The first thing you notice when you’re greeted at Island Wellness is the smiles. Tom and Cara, the husband-and-wife team behind one of Jersey’s newest chiropractic clinics, pretty much glow with a healthy, welcoming persona. There’s an inherent suspicion when you meet a bald hairdresser or a portly personal trainer, but these two look so goddamn well, that I defy you to want to drink the Kool-Aid. If they’re promoting chiropractic health as a method for ‘do as we do,’ I had to give it a try.
As you attend your initial consultation, there is actually a sort of Kool-Aid, in the form of healthy, tasty infused water that is offered to you as you sit down for your health assessment. I’d already answered a questionnaire in advance online, but Tom ran through my answers and got a sense of my problems, which are many and varied. Years of putting off attending to snowboarding and kiting injuries has left my spine in a subpar condition, and I’m thus pretty much up for anything that might help.
Following the written element, Tom got me to go through a series of movements to assess my posture and alignment. He also used an interesting device to conduct a spinal thermal scan, using heat to determine if things are amiss in there. The last time I had a neck scan, they told me I had ‘above average wear and tear.’ That’s fine when it comes to running shoes but not so good for your skeleton, so any kind of status check on that is welcome. Next was a physical assessment of my movement. I’m not the world’s most flexible, but I’m pretty competitive, so this process was a shameful reveal of how I should have been doing more work on my movement. One test has you close your eyes and run on the spot with opposite arms and legs in sync. If you’re well aligned, as the theory goes, you should stay still and maintain rhythm. I moved about a metre and was facing the other way, forcing the realisation that work is needed.
The initial consultation at Island Wellness is £149. Tom had a report ready the following day to go through with me. I also had a follow-up session that takes you through the anticipated course of action for your results—this would form the first session of your structured course of chiropractic treatment. I’ve not been to a chiropractor in some time and the historic familiarity as you lie on the bench and have it drop was a welcome sound, indicating a positive move towards betting things both metaphorically and physically straight. Tom also used an Arthrostim on me. It’s like a professional Theragun with a U-shaped head that presses in all the right places to wake up your spine. I was given some moves to practice and was reassured that there was hope.
Following the first session, Tom followed up with an email containing a link to the PracticeHub app. Once downloaded, the course of recommended movements and exercises to practice meant that guilt was now part of my regime too; ‘I have uploaded a few initial exercises into the app for you to get an idea of the exercises used in combination with care in the office. They help to build the fundamental stability you need in your spine and start to address the first layer of postural distortions’. OK, I’m in.
Contact Tom or Cara at Island Wellness to arrange your consultation on 07797953798 or visit the linktree at @islandwellnessjersey
