- Mae’s mom
“Mae is such a sweet person and such a gift to our family. However, due to trauma that she endured before she joined our family through adoption- she has battled emotional dysregulation and physical behaviors for 4 years.
It felt so hopeless trying to give Mae the help she needed. The smallest thing would set her off and sometimes the behaviors would last for hours. It became exhausting and frightening to the point where we removed her from school and pursued care at Congruent.
Congruent is amazing, and different than what we were used to, because of their deep understanding of how trauma affects the nervous system. We didn’t have to explain attachment and trauma or dysregulation. And when you’re in the middle of the mess- that kind of validation and understanding is the greatest gift.
I think the moment that we realized chiropractic care was helping our daughter was when we could see how the Christian counseling we had been pursuing was finally taking root. It was like we had been doing emotional work and we needed that last puzzle piece of caring for her physical body to watch it synergistically bring relief.
When we began care at Congruent, and started homeschooling Mae, she was having severe behaviors and was unable to regulate herself without help from us, every other day. Now, she goes weeks without behaviors and can self regulate more often. It is truly amazing and we thank God for the love and care Dr. Nikki, Dr. Mike and the staff have shown our family.”
- Stella and Ashton Mom
“Before starting, the problems Ashton dealt with were dramatic and emotional behaviors, if you looked at her wrong she’d start crying and for Stella she had a very combative attitude, she would get in trouble and she’d throw herself into her room kicking doors and screaming. We knew we had to try something for them.
They had been struggling with those attitudes and behaviors for close to a year, if not longer. We didn’t know what to do. As a mom you want your kids to do well. We had tried everything. We were at our wits end. We had talked to friends that had come to CLC and they suggested coming here.
We hadn’t tried anything medical but I knew if we didn’t do something our kids would end up on medication and we didn’t want to go that route. When they got scanned and we saw how much stress was in some areas, it was eye opening. We didn’t know if we’d have them start but after seeing those scans we knew we had to. It was almost a night and day difference after those first couple adjustments, we saw such a big change in Stella.
Before we started, my husband and I would be at each other’s throats, we would disagree on how to parent them, we didn’t know what to do. We now look at it differently. We take a step back and think, “Maybe there’s something going on, maybe they hurt somewhere and they can’t tell us or maybe there’s stress somewhere in their body.” We notice when we’ve gone more than normal between their adjustments, they start to act up. They go to bed so much easier now, it used to be hours for bed time to calm themselves down. It’s not the fight it used to be. They still have their moments but they are totally different children now.
As they go through life, I hope they know now what they can feel like when they’re getting adjusted regularly versus not. They can adjust and adapt to life in a better way.
I hope as they get back into school, and as new stressors may come their way, we can identify those and bring them in here to help them and not ever go a medicated way. I don’t want to hide their problem, or mask their problems and 10 years down the road they end up breaking because we medicated instead of addressing the root cause.
With all the uncertainty in the world right now, we are of the mind that this is the way we want to deal with what’s coming at us: this seems like what we’re supposed to be doing, this holistic approach. I hope the girls are learning that too, we don’t need to go a medicated route in life.
I’m so glad we came.”
- Keyten’s mom
“Keyten has some proprioception and sensory issues. He was having out of control behaviors and meltdowns. He has always had the sensory issues but we didn’t know about it until he was 4 and started speech therapy and preschool. When Keyten’s behaviors were really bad it was really hard to get him to calm down and think reasonably. I felt like a failure as a parent & was afraid his younger sister would catch on to the bad behaviors. I decided to try chiropractic because I was looking for something that would really help Keyten. We have been to specialists, were already in OT and speech so I wanted to try something different. I was intrigued by what I had read online about how chiropractic had helped others and decided I wanted to try that before adding other therapies.
Keyten had such impressive and positive changes after the first month of care, I knew we were on the right track. He has become much more calm. His meltdowns have become fewer and not nearly as bad. He is sleeping and eating better when we travel. His occupational therapist even told us she plans to discharge him after school starts!
Dr. Mike is a smart and informed chiropractor who loves helping people. Everyone at the office is very welcoming, friendly, and easy to talk to throughout our journey. We are very thankful for Congruent Life!”
- Zoie’s mom
“Before beginning care here, Zoie was dealing with anxiety, behavioral issues, defiance, aggression, as well as lots of headaches, stomach aches and car sickness. We had been trying to address these challenges for over 5 years with therapy and different medications but nothing seemed to help. It was really frustrating trying all of these things, things they always said were going to work, but didn’t. It got to a point where something had to give, we had to take a different approach and get to the root cause of her struggles or else it was just going to keep getting worse.
That is when we started at CLC. Everything here has always been communicated so well. Every time she is adjusted, you always explain what areas you worked on, why they were areas that needed to be adjusted, and how that could ultimately affect the way Zoie’s body is functioning. When I first saw the scans, it was mind blowing, I remember feeling so much emotion around finally getting to the root of her challenges. It was an aha moment of “THIS is why she is the way she is, and now we are finally going to do something that’s actually going to be able to help her!”
The craziest thing to me was last week before I even told Dr. Mike what was going on, he started assessing her spine and nervous system and asked if she had any big life stressors going on that day because of what he was finding. I was shocked, there was actually a death in our family that week. I was just so amazed how you guys can really tell what stress the body is working through without us even telling you.
My husband was a little skeptical before starting our journey here, but he was the one who initially pointed out he could tell chiropractic care was making a huge difference for Zoie.
Zoie is in such a better spot emotionally now; she’s able to articulate her emotions better, she’s able to cope so much more efficiently and she is much calmer. When she does get angry or frustrated, she’s able to come down from it much more quickly & express to us why she was angry, which is something that was really hard for her to do before. Overall she is just a much happier kid! Zoie is so much more polite and she’s wanting to engage with us more in conversation, which we didn’t really get much of before! Another huge change we’ve seen is she doesn’t get car sick anymore; before care at CLC she would experience bad car sickness even with medications and now she hardly experiences it at all! Zoie doesn’t get headaches and belly aches nearly as often, and we’ve even noticed a difference in her posture; she’s standing up taller!
Before finding CLC, life was very stressful. We were at a point where something had to change. As a parent, it was tiring and exhausting trying to help Zoie through these challenges, no parent wants to see their child struggle. Now, we don’t have very many issues!
Probably the best part of all of this improvement we’ve seen with Zoie, is how it’s impacted the whole family. She is getting along with her siblings so much better. Zoie isn’t constantly trying to pick arguments with everyone now. This weekend, she spent a lot of time with her brother and they were actually getting along! That doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it was huge! I haven’t seen that in so long and it was just so refreshing to see the entire family dynamic changing because Zoie is in such a better place now.”
- Landon
“Landon has struggled with major attention, behavior and impulsiveness issues. We struggled with daily outbursts, focusing and safety concerns.
We had overwhelming frustration. We have tried what feels like hundreds of things over the years with nothing working. Some things that were suggested to try actually made things worse. As parents and the advocates for our children, we felt like failures. We know this isn’t true, but it’s so hard when you can’t help your child.
We know that knowledge is power! When we found CLC, they gave us the tools and knowledge to begin to help our son. We finally have a deeper understanding of our son.
The moment we realized that what we were doing was working was when we noticed that the outbursts are farther in between, and when he does have one, he can calm himself down quicker. He is more focused at home, he looks us and others in the eye when speaking to us. We’ve gotten a lot of comments from others, noticing that he’s different! One big plus is that he’s been sick ZERO times since October. Not even a minor cold. That’s unheard of for us in this season!
Life is different for us now. We’re happier in the home. We have hope for the first time. We have a sense of peace that we are finally making progress after being stuck for so long. We are blessed and so thankful to have been led to CLC. We are excited to see our son continue towards his goals!”
- Tristan’s mom
“We originally started care at CLC for my son Tristan. Tristan suffered a traumatic brain injury at 10 weeks of age. He has cerebral palsy, cortical visual impairment (legally blind), seizure disorder, spastic quadriplegia, hip dysplasia, and was experiencing chronic constipation. He was so incredibly tight and only having bowel movements every 3 days. We also decided to start my son Armando who is on the autism spectrum and has a moderate intellectual disability. With the autism diagnosis came increasing behaviors and aggression because of his frustration from his sensory issues. I decided to jump on board too and start care as I’ve had back issues for a long time and was getting ready to begin PT again.
Since starting care we have reached many milestones! Tristian is now having MULTIPLE bowel movements a DAY which is amazing!! He is also vocalizing more and just appears happier! At his last neurology appointment, Tristan was able to detect LIGHT for the FIRST TIME EVER!! Since a month before school let out this year, Armando has not had to use his meds for his aggression!! We have also recently cut one of his other meds in half for the summer. Armando is very excited to come get adjusted regularly and he loves Dr. Mike! You can find him relaxing in room 3 the minute we are told we can go in! SO relaxed that he fell asleep one day! For me, my back pain is less and I’m just feeling pretty good overall! It feels wonderful to be getting adjusted on a regular basis!
The entire team at Congruent Life Chiropractic are amazing. We truly feel like family. Dr. Mike is amazing with the boys and he takes time to talk to them and have conversations with them. The whole team is amazing with the boys and answers Armando’s never ending line of questions! Dr. Mike does give me a little grief about my Lularoe addiction, but I suppose I deserve that. We are blessed to be a part of the Congruent Life family and thank God for connecting me with Jen who told me about this amazing place!”
- Cooper’s mom
We began bringing Cooper to CLC because he was having emotional outbursts/episodes. He had been struggling with this for about 6 months prior to seeking care. It was really frustrating for Cooper navigating this; while he was having an “episode” it was really hard for him to express what was happening.
Chiropractic was our first step. Our biggest concern was that Cooper seemed to be holding everything in. I have received chiropractic care since I was a child and experienced having that nervous system support every week was really able to help me navigate my emotions and feelings so I wanted to be proactive and try it with Cooper to see if it would help him regulate better.
Shortly after beginning care, Cooper was having less and less emotional outbursts. It was a lot easier for him to express how he was feeling. There was a period of time when we weren’t able to come in for a couple of weeks for an adjustment and we definitely noticed those old patterns creeping back in, and he did to! He told us that he really felt like he needed to get adjusted to help him feel better again.
The biggest difference we’ve seen in Cooper since beginning at CLC is that when he does get worked up, he knows ways to cope with that. He’s able to calm himself down and then he’s able to talk to us about his feelings calmly, rather than not being able to control his emotions.
- Beckett
We brought Beckett to CLC seeking to help her be able to regulate her emotions and behaviors better.
She was all over the place in terms of her ability to focus, sit still, or interact with others. We were starting to notice some challenges with school and hyperactivity issues. These challenges started around the age of 2; she would have a hard time calming herself. She was full of high emotions and high energy. She didn’t have a lot of “down time” from an early age. She’s 7 now and we were noticing consistently there just wasn’t a lot of calm here.
CLC takes a whole body approach. You don’t treat people like there is something wrong with them. We didn’t need to “fix” Beckett, we just wanted to help her be able to regulate her nervous system better. It was different than a quick fix approach that we would get if we took her to a medical doctor and would likely just be given a diagnosis and medications. We weren’t interested in diagnosing her with a “disorder”, medicating her, changing her… we just wanted to help her mind feel at ease. I knew through my own research there were other holistic options out there.
At CLC, you aren’t symptom focused. Your goal is to help people’s nervous systems function as optimally as possible, and when you do that things can change and healing starts to happen.
After the initial few months of care, we started to see the benefits Beckett was receiving from adjustments. She was able to regulate her emotions better. We saw a lot more CALM starting to be present. She’s able to have periods of rest when her body is telling her to relax now. She doesn’t have the need anymore to make noises and do other sensory seeking behaviors during times of quiet. Simple things like telling her to go brush her teeth, are no longer resulting in meltdowns. She’s able to wake up in the morning and focus on a routine, rather than being super hectic and crazy. She’s overall in a good mood and is experiencing a decreased number of emotional outbursts. Beckett has a lot less anxious tendencies now. She no longer bites around her nails, picks at her fingers, or does her mouth “tic”. I feel so much relief for her.
- Cael + Kellen
“We started to bring our boys to CLC mainly for behavioral and temperament issues. Cael (age 5) was very sassy, stubborn and hard to talk to. He would get very upset once you could finally get through the discipline and then would be very hard to calm down. There was lots of yelling and strong moods. Kellen (age 3) would go from 0-100 so fast and get so upset. Screaming, throwing things, ect. Very hard to calm down, and being told “no” was always bad no matter what.
We just wanted to be able to talk through things to explain situations, teach why things are right or wrong and offer suggestions. Cael didn’t want any part of it, and it was very emotionally draining for us. With Kellen being so young, we didn’t even know where to begin to help him and calm his emotions.
We were told that “this is a phase”, or this is just how kids are. I felt that we should be able to do something to help them & after talking to CLC I felt a lot of hope. Instead of hearing this is a phase” or “kids will be kids”, we were given hope that we could actually help our boys.
The beginning of care for Cael was a little bit rough through the detox phase, but about 6 weeks after starting care we started noticing him wanting to talk to us about things vs. just yelling, crying and being super upset when he would get disciplined. He of course still acts like a kid, but can be talked to and tries to understand with us! He’s much more receptive to parenting! For Kellen, he has always been quick with his comebacks & reactions, but about 6 weeks after starting care for him, we noticed that he wasn’t flying off the handle as easily. We could talk through things with him without him getting SO upset and angry.
Cael is still a crazy, wild boy and Kellen is definitely a feisty 3 year old… but we can talk through things now! We can re-direct, work through problems together and it’s much more effective! It’s helped us all be closer, rather then them losing their cool and getting upset consistently. We don’t feel like we are always working against each other! There are still improvements happening from both boys and ourselves, but it’s much more positive and fun then before care at CLC!”