Need Help with Your Health? Start with Your Chiropractor
*A LocalsGuide of Ashland Interview Published August 2023
Are you looking for a dedicated healthcare practitioner who goes above and beyond to help you reach your wellness goals and live your best life? Introducing Dr. Hannah Conry, owner of Thriving Family Chiropractic. With a background in Applied Kinesiology, Chiropractic, and birth work, Dr. Conry has committed herself to the wellbeing of families here in the Rogue Valley.
Hi Dr. Conry, thanks so much for taking the time to speak with me today. To begin with, please introduce yourself by telling us about your background and training.
I appreciate you taking the time to chat with me Shields. Hi everyone! I am Dr. Conry, a licensed chiropractic physician who found my calling in an atypical way. Out of high school, I was actually studying to be a lawyer so my undergrad is in finance. I was accepted to law school and had the summer off, so my father, Dr. Force, a chiropractor as well, asked if I would help out at his office over the summer. I did and that one decision changed everything.
I wore many hats working for him (patient exams, patient education, front desk, finances, accounting, marketing) and I stayed there for 10 years. I was enthralled by the relationships he built with his patients, and how quickly they got better and how happy they were. While working there I became a Reiki Master, 500- hour certified Yoga Teacher, a Doula, and trained to become a home birth midwife for four years, attending over 80 births working towards becoming a midwife myself.
I came to a point in my training where I realized I didn’t want to cut off care at 6 weeks postpartum. I wanted long term relationships with my clients. As a result, I moved my family from Phoenix, AZ to Portland, OR to attend University of Western States and graduated from their chiropractic program. I am also PAK (Professional of Applied Kinesiology) certified and am Webster Certified, a certification committed to prenatal care. With these areas of study I have a huge tool bag to pull from to help those I care for.
Dr. Conry, Please talk about your focus on working in full family care?
It was a natural progression for me to go from the home birth world, where we are so intimately focused on the whole family unit, to focusing my chiropractic practice with Thriving Family Chiropractic on whole family care. I love working with families! Everyone can benefit from the style of care I provide and it is so beautiful to see a whole family getting healthier together. The way care is applied shifts depending on the age and health history of the individual.
For example, I know many parents can feel nervous about bringing their brand new baby into the chiropractor thinking that the doctor is going to do big “cracking” adjustments like they have seen on YouTube, but it is nothing like that! For babies an adjustment is gentle pressure on an appropriate spinal segment that reduces stress on the nervous system. The pressure is about what you use to test the ripeness of a tomato.
As kids get older I can start to muscle test them directly and the adjustments start to look more and more like what you may have seen and they will come in for sports injuries, falls, digestive issues, sleep issues and so on.
When you are doing full family care what modalities are you working through to deliver such extensive care?
What makes the style of care I offer so unique is Applied Kinesiology. Applied Kinesiology (AK) is a neurologically based system of muscle testing that takes extensive training and practice to become proficient at. This is very different from what most people think of as “muscle testing” with simple arm pull down tests. AK follows a model of what’s called the Triad of Health, which means that we are addressing physical, biochemical, and spiritual/emotional imbalances to assist you in reaching your health goals and becoming more and more robust over time.
Using Applied Kinesiology, I am essentially able to ask the body “questions” through different neurological inputs to figure out where and what treatment is needed. This process works even better in conjunction with a physical exam, lab work, and other diagnostic tests, as needed for even further guidance for what to test the body for.
Once imbalances are found, the therapy options I am trained to use are chiropractic (SOT, drop table, activator, manual adjusting), muscle balancing (reactive muscles, adhesions, injury recall patterns, trigger points, hypertonicity, etc.), visceral manipulation, craniosacral therapy, meridian therapy, Neuro-Emotional Technique, clinical nutrition, and lifestyle coaching. Truly a whole body-mind, holistic approach.
Dr. Conry, what do you love the most about the work you do?
Can I say everything? It’s really true! Helping my patients have a deeper connection to their bodies and an empowered understanding of specific ways they can help themselves is something really special. Taking someone from a place of desperation for say, a shoulder problem, where Thriving Family Chiropractic is the last stop before they get surgery and helping them restore full, pain-free function is so fulfilling. Or to have a mom that is at her wits end because her new baby won’t stop crying, to the next visit where they are a totally transformed and happy pair. There’s nothing better, I witness magic everyday.
You yourself have a family. Please introduce us and tell us how your own expectations of what you look for in a practitioner have changed and evolved?
Yes, I have been married to my husband, Jon, for 16 years and we have known each other since we were 16 years old. We have two sons that are 13 and 15. I am very picky about my providers, my father provided all of my healthcare growing up and he still treats me and his grandkids. The providers I see or choose for my family need to be extremely well versed in providing holistic, full mind-body care. There is a place for western medicine as emergency care, and we’ve had to use it with a few broken bones or the need for antibiotics occasionally, and thank goodness it exists, but for me and my family I choose natural care first.
Yes, I was going to mention that your father is Dr. Force. Please talk more about how his mentorship and training has shaped your life?
It is so much fun to be in the same field as my father. Dr. Force owns The Elements of Health in Ashland and has been in practice there for 7 years and before that had a practice in Arizona for over 30 years. He likes to claim he tricked me into this profession by inviting me to work at his office when I was younger. I’m the oldest of three girls, and he never forced any of us to follow in his footsteps, but now two of us are chiropractors. I feel as though I have been trained for this profession by osmosis my whole life. He is a diplomate in Applied Kinesiology and is on the board of certified teachers, I couldn’t ask for a better mentor! It is amazing to be seen as a peer by someone so accomplished and we talk shop a lot.
Dr. Conry, what are the goals and expectations you hold for your clients?
That we are a team working together on your health journey and to reach your specific health goals. This needs to be a relationship built on trust and a commitment to engaging in your self-care daily.
The work is two-fold: the in-office care utilizing the needed modalities to help your nervous system achieve balance and align your physical structure, while I teach you what is needed to maintain and enhance the work that we are doing in your home life. There are things that you can do everyday that are specific to your needs such as stretches, exercises, meditations, breathing techniques, diet changes, supplements and more. My expectation is that you’re just as committed to helping get yourself to where you want to be health-wise as I am.
What are some of the main reasons your clients choose to work with you?
Often people seek my care after they’ve been everywhere and tried everything and nothing is helping them get where they want to be. Because I have such a wide breadth of modalities to choose from, and such a varied background of study, I am able to help my patients make change more quickly than they have experienced before. Add to that my dedication to truly hearing my patients and what they want, and I am willing to put in the effort to make sense of a complicated history, symptoms, labs and help get to the root cause. Something many patients may not have experienced in other healthcare settings.
For me, the relationship with patients is paramount. For example, parents love that I am willing to get down to the kids level and look them in the eyes to connect, ask about their interests, how they are feeling, maybe stack some blocks with them, before we even start treatment. When you choose to work with me, you get true concierge style care. When you call you get me, when you email you get me, I typically respond the same day and so on. No gatekeeper, like an old-fashioned family doctor.
Please talk about your work with babies. How is it different and what is required in paying the greatest attention to these little beings?
First it is important to establish an energetic connection with baby. Making eye contact with them, telling them I am so happy they are here, giving baby some kind of compliment and establishing a good rapport with the caregiver that brought them in. During a session I speak to both caregiver and baby. Before any testing or therapy is done I ask for permission from caregiver AND baby. I pay attention to all subtle body movements with baby to establish if they want something done or if they are done with a correction we are working on. There’s a big focus for me on really being present. I talk the caregiver and baby through anything we are doing. I believe in complete body autonomy no matter a person's age. Care is very gentle for these little ones too. Often not much is required to make huge changes.
You just mentioned Body Autonomy, what is this and how do you work with it?
This means that you are in charge of you! I will never do anything to your body without your permission. You get to choose what is appropriate and what you are comfortable with. I will never coerce you into making a decision for therapy, testing, or anything else. I will share information and allow you to make the decision that is best for you, without judgment or guilt. It’s incredibly important for me that all of my patients feel safe, heard, and respected when seeking care at Thriving Family Chiropractic.
Where did you learn to pay attention at such a deep level?
I have always been an observer of the subtle, and a space holder for those struggling. I grew up in a household with a chiropractor father and a mother with a forestry degree. I was homeschooled until 7th grade and being in nature was and is my happy place. I was raised to see the divine in everything that surrounds us and express gratitude to it all. This translates into my work with patients as I express gratitude for each person that chooses to work with me and I envision the divine in them showing as healthy and whole.
Dr, Conry, are you inviting more families to come in and work with you?
Absolutely! If you are looking for natural, functional care for your family I would love to see if we are a good fit, and explore how I can help your family grow healthier.
What are the greatest pieces of advice you like to offer to your clients?
Start with the basics and keep it simple. It can get so overwhelming trying to incorporate all the things that we’ve heard or been told are good for us that we often end up doing nothing or doing too much and getting burned out. This is where a little support and guidance comes in for a daily routine that really addresses getting you where you want to go.
Dr. Conry, you also read and work with labs on a daily basis. Please say more.
I love that I get to practice at a time where there exists a huge array of options for diagnostic testing. My philosophy is that I like to combine appropriate high-tech diagnostic testing with natural, low-tech solutions. Having labs before and after a course of care also gives us evidence to track if we are making the changes we’re looking for. It is one thing for you to say you are feeling better, which is always the goal, but let’s see if we are truly making a biochemical shift for long-term, sustained health.
Finally, in working with a family cosmology how does it all tie together for you versus working with people on a more individual basis?
I know the theme here has focused on families, but I do work with individuals as well. If you are interested in this style of care please reach out. The process of care is the same as described above.
Often if I’m working with a couple or a family they will come in for a visit together, and having others witness the care and the recommendations tends to amplify the commitment to healing. There is something really beautiful about people looking out for each other and holding each other accountable on their health journey.
In regards to taking the next steps to work with you, how should one proceed?
If you have any questions, please reach out to me. I can be contacted by phone or email, and if you are ready to schedule that can be done really easily through my website at www.thrivingfamilychiropractic.com
Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us today.
Thank you for the opportunity to share about my work! I really enjoy being a part of this community and serving the families of the Rogue Valley.
Learn More:
Thriving Family Chiropractic
1100 E Main St, Suite 103
Medford, OR 97504
(541)833-3057
thrivingfamilychiropractic.com
doctorhannah@thrivingfamilychiropractic.com