There are two phases of chiropractic care:

1. Acute Care
2. Rehabilitative / Preventative Care

If you present to this clinic in pain then our primary objective is simply to alleviate the pain that you are feeling by correcting the cause of your pain syndrome. This objective is more important than any other objective. In general most pain syndromes will resolve within 6-12 visits over a 2 - 4 week period. The treatment will involve adjustments to the joints of the spine or skeleton, massage of any muscle that needs relaxing and stretching any muscle that needs loosening. Once you are pain free your original reason for presenting to a chiropractor has been achieved. You may decide at this stage to discontinue your care. Many people who stop treatment at this stage will present to the chiropractor weeks, months or even years later in acute pain and the process is started all over again.

The next stage of chiropractic care is to thoroughly evaluate the entire neuro-musculo-skeletal system for dysfunction and to treat the dysfunctional areas with the intention of improving the health of the body so that pain will not return, and so that you will be healthier overall. This is the more intensive phase of chiropractic care as it involves more massage, stretching and rehabilitative exercises to return your body to optimum function. It involves identifying chronic joint restrictions which may be deteriorating into arthritis, identifying muscle hypertonicity (muscles that are too short), identifying muscle weakness (either less strength than normal or that they fatigue quicker than normal), and identifying any other structural asymmetries or abnormalities which may cause physiological dysfunction.

Treatment during the rehabilitative / preventative care phase is given to a person who is not in pain. Initially this will involve several treatments on a weekly or a fortnightly basis to correct any major problem areas. This treatment frequency is then reduced to one visit every 4 - 6 weeks to further improve the integrity of the musculoskeletal system of the individual. This can then be relaxed to one visit every 2 to 3 months whilst the individual is aiming to improve their general fitness and well being.