Custom care gets you the best results.

It depends. Dr. Nelson will start your visit with a consult to find out what your goals are. If he believes we can help he will perform an exam and then share with you his expectations for how long it will take to get relief and how long it will take to get lasting results.

Based on your consult and exam Dr. Nelson will be able to give you his expert recommendations. He'll answer your questions, share with you what our part and your part would be to get you from where you are to where you want to be, and the financial options we have to help you get there.

I’ll need to access your arms from the shoulder down and your legs from the knees down, so if you want to wear pants or sleeves, make sure that they can roll up. During the exam I’ll need you to take off your shoes, but you can leave them on during normal visits.

Jewelry can end up being in the way or poking you and I want you to have a good experience, so keeping it light would be a good idea. If you wear heavy makeup I’d suggest bringing your kit to touch it up afterwards - you’ll end up with your face in a piece of facepaper and it might smear things a bit.

My Guidelines for Getting Better are simple!

1. Bring a desire to get better (it may sound silly, but it’s incredibly important. Despite my skill, I actually cannot make you better if you don’t want to be)
2. Bring a willingness to learn new things (because the old ones aren’t working)
3. Always be honest with me about how you feel, even if you’re feeling worse so we can always fine tune your care (otherwise we’ll be doing more of what doesn’t work and that’s bad for everyone.)

In return, I promise to:

1. Bring dedication to help your body heal
2. Teach you what I know to help you stay better
3. Always give you an honest evaluation and tell you what is needed to help you reach your goals, whether that’s relief, prevention, or performance.

Simply, chiropractic starts with the understanding that your body can be self-healing and self-regulating. When the joints of your spine or skeleton don't move the way they should it can cause pain or get in the way of your body's healing and performance. I practice chiropractic by helping your joints move the way they should again through simple, gentle adjustments to help you heal, feel, and function better.

The chiropractic adjustment starts with me analyzing your spine (or another joint) that isn't moving right. Because the body can compensate for pains, you'll find that sometimes you can feel it, sometimes it's "hiding", but I will always be able to show you how one side feels different than the other. Once I've determined which side or joint needs to be adjusted, I put your body in a relaxed position that allows me to apply a quick nudge to help the joint move correctly.

Most times there is a "popping sound" (cavitation) and occasionally there's a little momentary tenderness. The noticeable benefits of an adjustment are almost always immediate relief, an increased range of motion, and feelings of relaxation. The benefits extend to more than that, increasing your ability to heal and helping reduce normal inflammation around nerves, joints, and muscles.

Yes! The adjustments are safe and gentle. All treatment at Advocate Wellness is tailored to your needs and preferences to provide you with the best outcomes from my care. Children's bodies rarely carry the same stress and tension, so the adjustments are much more gentle.

Pregnant women can find relief from neck and back pain and shoulder tension from adjustments that I provide safely and gently to support the birth plan you have with your OB/GYN or midwife.

Myofascial refers to the care I give to help your muscles and the fascia it's wrapped up in (just like a tortilla around a burrito) and the goal is to help you heal, feel, and function better. Myofascial therapy includes stretching very particular muscles, releasing wrinkles or contractions in the fascia, and removing trigger points.

Most myofascial work feels like a stretching sensation. I always make sure to take your pain tolerance into account so we can keep it manageable for two reasons:

1. I want to be kind to you and help you have a great experience.
2. If it's too painful, your body will actually tighten up and undo all of our good work.

Releasing trigger points involves me finding the spot and applying gentle pressure and guiding you through breathing and releasing the tension. The pain can be pretty strong for about 30 seconds, but then with the pressure and deep breathing it just starts to melt away until it's gone! Both the breathing and finding the trigger points is something I can teach you, so over time you may only need me to do the hard-to-reach spots!

Short answer? It's a multiplier - you'll get better results faster and keep them longer when you get myofascial therapy in addition to chiropractic.

Long answer? Think of fascia like you do spiderweb. It's super lightweight and strong and wraps around your muscles like a tortilla around a burrito, but it can become wrinkled or contracted. The muscles can also become tight or even develop something called a trigger point - a focal area of super contracted muscle that causes "mysterious" and traveling pain. If one or both of these are present, they can cause decreased healing, stiffening, muscle aches, pains, and strains, increased chances of injury, and the adjustments you receive wouldn't last as long. Myofascial therapy helps your muscles relax, helps your posture improve, helps you heal faster, feel better faster, and continue to be able to function better, longer.

Yes! The myofascial work I do is safe and gentle. Every treatment at Advocate Wellness is tailored to your needs to provide you with the best outcomes from my care. Children rarely (if ever) need myofascial therapy, but it is safe for them. Myofascial therapy can help my care be more effective for pregnant women and is provided safely and gently to support your birth plan with your OB/GYN or midwife.

Laser therapy is a light-based form of healing that decreases pain and inflammation and speeds up healing by up to 2 times! We shine the light onto the areas that need help in the form of one single frequency. It's very gentle and does not hurt!

Laser Therapy works by activating receptors that vibrate when we shine a very certain frequency of light on them. There are at least two ways to activate these receptors; one way is through a hormone the other is with a laser. Once activated, the receptors start a cascade of anti-inflammatory and pro-healing processes inside the cell that lead to increased healing, decreased inflammation, and decreased pain.

No and most people barely feel anything. The laser operates as a very specific flashlight. It can be a bit bright, but we have fun-looking protective glasses if needed for staff and patients. The energy from the light is used up vibrating receptors, so that's where the power goes. As the receptors become saturated patients report mild warmth and we're able to back the laser up a bit to keep that ideal input level.

Yes! Laser therapy is incredibly safe. We use it on our pregnant and pediatric patients with amazing, gentle effects! What makes it a laser is that it produces light at ONLY one frequency at a time instead of a range of frequencies. We tailor all of our care to the patient and children generally need a lower dosage than adults when it comes to many things and laser therapy is similar.

A lot of people are curious if we accept insurance. The simple answer is that we're insurance friendly. What that means is we provide detailed receipts that our patients submit and can receive varying levels of refunds from their insurance company for depending on their plan, company, etc.

We can absolutely accept cash, check, and card. People are often pleasantly surprised to find that they can use their Flexible Spending Account (FSA) and Health Savings Account (HSA) cards with us. Additionally, we help make our care affordable by partnering with CareCredit. Call us to pre-qualify!

At Advocate Wellness your vaccination status is protected healthcare information and you do not have to disclose it. While we may ask about your status if it relates clinically to your case, we do not require vaccination to be seen.

Masks are welcome, but not required at Advocate Wellness. If a patient is symptomatic they usually choose to wear a mask or stay home. In either case, we routinely clean our tables and surfaces very thoroughly to promote the health and safety of our patients and staff.