic help with those? Absolutely.

Is that the emphasis or focus of chiropractic? No.

The focus of chiropractic is to analyse, detect, adjust subluxation to remove interference to the expression of health within the body so that you can actually become the best version of yourself. And when you are healing in that way, symptoms take care of themselves—because the body is able to self-heal, self-regulate and self-organise. That is the purpose of chiropractic.

So, you don’t need a referral from a GP to come to a chiropractor any more than you need a referral from a chiropractor to go to a GP.

Having said that, I’ve certainly referred to GPs a lot over my career because there are times that I need for one of my clients or patients to benefit from medical interventions or testing. And so, I make the necessary referral. But you don’t need to come to me first in order to get the referral to the GP to choose to go to the GP.

In the same way, I receive many referrals from GPs because they have patients come into their practice who they know will benefit from chiropractic, and they make a referral to me. Equally, there are people that come in to see me without ever having seen a GP; they see me because they know the benefits of chiropractic care without having had a referral.

So, the simple answer is: no. You don’t need a referral from a GP to come to a chiropractor or from a chiropractor to go to a GP. We often work together to support our patients in giving them the best possible outcomes.

There’s one thing that a GP can do as part of a referral that is valuable—and I’d love for you to know about—and that is EPC; which allows you to get 5 of your consultations subsidised under the Medicare system—and that requires a referral from a GP.

Here’s what you’d say to your GP, “I’d like to be able to receive some chiropractic care. I know there’s some form work you can fill called EPC, can you please complete that paperwork for 5 chiropractic appointments?” It’s as simple as that.

They fill out that form work, give that to you, and you bring that into the chiropractic office and then Medicare will give you a subsidy from your chiropractic consultation fees.

So, it’s not a necessity to come to a chiropractor with a referral from your GP—unless it’s coming under the EPC system.

Before I answer this question directly, I want to point something interesting out—and that is, if you go running and actually run into a wall or have a trip and hurt your shoulder, and then you get up and you’re bruised, and it’s inflamed, and it’s sore because of the trauma, and you touch that shoulder as a result of that trauma—that’s going to hurt, right?

Damaged tissue hurts because it’s inflamed, because there’s local tenderness as a result of damaged tissue and trauma.

So, the reality is when you have damaged tissue, working on that damaged tissue—whether it’s massage, whether it’s coming to a chiropractor and adjusting it—there’s a likelihood of there being some local tenderness in that area.
So, the first answer to the question, can chiropractic hurt, the answer is: of course, it can. Chiropractic can hurt if you have damaged and bruised tissue and the chiropractor needs to touch that tissue.

Does chiropractic itself hurt? No, it does not. If you don’t have damaged tissue, there should be no reason for a chiropractic adjustment to hurt. There should be no reason for local tenderness to result from a chiropractic adjustment.

However, if you come into the chiropractor unable to move your neck or your back because of severe pain, then touching that area is going to trigger, to some degree, that pain.

Will working in an area in pain hurt? Yes.

Will chiropractors deliberately hurt you? No.

In fact, if you have pain, soreness or tenderness, the chiropractor is going to be very thoughtful, very gentle, very considered in their approach—so as not to aggravate your pain. The techniques they use will be gentle, very safe and aim to reduce the discomfort and pain you feel.

Does that mean there’ll be no discomfort? It’s very possible, though not guaranteed (not if you’re in pain). The approach your chiropractor will take will aim to minimise any pain or discomfort, and then maximise your health.
If you come in with no pain and no discomfort, then my expectation is it’s not going to cause pain; it’s going to help you to feel fantastic—and that’s one of the wonderful things about chiropractic.

Firstly, we like to take a thorough history. We need to know what’s happening. We need to understand not only your condition, but the background as to what may have contributed to that condition, including your medical history, any traumas, accidents or surgeries you may have had to gain a global perspective and understanding of your health.
Then we’re going to do an examination, and that examination will include some orthopaedic test—testing your range of motion; some neurological testing— whether or not the nervous system is functioning the way it is meant to function; and specific chiropractic analysis as well.

As such, the initial consultation has both a history and examination element. If necessary, we may refer for further testing such as x-rays or blood tests—but that wouldn’t be done on that initial consultation.
Then, with the information we have after that initial consultation, we’ll either deliver care—if we believe it is safe and appropriate to do so—or, refer as necessary.

The thing we want you to take away from an initial consultation at our practice—which is distinct from many other practices—is that we’re going to look at not only what is happening for you, the symptoms you’re presenting with, the challenges you’re facing, the causes that are there and the reasons for your presentation—we’re going to look for a solution, a permanent and lasting solution.

To do that, we need to understand you, we need to understand your presentation and your condition and get all of the necessary information.

Let me emphasise this, a key distinction at our practice is—it is about causes. If we only ask about the symptoms; if we only say what’s wrong and then treat what’s wrong (with a symptom-based approach to care), we limit the ability to get a permanent and lasting result.

We need to identify the cause. Why you are feeling the way you feel!

Once we’ve identified the cause of why you’re experiencing what you’re experiencing, then we need to remove that cause so that the self-healing potential and possibilities for the body are activated.

As such, the purpose of our care is to find out what’s happening, why what’s happening is happening, and then we’ll know exactly what we need to do about it to get you the results, benefits and outcomes that you desire.
The result: you get to experience and express better health.

We hope to see you at an initial consultation soon and provide you the opportunity of uncovering what’s happening for you so you can live the life you desire.

So, in reality, it’s difficult to answer this question, though I’m going to give it a try!!

Firstly, imagine there’s an algorithm to calculate your number of visits and the inputs to the calculator looks like this…

• How long have I had this condition?
• How severe is the condition?
• How much is the condition impacting you and your quality of life?
• How old are you?
• What other conditions do you have?
• What is your lifestyle like?
• How much trauma have you had in your life?
• How much stress are you under?

If you have had a back pain or a neck pain condition for years, you’ve got to expect it’s not going to take one or two visits to correct.

If you’re older, well the older you are, the longer that damage has had to accumulate within the body, the longer it’s going to take to resolve. If you’ve got some advanced arthritic and degenerative conditions, it’s not likely to take one or two visits to restore the actual function of the body—given the level of damage and the extent of that damage.

If you have a lot of health issues, and if you have a terrible lifestyle, it’ll take longer too!
Equally, you need to consider other factors such as, “Well, how tired am I? How much energy do I have? What other health things are taking place in my life?”

It’s not just a matter of pain! Are you also exhausted? Are there emotional stressors? Have you been through a lot of trauma in your life? Have you had car accidents or other injuries?

These factors all influence how the body heals and whether the body is going to respond favourably or rapidly to care.

So, in answer to how long is it going to take, how many treatments are you going to need—it will depend on all of these lifestyle factors and all of the history that you bring into the conversation with us to how long it’s going to take.

Simply put, the more damage within your body, the longer it’s going to take. The less damage, the less it’s going to take. The younger the body, the more optimum health the person experiences and has at present, the less it’s going to take. The more damaged a person is, and the more accumulated trauma, the longer it’s going to take.

That leaves really one other consideration; the length of time of your care is really answered by a philosophy—and that is, what are the goals of your care? What are the desired outcomes of your care?

If you are symptom-focused—meaning, I’m coming with back pain or neck pain (whatever symptom you have), and just want the back pain and neck pain gone, nothing else, “just get me out of pain,” that is called symptom-based philosophy, that is actually going to take shorter time compared to a wellness or life-change philosophy.

If you come in and say, “Look, this back pain, it comes and it goes. I’ve had it half a dozen times over the last two or three years. I’ve been to other therapists, and it gets better initially, but then it keeps coming back. I don’t want to have this come back time and time again. I’d like to find a permanent, lasting solution for that.”
Symptomatic care will not address that. You might feel better initially, but the pain comes back three months or six months later.

Wellness-based care says, “Let’s look at the underlying cause, the reason for your presentation, why you’re experiencing what you’re experiencing, and what we need to do to address the underlying cause and mechanism to actually create lasting healing and long-term beneficial change”—that type of care takes longer because it incorporates changing patterns within the spine and nervous system, adapting to a new lifestyle and changing the function of your body—that supports the healing, repair and regeneration.

So, depending on whether you want healing and transformation or whether you want symptom-based care and immediate relief—the level and extent of care is going to differ as well.

Which means, depending on who you are, what you present with, why you come into the practice, the outcomes you desire and the experience that you’re looking for—your scope of care will differ accordingly.

Before I do that though, I want to dispel some myths about chiropractic. Most people believe that chiropractic works because there’s a bone out of place, and the chiropractor puts the bone back into place—and, because the bone is in place, you can move and function better and pain goes away. That is almost entirely inaccurate.

The fact is that chiropractic works principally on a neurological basis, not purely a mechanical basis. To understand this better, we need to understand how the body works.

Here’s a primer on anatomy: we have, in our skulls, our brain. The brain is the governing system of the body; the nervous system coordinates all functions within the body, including how we think, how we feel, how we move, how we digest, how we reproduce—every aspect within our body is under the governance and control of the nervous system.
The brain extends into the spinal cord—housed by your vertebral column—and the nerves coming from the spinal cord go out to every part of the body—bar none.

So, when you want to pick something up, the brain sends a signal along the nerve to pick something up. When you want to talk, the brain is generating signals to express the thoughts you have by moving muscles and coordinating vocal cords to express your thoughts.

The nervous system coordinates all of those functions. If there is damage to the nervous system—for example, if you have a trauma or an injury—then you may become a quadriplegic or a paraplegic and can’t access the muscles through the nervous system because of interruption to the nerve function.

Chiropractic recognises a term called subluxation. Subluxation is a mis-alignment or a dysfunctional mechanical issue in the spine (vertebral column), though it also has a neurological element. An interruption to the spine causes an interruption to the brain’s coordination and communication, through the nervous system, of body function.
Phew, that’s a lot to understand! Now, how does chiropractic work?

When we adjust the spine, we change the nervous system’s function, how the nervous system coordinates communication in and through the body to facilitate optimum expression of health and performance.

When someone sees a chiropractor and it works well with their lower back pain, people say, “Well, I got my back put back in. It feels so much better!”

What’s actually happening is… and let’s be clear we understand this… the bone was not out of place. Nor did it get put back in place with an adjustment. What happened was there was a change in nervous system function. The brain was now able to see and perceive the dysfunction within the body more accurately and establish a neurological pathway to facilitate healing, repair and regeneration, restoring optimum function—and, in the presence of optimum function, you now have the absence of pain or dysfunction.

As such, the way chiropractic works is to restore spinal function, optimising nervous system expression and coordination of the body, to express health and allow you to live your best life. That will mean symptoms begin to disappear, distorted function begins to resolve, the body’s healing is facilitated and the incredible opportunity for you to live fully and completely is restored!

That is how chiropractic works and why chiropractic offers true results for people’s health and quality of life.