Chiropractic Family Care FAQs

Chiropractic is a natural, hands-on healthcare profession focused on the relationship between the spine, nervous system, and the body’s overall function. Your nervous system controls how your body moves, feels, and adapts to daily life, and the spine plays a key role in protecting it. Chiropractic Family Care aims to support your body’s ability to heal, move well, and function at its best — whether that’s helping relieve pain, improve mobility, or support long-term wellbeing for you and your family.

Chiropractic helps restore and maintain healthy movement and communication within the body, particularly through the spine and nervous system. By identifying areas of restriction, tension, or irritation, chiropractic care can help:

• Reduce pain and stiffness
• Improve posture and mobility
• Support nervous system function
• Enhance your body’s ability to adapt to stress (physical, emotional, and chemical)
• Promote long-term health and resilience

Chiropractic Family Care‘s approach is always personalised, gentle, and focused on what’s most appropriate for your body, lifestyle, and goals.

This is one of the most important questions in chiropractic care, and the answer might surprise you. The truth is, only about 10% of your nervous system is dedicated to feeling pain. The other 90% is busy controlling and coordinating everything else in your body—your digestion, immune function, breathing, healing, movement, and countless other processes that happen without you even thinking about them. Pain is actually your body’s last-resort alarm system. By the time pain shows up, dysfunction has often been present for weeks, months, or even years. This is why we focus on proactive, preventative care rather than just waiting until something hurts.

We start with a thorough history, examination, and scans. We often review imaging before providing care. Your findings and tailored plan are explained at your report visit, where we lay out timeframes, fees, and options and typically begin adjustments. In some cases, timing may vary based on your presentation and recent care.

While many people feel relief or lightness after an adjustment, it’s also normal to experience temporary soreness, fatigue, or mild discomfort — especially early in care. Think of it like starting a new exercise or working muscles that haven’t moved well for a while. Your body is adapting, tissues are changing, and your nervous system is recalibrating. These sensations usually settle within 24-48 hours and are part of the healing process. Our doctors will always explain what to expect and tailor your care to keep it as comfortable and effective as possible.

Chiropractors are the only professionals who are trained to diagnose and treat what are called spinal subluxations.A subluxation refers to a joint — often in the spine — that isn’t moving or functioning as well as it should, which can affect surrounding nerves, muscles, and tissues due to the brain and body not being able to send and receive messages effectively. Subluxations can develop from everyday life, including:

• Poor posture or prolonged sitting
• Lifting, bending, or repetitive movements
• Stress and tension
• Falls, accidents, or sports injuries
• Pregnancy and birth
• Childhood bumps and growth phases

They’re not always painful straight away, which is why regular spinal checks can be helpful, even when you feel “okay”.

Subluxations develop through three main types of stress in our lives:

• Physical stress – poor posture, falls, injuries, repetitive movements, sleeping awkwardly, or even birth trauma. Many subluxations actually start in childhood from everyday bumps and falls.
• Chemical stress – poor diet, processed foods, toxins, air impurities, medications, and dehydration can all create tension and inflammation that affects your spine.
• Emotional stress – work pressure, relationship challenges, and daily worries create physical tension in your body. Think about how your shoulders tighten or jaw clenches when you’re stressed—this tension can lead to subluxations.

The reality is we all experience these stresses regularly in modern life. That’s why regular chiropractic care helps address them before they accumulate into bigger problems. At Chiropractic Family Care, I’ll help identify what’s affecting your spine and create a personalized plan to keep you functioning at your best.

When a subluxation occurs, the chiropractor is trained to correct the misaligned joint and allow it to return to its proper motion. This procedure is called an adjustment and the adjustment enables the nervous system to heal the body.  A chiropractic adjustment is a precise, controlled movement applied to a joint that isn’t moving properly. The goal is to restore normal motion, reduce irritation to the nervous system, and help the body function more efficiently. Adjustments can be performed in a variety of ways — some involve gentle manual pressure, while others use specialised instruments or drop-table techniques. Our Doctors select the method best suited to your body, comfort level, and stage of care.

The iQ Impulse Adjusting Instrument is an advanced technology that has been created to assist chiropractors in delivering chiropracHeading 4tic adjustments. It was ‘developed to provide gentle & precise computer-aided chiropractic adjustments to help relive pain & restore function.’

Some of the unique benefits of the Impulse iQ include:

• Extreme speed:The iQ is twice as fast as other adjusting instruments and 100x faster than manual chiropractic adjustments. The gentle thrust is faster than the body’s tendency to tighten up & resist the adjustment.’
• Controlled Force: It has 3 different force settings for different parts of the body & to treat patients of all ages. The controlled low force thrust of the iQ make treatments comfortable.’
• Computerized Adjustment: High-tech computerized adjustments with the iQ precisely measure how the spine is moving during the treatment so that just the right amount of care can be provided.’
• Research: Years of research have gone into the development of the Impulse iQ Adjusting Instrument to create gentle & specific chiropractic adjustments that are safe & effective for patients of all ages.’

As technology advances, so do chiropractic techniques. Instrument adjusting has become the fastest growing form of chiropractic manipulation due to its ease of use for the chiropractic practitioner and the safety to the patient. It can take quite a bit of effort to perform a proper chiropractic adjustment, and most chiropractors can attest to having suffered any number of shoulder, back and wrist injuries from treating patients over the course of their practice.

An Arthrostim® adjustment involves the use of one of these special instruments. It has an appearance similar to a drill, and is held in a similar manner. What it does is produce a speedy thrust and recoil motion, similar to the way a chiropractor uses their hands to adjust the vertebrae in your back. The benefit of the instrument is that it performs this high-velocity, low-amplitude motion 12 times per second, and is targeted to a very small area. The force of the thrust radiates through the joint and the tissues that surround it, releasing trigger points that are often the cause of muscle spasms.

As opposed to traditional chiropractic adjustment techniques, use of the Arthrostim® does not cause the same popping and cracking noises in the joint that can make some people feel uneasy. It is a gentle, mechanical method of easing the joints back into alignment that is basically an extension of the chiropractor’s hands. Your chiropractor can exert just the right amount of pressure needed by adjusting the force of the thrust up or down from merely a few ounces all the way up to 40 pounds, and it works on a wide range of body areas, not only on the spine.

Several studies have shown that instrument adjusting is just as effective as traditional chiropractic techniques for easing pain and increasing range of motion in patients who have sought chiropractic care. Its speed, gentleness and accuracy are also recommended for populations that may have trouble with the use of traditional chiropractic techniques, such as children and the elderly.

The Arthrostim’s® movement stimulates the patient’s special sensory nerve receptors, called proprioceptors, which are responsible for detecting the proper motion and alignment of the body’s muscles and joints, signaling that all is well; however, at the same time it avoids stimulating the nociceptors, the sensory nerve receptors responsible for sending pain signals to the central nervous system.

The use of instrument adjusting, such as with the Arthrostim®, allows for fewer side-effects and less post-treatment muscle soreness. If this seems like a form of treatment you may be interested in, consult with your chiropractor and ask if it may be possible to incorporate Arthrostim® adjusting into your treatment regime.

The body is a wonderful and intricately designed organism that has the amazing ability to heal itself. If you look at the spinal column, you will see that it houses the Central Nervous System (CNS). The CNS is one of the ways in which the brain communicates to all of the different parts of the body, such as organs, tissues and muscles, and these organs, tissues and muscles also communicate back to the brain.

When the spine is not in its correct alignment the movement in that area is abnormal, the nerves that exit at that point may not function at 100%. So the messages going out from the brain to the rest of the body and back to the brain may be incomplete or unclear.

This in turn will affect the way the body is able to organise, heal and operate. As an example, neck subluxations in children may cause concentration and learning problems, reoccurring ear infections, reoccurring tonsillitis, depressed immune system and an inability to thrive. Another example is an upper back (thoracic) subluxation that may cause you to have poor sleep and be grumpy to those around you.

So, if a subluxation in the spine directly affects the organs and tissues that those specific nerves lead to in the body, the opposite is also true. When a subluxation is corrected in the spine, this gives the body the optimum chance to self heal as the brain is free to communicate with those specific organs and tissues, directing exactly what is needed for optimum healing and function.

Many of our clients not only report feeling better in their necks and backs through chiropractic care, but they notice an improvement in their:

• immune system
• their ability to concentrate
• their mood
• their digestion
• their energy levels
• their ability to deal with stress
• their quality of sleep and much more.

We hear this all the time, ‘I only hurt my back the other day while I was lifting a bag of cement. I’ve never had a problem until last Friday’.

While the pain, inflammation and spasm in the injured area may have started a few days ago; in almost every situation there is an underlying weakness caused by a subluxation that may have been silently sitting in the spine for weeks, months or in many cases years and years.

The body has an amazing capacity to be able to compensate for when things are not right, always trying to maintain balance but there is only so far that the body’s ability to compensate can take us. Often it’s the bag of cement or the seemingly innocent sneeze that tips us over the edge and takes us past the point of compensation and into the arena of acute pain and trauma of the neck and/or spine.

So while the pain may have started a few days or weeks ago, the actual UNDERLYING CAUSE of the injury has been there for a very long time. Hence, the body needs to be given time for it to heal. The acute phase of pain and inflammation may settle within a few treatments but the underlying cause of this pain and inflammation needs time to be able to be corrected properly for long lasting healing and strengthening to occur.

During a clients’ treatment, time will be taken to explain what is going on with their body and what to expect in the next phase of care.

Every person that comes in to our practice in the Adelaide Hills Mt. Barker, comes in for a different reason and a specific Care Plan is set up for their individual needs so there is not one answer that fits all.

Many will find that their acute symptoms of pain and inflammation will subside in the first few days or weeks of care. After this is achieved though, there is an important phase of Reconstructive Care where the chiropractor will do specific work to restore the function, mobility and strength of the spine to prevent this acute phase from occurring again.

As with anything, you as the client choose how much you would like to benefit from your chiropractic care. You only have to continue treatment as long as you wish to maintain the health of your neuro-musculoskeletal system. Going to a chiropractor is much like going to the dentist, exercising at a gym, or eating a healthy diet: as long as you keep it up, you continue to enjoy the benefits.

It is important to remember that, just like your teeth, your spine experiences normal wear and tear as you walk, drive, sit, lift, sleep, bend and cope with everyday stresses. Routine chiropractic care will help you feel better, move with more freedom, and stay healthier throughout your lifetime. Although you can enjoy the benefits of chiropractic care even if you receive care for a short time, the real and lasting benefits come into play when you make chiropractic care a part of your wellness lifestyle.

Any age! Chiropractic care is safe and effective for babies from the day they are born right up to the very elderly. The chiropractor modifies the techniques used for each client, tailoring the specific amount of force used in the adjustment to suit the persons’ needs. For example, the technique used to adjust a baby’s spine will be extremely light and gentle compared to the technique used for the adjustment of the spine of a body builder.

Book your child in today at our practice for their no obligation spinal check and find out how your child’s spine and nervous system is operating. It could be the best thing you ever do for your child.

The use of ice and heat can be very helpful in easing pain, inflammation and discomfort in the back and neck.

Ice is used when the client is in acute and chronic pain and there is inflammation in the area concerned. An ice pack should be placed on the area for 5 – 10 minutes and then left off for 20 minutes. This should be repeated for 4 or 5 times in one sitting and then repeated later in the day/night as needed. Ice packs should never be used on the very top of the neck where it joins to the head (an iced towel should be used instead).

Heat packs are used when there is aching or general soreness in the areas of the spine and neck. A heat pack should be placed on the affected area for 10 – 15 minutes and then left off for 30 minutes. This should be repeated 4 or 5 times in one sitting and then repeated later in the day/night as needed.

There is no need for our clients to be undressed for treatments. The chiropractor will do the adjustments through the clothes. Clients will only remove articles of clothing when they are wearing bulky jackets or thick jumpers as is common during the cold winters of the Adelaide Hills.

Yes. Clients are able to bring in their private health cover cards into Chiropractic Family Care, we will swipe it through the Hicaps machine and they only pay the gap for their treatment. Each gap is different as it depends on which private health company a client is with and the level of cover that they have.

Yes—these are some of the most common reasons people visit us. We regularly see patients for headaches and migraines, sciatica, low back pain, and stubborn shoulder or knee complaints. We’re a whole-body adjusting office, and many people are surprised how much change they notice once motion and nerve communication are better supported.

Foot Levelers orthoses were first developed in 1952 by Dr Monte Greenawalt, a chiropractor in Iowa, USA. Dr Greenawalt noticed that many of his patients developed hip and spinal pelvic problems after wearing rigid sub-talar neutral orthoses commonly prescribed by podiatrists.

Dr Greenawalt developed his 3-arch plantar vault theory around the same time Root developed his subtalar neutral theory. These two main theories are still the predominant methods of prescribing orthoses today. He went on to develop an orthoses that fitted the following criteria:

• Custom-made to ensure proper support and comfort.
• Flexible to allow the normal foot wave motion during the gait cycle.
• Must support all three arches of the foot because he recognised that ‘lifting’ only the medial longitudinal arch created excessive strain on the lateral aspect of the foot.
• The corrections to be ‘set’ to allow the normal pronation motion of the foot but block excessive pronation. Restricting normal foot motion was found to cause hypermobility problems in other joints of the lower extremity.
• Casting should be done weight-bearing to fully assess the foot for excessive pronation due to the permanent plastic deformation of the plantar and bone to bone ligaments. Dr Greenawalt patented the foam casting system in 1967 and it is now used by many laboratories world wide.
• Made to create a symmetrical foundation for the spinal pelvic region so that it reduces spinal scoliosis.

[/toggles]Are Foot Levelers orthoses custom made?

Yes. 16 measurements are taken from the foam cast or the digital scanner to custom fit the Foot Levelers orthoses. The cast or scan is sent to the laboratory in Virginia, USA where it is made on a weekly basis. The laboratory process has been submitted and approved by the Australian Taxation Office for an exemption of GST as a custom made health device.How are Foot Levelers orthoses different from the orthoses prescribed by Podiatrists and Orthotists?
Podiatric orthoses are made for foot problems whereas chiropractic orthoses are made to balance a tilted or twisted pelvis due to the asymmetrical ‘dropping’ of the foot arches. The Foot Levelers orthoses are designed to minimise the number of visits a patient requires to achieve maximal medical improvement from chiropractic care. odiatric orthoses are made primarily for poor foot function whereas Foot Levelers orthoses are made primarily for the whole body alignment to balance the pelvic/spinal foundation so that the chiropractic manipulations of the spine and pelvis hold the alignment.

When a patient presents with a ‘laterally flexed’ (tilted) pelvis, as evident on A-P lumbo-pelvic weight-bearing x-ray, often the only solution is an orthoses. ost patients acquire excessive pronation of the feet bilaterally but asymmetrically. This leads to what a chiropractor would term a laterally flexed pelvis. Due to the permanent plastic deformation of the plantar and bone to bone ligaments of the foot this pelvis misalignment will constantly reoccur unless stabilisation of the feet is performed.

Often traditional rigid orthoses are made with less regard to the overall biomechanics of the spinal pelvic region thus creating imbalances and affecting the outcomes of the chiropractic care. This has been recognised by Donald E. Baxter MD, American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (Past President) and author ‘The Foot and Ankle in Sport’ when he described the perfect orthoses. In his expert opinion they should be:

• Custom-made.
• Semi-rigid or flexible.
• Give support and control to both the hindfoot, midfoot, & forefoot.
• Provide extra shock absorption.
• Be lightweight but maintain its shape.
• Have a high Health Professional/Patient satisfaction rating.
• Foot Levelers orthoses have been made to these requirements since 1952.

Yes. Undergraduate training for all chiropractic courses in Australian universities require substantial hours learning anatomy, physiology and biomechanics of the lower limb. Students also learn manipulative techniques of the soft tissues and joints of the ankles, knees and hips. A basic understanding of orthoses is taught along with objective tests such as the navicular drop test.

The postgraduate certificate course, Advanced Spinal Stabilisation is a compulsory prerequisite provided by chiropractic specialists in the field of lower extremity conditions and prescribing chiropractic orthoses. A written and practical examination is undertaken by all chiropractors prescribing the Foot Levelers orthoses.

Yes.Since 1992 Foot Levelers have developed the largest body of evidence by a orthoses laboratory. A combination of peer reviewed papers, platform and poster presentations at internationally recognised conferences and the anecdotal evidence from over 30,000 chiropractors world wide who regularly prescribe the Foot Levelers orthoses.

Research demonstrates:

• Reduces knee injuries in footballers by 31%.
• Reduces fatigue in lower extremities.
• Improves balance and proprioceptive responses which could prevent slips and falls particularly serious in elderly people.
• Improves foot alignment.
• Reduces shock to foot and ankle thus may prevent need for ankle surgery.
• Improves body alignment, stabilises a laterally flexed pelvis which may reduce long term stress to the hip joints thus preventing recurring low back and hip degenerative conditions.
• Enhances athletic performance, professional golfers could hit the golf ball up to 15 metres further due to improved golf club head velocity.
• Improved Q angle of the knee to prevent patella tracking conditions and serious knee injuries.
• Reduce lower extremity discomfort in workers standing greater than 6 hours per day.

Testimonial A: Patient responds better to Foot Levelers orthoses:
I’m writing to tell you about the impact that the foot levelers have made at our place. We purchased a pair for each of us last year on the advice of our chiropractor Joe Krawec. Joe has looked after us for years and our girls (11 and 13) have had regular chiropractic care since they were babies. Despite regular treatments both girls struggled with leg and foot pain and on the recommendation of our GP we purchased custom made orthotics through a podiatrist.

Over the next few months Hannah’s pain persisted to the point where she was unable to walk after playing basketball without intense heel and foot pain. She was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis so we went back to the podiatrist and purchased a new set of rigid orthotics with a channel to accommodate the plantar ligament. he obvious course of action would have been to stop the basketball but try stopping a kid that is determined to play! By this time Hannah was committed to playing at the highest level possible and was selected to play in Japan. Her metro side had qualified for the national championships and she was also heavily committed to the Country Victoria development program she was determined to keep playing and training.

Joe told us that he was introducing the Foot Leveler orthoses to his practice and we arranged for the kids to be fitted. We were so impressed by the process and samples, we ordered a set for each of us. e have been wearing them for almost 12 months now and find them so comfortable we choose to wear them constantly. Hannah’s heel and foot pain disappeared completely within four weeks and has not returned. She trains and plays intensively up to 20 hours per week completely pain free. Her performance has improved dramatically, and her vertical leap is tremendous. It’s not possible to overstate the difference the foot levelers have made. We will be lifelong customers.

Testimonial B: Health Professional responds better to Foot Levelers orthoses
“Have you ever changed your mind? As a poor student I thought Foot Levelers too expensive relative to other orthotic products on the market that I thought would do pretty much the same thing. In 1987 we were able to provide off the shelf products for as little as $40.00 – $80.00. I helped a lot of people with low budget products – even my dad and I. Almost 20 years later with a change of activities the standard off the shelf and heat mouldable orthotics, even with multiple adjustments to the orthotics and my feet, failed to provide relief. I had to stop Latin Dancing, which was very disappointing to me, my partner and our social network.

Initially I thought that the Foot Levelers orthotics would not do much for my right foot pain. Nevertheless the opportunity arose to order a pair at one of the Synaptic Design post graduate seminars. Without much hope I put the orthotics in my shoes and we went dancing that Friday night. Two hours later the transverse arch pain had not returned. I wondered if the relief was because I had given my feet a rest from dancing for a few weeks. So to test the hypothesis we went dancing on Saturday and Sunday night as well. No problem! Three years later with as many as 10 hours of dancing per week- still no problem! I am left to conclude – all orthotics are not created equal!”

Foot Levelers are currently supplied to team members of:

• Australian Rugby Union team (Wallabies)
• Australian Netball Team
• Australian Athletics Track Team
• Australian Hockey Team (Hockeyroos)
• Australian Professional Golfers.

Yes, a number of them do. Patients need to check with their respective health fund as to whether Foot Leveler orthoses are covered by them & if they are, whether the patients level of cover includes the purchase of these custom made orthotics.

Health funds such as Medibank Private and MBF for example rebate chiropractic patients for custom made orthoses. Health funds such as Australian Unity and Australian Health Management (AHM) only rebate patients who have been prescribed a Foot Levelers orthoses by a chiropractor accredited proficient by Synaptic Design.

The average lifespan of the Foot Levelers orthoses is 3-7 years with many patients able to continue wearing them long after this time frame, without side effects such as muscle and ligamentous atrophy and adhesive capsulitis.

Learn more at the Footlevelers website

Most people describe minimal discomfort. You may notice a brief ache or a muscle twitch, which often settles quickly. Everyone responds differently, and your chiropractor will explain what to expect.

Dry needling targets muscle trigger points and movement-related issues. Acupuncture is based on traditional Chinese medicine principles. Both use fine needles, but the methods and goals differ.

This depends on your needs, goals, and how your body responds. After your assessment, your chiropractor will suggest an approach and review progress with you over time.

This technique may be appropriate for some teenagers depending on their needs and comfort. Your chiropractor will discuss suitability and alternatives during the consultation.

Yes. It is often used alongside chiropractic care to support muscle function and movement as part of a broader plan.

Naturopathy is a holistic approach that considers nutrition, lifestyle, stress, sleep, and overall wellbeing. It provides guidance and support to help you make informed health choices.

A referral is not usually required. If you have existing conditions or take medication, please share this during your appointment so care can be tailored appropriately.

Naturopathic support can be adapted for different age groups, with recommendations tailored to children, teens, and adults.

This varies from person to person. Your naturopath will discuss options with you and review progress against your goals over time.

Yes. Many people choose to combine chiropractic and naturopathic care for a more comprehensive approach to wellbeing.