More on Dr. Erin

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I was introduced to the chiropractic lifestyle at what I now consider a later age.  Having been first exposed to it in high school, I consider myself blessed when compared to those who first see a chiropractor in their later life, but less so once I discovered how many benefits specialized chiropractic care can give children, even before they are born.

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I was lucky enough to have a wonderful, healthy childhood, raised by very caring parents.  As such, there were no major personal ‘epiphanies’ during my education where I thought ‘now this treatment may possibly have fixed my ____ without all those drugs when I was five!’  In grade ten, my father referred me to a chiropractor to help with my knee pain.  I had grown very fast, and by then all the sports I was playing were aggravating a ‘structural compensation’ in my feet, knees and pelvis.  The orthopedist fully assessed me and simply recommended I never take up soccer; he thought my knees were accidents waiting to happen.  My Chiropractor (Dr. Carl Weber) recognized these patterns in my body, and adjusted my pelvis (along with other areas so they would not become problems).  He also recommended I get both Birkenstocks and some orthotics to support my extremely high arches.  This approach worked excellently for me at the time.  I continued to be checked on a monthly basis during the rest of my high school years.  Dr. Weber also struck me as the happiest professional man I had ever met.  Not only that, but every time someone came in to cover his office if he had to be away for vacation or triathlons, they too were incredibly content and caring individuals.  They were all very healthy and athletic, and Dr. Weber and his wife were very serious triathletes at the time.  I had always wanted to be a doctor; to help people, -with my hands if possible, and this seemed to fit incredibly well.

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As I went off to College at the University of Vermont, I went without chiropractic care for the first time in years. I was a full scholarship athlete, but I didn’t see any of that money when I lived on campus; I just had a meal card I could swipe to eat.  Being Canadian, I was otherwise unemployable, so I had no resources with which to seek care.  As it turns out, my fall semester was riddled with illness; several strep throats, a few flus -despite the mandatory student-athlete flu shots, and another virus or two.  I simply attributed it to ‘dorm living’.  I was eating as well as I could (and UVM’s food was pretty good, as I recall), but I was still breathing force-filtered, re-cycled air all day, chemical fumes in chem. Labs, etc… But, when I injured my back on a bad (weight throw) release while training indoors in January, I knew I had to seek someone out.  I could barely turn my head, even though the ‘crunch’ I had felt was in my mid-back, so I limped across the street from Fleming museum to Dr. Francis Smith’s office.  He did a thorough exam, took some X-rays and fixed me up right there and then.  I mentioned this to a good friend who was on full basketball scholarship, and lamented the lack of health care coverage for athletes, knowing I couldn’t afford to keep seeing Dr. Francis, even though I was training very hard and needed regular care.  She told me that we all had coverage; I must not have read the fine print or something.  I was overjoyed.  I walked right into the Athletic Director’s office, and signed on.  I was then able to see Dr. Smith about every two weeks (we discovered that was the pattern I needed, to avoid injury while training so unilaterally) for the rest of my UVM career.

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My epiphany was not until that first May in VT; we were still competing, but school was otherwise out, and things were quiet; that I noticed I hadn’t been sick (even a sniffle!) in over four months.  This confused me, so I wracked my brains for the reason.  I was taking the same classes, in the same classrooms, with the same profs, and students as the fall term; I was sleeping in the same bed, same roommate, same food in same cafeterias, training schedule was very similar if not exactly the same, same teammates, same travel circumstances, and yet, I hadn’t so much as ‘sniffled’ since I started to see Dr. Smith.  The realization hit me so hard, and was so obvious that I couldn’t deny it.  The difference was chiropractic.  Even though I was seeing Dr. Smith for what we call structural or ‘musculoskeletal’ reasons, which I believe were helping my body deal with the stress I was putting it through in my training, and helping me perform to the best of my abilities athletically, I was seeing additional advantages to care I could hardly understand. ‘Chiropractic providing immunological benefits?’ – who had ever heard of that? Not I, certainly. But there it was, and my resolve to become a chiropractor was carved in stone from that point forward.  I had to know how this worked.

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I finished my degree in Biological Sciences at UVM with Honors, and took a year-plus off to ‘decompress’ and re-focus.  (This involved living out of my VW Diesel Golf, and working/playing/adventuring in the Canadian Rockies, and the Northwestern States and the four corners areas. I visited several Chiropractic schools as I travelled.) Then I enrolled in New York Chiropractic College, in Seneca Falls, NY.  It was a great experience, and now I can share my experiences and explain them to people, not to mention working all day to provide my own patients with the incredible benefits of both chiropractic care, and Applied Kinesiology.  I learned AK outside the curriculum of NYCC, and have been certified and using it since the spring of ’04.  It is a phenomenal, truly holistic technique that has increased my scope of understanding the overall state of my patients’ health exponentially.

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Today, I feel honored grateful to be able to share this knowledge, and work with my wonderful patients toward their better health, be it pain relief (which is fun, of course, but basic), major lifestyle changes, or wellness care.  The latter is the most fun, fulfilling, and requires the shortest and least frequent visits.  It involves the patient and myself, working as a team to continually eliminate stresses to the body before they become their own clinical problems; to strive everyday to be healthier, happier people.  These patients put their health at the top of their busy priority lists; they realize that the rest is just ‘stuff’.  This life re-prioritization is facilitated by the fact that many have already experienced a serious lack of personal health, or that of a loved one, and have seen how vital it is and how frequently taken-for-granted.  Whether you are going through significant life changes or are simply looking for some out-of-the-box perspective on your mind-body health and routine, I do my best to meet the needs of each person in that moment. I continually ask where each patient’s goals lie and keep those in mind as we are deciding on a course of treatment. Everyone is different, and that is what makes my ‘job’ so fun and dynamic.

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My mission in life is to spread the message that we all have a right to cultivate, and expect more -from our health in body, to our mental and spiritual capacities and wellbeing.  If I can provide you with the tools to improve even one tiny facet of your life, then all the time, effort, and money I’ve invested in my various educations have been worth it.

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Thank you for reading, and I wish you a truly blessed and beautiful day.