Frequently Asked Questions
Question:
I have _____. Will it go away under NSA chiropractic care at easyspine?
Answer:
People under NSA chiropractic care generally find resolution to even long-standing issues, oftentimes when nothing else seems to work. Although it may seem ironic, we believe that this is, in part, because we do not treat symptoms. We find results are more lasting and satisfying when we strengthen what’s already working in the body, rather than enforcing any adversarial nature between person and symptom. In this way, the person comes out ahead, significantly strengthened in how they move through challenges from past or future stressors.
Question:
It doesn’t look like the chiropractic doctor is doing anything. His touch is so gentle. How can his touch be making anything happen? And what’s all the hand waving about?
Answer:
The gentle touch is only being used to get the brain to feel something a little differently or to pay attention to something it wasn’t noticing before. It’s the voluntary responses of the person on the table that produce the results. Emphasis on voluntary – the person can stop the process of responding at any time. And no need to figure out what the response needs to be. That’s done by the oldest part of our brain, often called the reptilian brain. The same part of the brain and nervous system that gets us to remove our finger from a burning hot stove, or to duck when we feel something about to hit us, or to take a deeper breath after a huge tension dissolves.
The active participation of the person — just paying attention to whatever can be felt and noticed, and doing whatever one feels like doing, allows new strategies — new coordination patterns to develop. New coordination developments that the nervous system remembers throughout a lifetime, creating lasting breakthroughs from the restrictions that were so self-limiting.
This is what the NSA chiropractor is focused on. Whatever elicits the best response, whether that be a touch that is very light or, at times, perhaps not shown so much on the videos, a very firm touch or gentle positioning of the spine.
With regards to the “hand waving”:
The timing of what we do is just as critical as where we’re touching, along with the degree and direction of the characteristically tissue-lifting or scooping-action pressure. So the chiropractor has to be ready to be at the right place at the right time. If, as the chiropractor’s hand approaches a specific place on the body, the person is already getting an optimal response before any contact is made, making physical contact at that point would only be disempowering and serve as a distraction.
Also, as perhaps most everyone has experienced, having had a sense of someone being near us before we hear or see an approaching person, it may be that the nervous system is responding similarly to the chiropractor’s presence. There is a wealth of scientific knowledge on how the electro-magnetic field not only facilitates the remote control for your TV, but a multitude of biological capabilities amongst living organisms as well. In any regard, the strategies being developed under NSA chiropractic care require a nervous system becoming more responsive to a greater range of incoming information.
Bottom line: We want to take advantage of whatever works.
Question:
How do you learn to do this NSA chiropractic?
Answer:
For practicing NSA on other people, training is available through wiseworldseminars.com, requiring a chiropractic degree as a pre-requisite.
To learn how to facilitate the results of this work on yourself, we teach Somato Respiratory Integration.
Nonetheless, right now, for online instruction, whether or not you’re under Network care, this webpage that addresses posture, is the best place to start.
Question:
How much does this care cost and do you take insurance?
Answer:
About half of my clients pay out of pocket. I am in network with BlueCross BlueSheild – Care First. For all other insurance companies, your plan must cover doctors outside of their network for there to be any coverage at Easy Spine. With regards to all insurance plans, we may be able to bill your insurance to the extant that your plan covers chiropractic and / or physical therapy. Insurance plans that cover are often provided by Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, CoreSource, Coventry, Mailhandlers, United Healthcare, and some of the lesser known companies.
Regardless of whether or not you have insurance, please plan to pay $150 out of pocket for your initial evaluation. Most insurance plans have a deductible to meet for each calendar year.
How much your care will cost after your initial appointment can vary widely, depending on how quickly you want to proceed, current condition, spinal/neural integrity, and personal goals. By the end of the initial evaluation, after discussing what is important to you, and evaluating your spine and nerve responsiveness, you will be able to make an informed decision for getting started.
Question:
I was recently in a car accident. Will your services be covered by my auto insurance?
Answer:
Most likely. Here’s what we need to know and what you should be aware of.
Question:
What are your hours of operation?
Answer:
The initial appointment has to be scheduled outside of regular hours. After this initial office visit, you’ll be able to come in anytime during the hours posted here.
Question:
Where is your office located?
Answer:
In Bethedsa, Maryland – 8311 Wisconsin Ave., Suite B-11, zip code 20814. This is just 4 blocks south of the Medical Center Metro (subway) station at National Institutes of Health (NIH), and 9 blocks north of the Bethesda Metro station – both stations on the Red Line, which runs from downtown Washington DC to Gaithersburg, MD. More complete information on directions and parking here at our blog.
Question:
Can I still get a regular chiropractic adjustment, you know, the kind where they crack your spine?
Answer:
Under NSA chiropractic care, we want to see that you are developing the ability to find the tension as it’s coming up, and release it on your own as needed. The chiropractic adjustment you are referring to in your question is one in which the chiropractor locates joints under high tension, and then manipulates with a high velocity thrust to release the tension for you.
Tension of muscles and ligaments control the position of each bone. Nerves control tension. Chiropractors using NSA chiropractic principles are focused on what strategies you can reproduce without having to think about it, as various demands on the body come up in daily life. This keeps you from coming up against the same roadblock over and over again for feeling vital and well.
There’s a great deal of diversity amongst chiropractors and chiropractic techniques. Sometimes a given technique calls for a low amplitude force, sometimes a high velocity thrust. That’s when you may hear the audible clunk.
What makes NSA chiropractic care so gentle is that the practitioner is using his hands to move precisely in stride with what you are already doing or ready to be gently led into coordinating, regardless of what chiropractic adjustment technique is being used at the time. As care proceeds, the flexibility of your nervous system makes it possible for you to gracefully move through a wider range of options, which translates into greater stress-resilience in daily life. To support this development, the Network Care chiropractor, always gently leading, will be using a wider variety of non-jarring techniques. See video for some examples.
Just in case you’re interested, the terminology used amongst chiropractors for that high-velocity, audible-clunk adjustment is “structural adjustment”. The bones don’t really get cracked. The audible clunk you hear is believed to be associated with pressure changes in the synovial fluid of the joint capsule. As a result, gas escapes forming the imploding bubbles that make the sound.
Question:
How many visits will this take?
Answer:
There is no limit to how far you can develop your ability to successfully move through physical and emotional challenges, from past stress and trauma or future challenges. The spine, with the central nervous system being the brain and spinal cord, is the center for this unlimited potential. Your NSA chiropractic care, even with its many goals along the way, never comes to a finish line. How far you want to go will always be up to you. You will not be pressured in any subtle or not so subtle way to continue your care beyond your own motivation. As long as you like the direction you’re going, you’ll probably want to continue. At any time, recommendations regarding level of participation can be given to match range of benefits to be expected. If there is a break in care, for however long, you will not have to start your care all over again. Everything you gain will be through kinesthetic learning, like learning to ride a bike, which means your body won’t forget what it’s learned. It’s yours for the rest of your life.