Anyone can benefit from chiropractic care, and Dr. Rebecca Connor and her team at Garden State Family Chiropractic welcome and encourage those interested to visit their downtown Haddonfield office to find out how.
“Anybody can come in and feel a change,” Dr. Rebecca says. “We just want to be part of their health care team to help them achieve their goals.”
Garden State Family Chiropractic offers care for everyone and specializes in pregnancy and pediatric care. This wasn’t always the career path Dr. Rebecca saw herself taking, but it’s the one that has brought fulfillment and joy to her life.
“I think what sets us apart is just our dedication to family wellness care. Kids and pregnancy are our niche, but we do see whole families,” she says. “We have that passion to help kids see their best potential and help them through whatever they’re dealing with.”
To that end, the office has cultivated a welcoming, family-friendly atmosphere, with toys and books in every room and a play area in the lobby.
“We want that family feel. When you’re here, you’re part of the family and we love you like our own,” Dr. Rebecca says. “It really shows through for our patients from the moment they come through the door.”
A journey to family care
Dr. Rebecca earned her bachelor of science degree in kinesiology from Penn State in 2014, originally eyeing physical therapy as a career. In exploring her options, however, she was introduced to chiropractic care.
“To me, chiropractic just had more opportunity to help people,” she says. “It was focusing on the entire body, how nerves control movement and function. It gets down to that root cause, down to that cellular level.”
After starting her chiropractic journey with a sports focus, a mission trip to El Salvador helped Dr. Rebecca recognize a love for pediatric and pregnancy care.
“It was an amazing experience. It really opened my eyes to the opportunities within chiropractic and how it could help people, especially kids,” she says.
After earning her doctor of chiropractic degree from Life University in 2018, Dr. Rebecca joined Garden State Family Chiropractic to cover for the previous owner’s maternity leave in June 2019. Things went well, and she was asked to stay on permanently. In April of this year, Dr. Rebecca bought the practice.
“It was exactly the kind of practice I wanted to work in,” she says.
Chiropractic for everyone
Chiropractic care focuses on how the body functions.
“It’s about general health and how the body is able to express its optimal potential,” Dr. Rebecca explains. “A lot of people know chiropractic care when it comes to pain. We can definitely help with those things, but our main goal is making sure your nervous system doesn’t have any interference and your body can do what it was designed to do.”
A new patient will go through a thorough evaluation, which helps Dr. Rebecca and her team come up with a treatment plan. As things improve and patients are holding adjustments better, treatment eases.
“We want to maintain that level of function. Then we go into more of a wellness care plan,” Dr. Rebecca says.
Patients can feel the difference in their bodies, not just their pain levels, and their care plan turns more into a maintenance-type plan, with check-ins every few weeks to every few months. Sometimes adjustments are needed, and other times patients still feel great but want to check in to make sure their body is still functioning at its best.
Since Garden State Family Chiropractic specializes in pediatric care, Dr. Rebecca works hard to build rapport with her youngest patients. She explains everything in language they can understand and ensures they are comfortable with treatment. If that means she needs to sit on the floor and adjust a child while they play, that’s what she’ll do. If they need to lay on mom or dad’s chest for adjustment, that’s OK, too.
“I always just want to meet them where they’re at,” she says.
Research-based care
Dr. Rebecca stresses that there is extensive research behind chiropractic care. Symptoms alert patients to underlying issues, and chiropractic care can identify the root cause of these problems in order to bring the body back to optimal functioning.
In addition to prenatal and pediatric care—which includes care for breastfeeding mothers and babies—patients can seek care for neck pain, lower back pain, headaches and sports care at Garden State Family Chiropractic. Techniques used in the office include those for diversified/full spine, sustained contact, Thompson “drop,” sacro-occiptal, activator, cranial work and the Webster technique.
As a member of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association, Dr. Rebecca has trained extensively with the organization, which is the only one that certifies doctors in the Webster technique, a gentle adjustment that aligns and balances the pelvis and allows babies to get into a more optimal position before delivery, including babies that are breech.
“That certification sets us apart and is one of the main reasons a pregnant woman would come to us,” Dr. Rebecca says.
“The International Chiropractic Pediatric Association does a ton of pediatric and prenatal research in the profession. There is a lot of data and evidence-based support for chiropractic,” she continues. “I think a lot of people have misconceptions on what chiropractic is. When you’re coming here, the evidence says that there’s a benefit to getting adjusted and keeping your nervous system free of any interference.”
Garden State Family Chiropractic
Haddonfield
(856) 524-7006
GardenStateFamilyChiro.com
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Published and copyrighted in South Jersey Magazine, Volume 21, Issue 5 (August 2024)
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