What we check
- Upper-neck and mid-back movement, including rib motion and how fully your child breathes
- Jaw, neck, and shoulder muscle guarding
- Pelvic mechanics and standing posture, especially in teens at desks all day
- INSiGHT nervous-system scan readings, repeated to track tension over time
- Sleep timing, screen use, caffeine in teens, and training or practice load
- History of falls, collisions, concussions, or illness that added physical stress
What to expect
Bring the whole story to the first visit, including who else is involved in your child's care. We take the history, run the nervous-system scan, and do a gentle hands-on exam.
Nothing is forced, and your child can keep a parent in the room at any age. If your child is having a bad day when they arrive, we will shorten the visit rather than push through it.
The second visit is where we show you the scan images and give a straight recommendation — including telling you when we do not think ongoing care is what your family needs most right now.
Book a first visitThe Line We Do Not Cross
Chiropractic care does not treat, cure, or reduce anxiety.
- It is not therapy and it is not a psychiatric service
- We do not diagnose anxiety disorders and we do not screen for them
- If your child sees a counselor, therapist, or psychiatrist, keep going
- Medication stays entirely between your family and the prescriber — we will not weigh in, and we will never suggest tapering or stopping to see what chiropractic does on its own
- If you have been looking for a reason to skip the therapy referral your pediatrician gave you, this page is not it — we will hand that referral right back to you
Stress Has a Physical Address
Worry is not only a thought. The nervous system runs both sides of it: it takes in what is happening, decides how threatening it is, and sets the body’s tone accordingly.
- A clenched jaw and a tight chest
- Shallow breathing
- A stomach that hurts before school
- Shoulders that never come down
- Dr. Tori explains our nervous-system focused care as a gas pedal and a brake pedal
- A packed school and activity schedule, poor sleep, hours of screens, and social pressure all press the gas; our care is intended to help the body find the brake
- That is about tension and comfort in a body — not a treatment for a diagnosis, and we will not stretch it into one
What We Actually Assess
The first visit is a consultation before it is anything else. We want the timeline: when the stomachaches started, what sleep looks like, what changed at school, whether there was a fall, a crash, or an illness in the middle of it.
- INSiGHT nervous-system scanning for a baseline of how much tension appears held in the autonomic nervous system
- Repeat scans over time, rather than relying on how anyone felt that week
- Upper-neck movement
- Mid-back and rib motion, which matters for how well a child can take a full breath
- The pelvis
- We are describing mechanics and tension — nothing in a scan tells us whether a child is anxious
Teens Get a Different Conversation
Older kids get talked to directly. We ask them, not just you, what hurts and what they want out of coming here.
- They can ask us to hold back parts of the visit they would rather handle themselves, within reason and within the law
- Teen bodies arrive with their own load: eight hours hunched over a laptop, club sports year-round, four hours of sleep during exams, a phone that never turns off
- Neck tension and headaches ride along with all of it
- We treat that as mechanical work and lifestyle coaching, which is honest, rather than dressing it up as mental health care, which it is not
- When a teen tells us something that belongs with a counselor or a doctor, we say so out loud and help the family make that call
What Parents Report, Stated Carefully
The most common thing families tell us is that sleep got easier.
- Coming down from an upset faster
- Fewer physical complaints in the morning
- A teenager whose neck and shoulders feel less locked up
- These are things parents have observed — not outcomes we can promise you
- They are not measured improvements in anxiety, and not a reason to change anything about your child’s mental health care
- Some families see nothing they would call different; if that is where you land after a fair trial, we would rather refund your hope early than keep selling it
See a medical provider right away if you notice
- Any talk of self-harm, suicide, or hopelessness — contact your pediatrician or crisis services immediately; in the U.S. call or text 988
- A sudden regression in skills or a sharp personality change over days or weeks — prompt medical evaluation
- New severe headache, a headache that wakes your child at night, or headache with vomiting or vision changes — see your pediatrician
- Chest pain, fainting, or a racing heart at rest — urgent medical evaluation, not chiropractic
- Weight loss, food restriction, or purging — call your pediatrician right away
- Any suspected concussion — remove from activity and get a medical evaluation first
Common questions
Can chiropractic care reduce my child's anxiety?
We cannot claim that. Chiropractic does not treat anxiety. We assess spinal mechanics and nervous-system tension and care for what we find. Parents most often report better sleep and a quicker return to calm, and those are observations, not treatment outcomes.
My teen already sees a therapist. Is coming here redundant?
No, and it should not replace anything. Therapy does work we cannot do. We are addressing physical tension, posture, and sleep habits. Tell both sides what the other is doing.
Do you have an opinion on our medication?
We do not, and it would be out of our scope to offer one. Those decisions belong to your prescriber. Just tell us what your child takes so we have the full picture.
How long before we know if this is doing anything?
You should have a clear sense within the first few weeks of care, and the follow-up scans give you something more than a feeling. If nothing is changing, ask us directly — we would rather have that conversation than keep booking visits.
This page is educational and is not medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Chiropractic care does not treat or cure disease; it supports the function of the nervous system and spine. Please speak with your pediatrician or a licensed clinician about your family's specific situation, and seek immediate care for any urgent symptom.