07/26/2025
Many of you know that Nexus Chiropractic/Gault Family Chiropractic is turning 25 years old in August. What started out as a short history of the practice quickly became a longer and more detailed account of my journey into chiropractic and NetworkSpinal.
Here it is - if you would prefer to read it as a Word document, comment your email address and I will send it to you.
NEXUS AT A QUARTER CENTURY!
On August 14th, 2025 Nexus Chiropractic will be celebrating 25 years of service to the community. I find this amazing as I still feel like the new kid on the block, not the longest continuously practicing chiropractor in Cornwall and area (Dr. Lalonde has been practicing longer but left for some years and came back).
A quarter century makes for many stories and expanded perspectives as I have made many changes myself and been witness to the shifting trends in both chiropractic specifically, and health care in general.
I thought I would share some of the history of Nexus Chiropractic, as it reaches its 25th birthday.
I knew that I wanted to be a chiropractor when I was about 11 years old. My father started seeing a local chiropractor (Dr. Pell – RIP) and as a result, my younger sister and I started tagging along on his visits. My sister had been suffering from a mysterious respiratory condition for an extended period of time that had not been solved. At that time, she was going for regular injections that were keeping the symptoms at bay but not resolving anything. Dr. Pell explained to my father something about the nervous system and how it impacts all of the functions of the body and they decided that there was nothing to lose by her starting chiropractic care.
Lucky for me, I started getting spinal adjustments at the same time. The end result was that my sister’s condition resolved within a few months and while I didn’t have any ‘problem,’ per se, I had the experience of something really good was happening when I got adjusted. I remember leaving the office feeling lighter, happier, more energetic. To this day, when I leave my chiropractor’s office my senses seem more acute and even the colours seem brighter.
My entire family started receiving regular chiropractic care as a way to BE healthy, not necessarily to treat symptoms. Chiropractic care, in addition to my family being ‘health conscious,’ left me with the feeling that I had an advantage over others, especially in the realm of athletic performance.
It was at that time that I decided that I wanted to become a chiropractor.
In 1992 I started attending McGill University in the Anatomy and Physiology program where I spent my next 4 years studying, partying, and playing on the varsity baseball team.
Throughout my time as an undergraduate student, I lost focus on my initial chiropractic dream and while I did okay in school I kind of floated for a few years.
As I was coming to the end of my 4 years at McGill I started to ask myself, ‘what now?’ It was time to make some serious decisions. I had spent enough time in science courses that I knew I did not want to spend my life as a researcher or academic in that realm. I HAD ended up taking a bunch of English literature courses as electives that I really enjoyed and the thought of becoming an English professor was very attractive to me. I am an introvert and the idea of spending my life reading and writing seemed nice, even though I wasn’t a big fan of the university environment (too stuffy and uptight).
It was at that time I revisited the idea of becoming a chiropractor. I started speaking to some schools and really liked the energy and enthusiasm I was encountering while talking to the representatives. For the first time I discovered that there were a couple of ‘schools of philosophy,’ within the chiropractic profession and that different chiropractic schools aligned with those different philosophies.
The one Canadian chiropractic school at the time (CMCC) was very much a part of one camp that was more focused on fitting into the medical model and prioritized symptom treatment and things more aligned with physiotherapy and different modalities. Other schools were more focused on a separate and distinct chiropractic philosophy and paradigm that looked to enhance overall health, well-being and increasing people’s ability to function and adapt better to life. These schools placed more emphasis on mastering specific chiropractic technique systems that addressed the structure and function of the spine and nervous system as a way to impact health and performance.
This was when I discovered Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa. Palmer was known as the ‘Fountainhead’ of chiropractic as this was where chiropractic was founded in 1895 by D.D. Palmer (a Canadian from Port Perry, Ontario). Palmer was a place steeped in history, philosophy and a commitment to providing world class chiropractic technique instruction. This intrigued me and piqued my interest.
In the summer of 1996, my father and I hit the road for a week to visit Davenport – as well as stopping to see some professional baseball games, see Notre Dame University and check out what else the Midwest had to offer. While at Palmer, I bought a ‘Green Book,’ about the philosophy of chiropractic written by the then President of the school – Dr. Virgil Strang – and I was hooked. It also turned out that an old friend of mine that I had lost touch with was about halfway through the program at Palmer and he had a vacancy at his apartment (coincidentally previously occupied by Cornwall’s Dr. Chris Fullarton (RIP), who had decided to go to school in California instead).
I enrolled at Palmer and matriculated in the Fall of 1996 for the 10 trimester program.
I loved chiropractic school! For the first time I felt like I had a real purpose to my studies, and I absolutely ate it up. Not only did my grades go through the roof, but I almost immediately got involved in after hours technique clubs and started attending professional weekend seminars with practicing chiropractors.
About halfway through chiropractic school I started attending the Palmer Gonstead Club. Gonstead was a very specific, thorough and structural technique founded by Dr. Clarence Gonstead in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin. Dr. Gonstead had built a 19,000 square foot clinic in that small town that attracted so many out-of-town patients that he built a hotel next to the clinic to house people.
In my last year of school, I became the president of the Palmer Gonstead Club, which at the time was the largest chiropractic technique club in the world. I was also the editor of our club newsletter that went out (via snail mail) to practicing doctors and students around the world.
In February of 2000, I graduated from Palmer College with a Doctor of Chiropractic degree – magna cm laude – and was unleashed on the world.
Pretty early after graduation, I decided to start my own practice in Cornwall. I would like to say that it was all by design but in reality, I didn’t really know what else to do. I put together a business plan, looked at locations, and Gault Family Chiropractic was born!
Gault Family Chiropractic actually started out of a spare bedroom at my parent’s house where I looked after family and friends (sometimes in exchange for beer). Bob L. became my first official patient, and I ended up looking after him for years.
On August 14th, 2000 I officially opened my doors at 421 Marlborough St., which historically had been a gas station. Most recently it had been the OBGYN office of Dr. Morgan, who had been the father of my best friend Keith growing up. Tragically, they had both been killed in a car accident while I was in chiropractic school.
I started my practice with no staff – which was stupid but allowed me to develop and learn the entire operation from the ground up. It was a full Gonstead practice that included x-ray analysis that was referred to on every visit, thermography, and specialized adjusting tables. I also invested in new technology at the time that objectively measured nervous system function.
Things were great. I was finally doing what I was trained to do and impacting people’s health and lives. All of our patients attended Introductory Presentations given on a weekly basis. The practice grew.
I can’t pinpoint exactly when I started to sense some dissatisfaction with the results I was getting with my best patients. According to my philosophy, my expectation was that people receiving regular ‘wellness’ care would continue to see progressive and evolving improvements. The longer a person’s nervous system remained clear of obstructions, the more adaptable and healthier they should become. In reality, I was not seeing this with the regularity I felt I should.
People were happy with their results, but I started to notice a predictable plateau after the initial phase of care. Most patients were happy with this because the plateau was a much better place than they had come into the office with. I was not completely satisfied because I knew there was more possible.
I started looking for the reason why. I tweaked what I was doing in a variety of ways. I continued going to seminars to get better at what I was doing. Nothing was producing the outcomes that I knew were possible.
One morning at 7am (when I started back then), my best, regular ‘wellness,’ patient who followed all of my recommendations came in for his weekly adjustment. I looked down at his travel card (file) and realized that I had adjusted the same vertebrae the last 15 or so times he had come in. At that point I realized that what I was doing was likely contributing to this pattern that was part of his plateau. This was not acceptable to me, and I knew something had to change.
In the meantime, I had hired myfirst staff member – Elspeth Craig – who was with me for about 18 months and ended up playing a major role in a massive evolution of the practice.
At around this time, I listened to an interview with Dr. Donny Epstein on a series of CD’s (yes CD’s) I subscribed to monthly to stay abreast of science, politics and philosophy within the profession. This was serendipitous as Dr. Epstein seemed to be answering all of the questions in my head as a result of my dissatisfaction. I was paying attention to this guy that I had previously considered ‘weird,’ and ‘fringe,’ while I was in school.
The serendipity continued as a few weeks later I received a flyer that he would be in Toronto teaching a basic level technique seminar for his system, Network Spinal Analysis (NSA). I registered.
NSA was a low force (no crack) technique that – at the time – looked really weird to me. A part of me fought even attempting to learn it. It looked strange, some of the people practicing it were strange, and I did not see MYSELF as strange.
During the introduction to the weekend seminar, Dr. Epstein spoke mostly about the philosophy, the approach and the science and research behind NSA. It was very interesting and made a lot of sense but it certainly was not enough to convince me to embrace this practice. A few things happened over the next day that would change that.
At the end of the first evening, Dr. Epstein did a demonstration of an NSA ‘entrainment.’ The patient was a small looking man who appeared very tired and weak. When he sat up after the entrainment I saw a completely different human. The man appeared to have physically grown, and he now had a strong, commanding presence. I was intrigued! I did not know it at the time, but this doctor would soon become both my long-time chiropractor and my most valued mentor – Dr. Pierre Bernier of Gatineau.
Next, there was a relatively famous chiropractic couple from the USA also attending the seminar for the first time. They were well known for teaching their own seminars and writing articles in trade publications. The husband shared during the seminar that he had visited a Network office recently and the spines of the patients there were the best he had ever witnessed in his career.
Finally, I was chosen several times throughout the weekend by Dr. Epstein (and his wife, Dr. Jackie) to be used as the demo patient. As a result, I was entrained by Dr. Epstein a handful of times over the course of the seminar. It is hard to describe but it was a profound experience that left me no choice but to come home and deliver this care to my family and patients – even IF it looked strange!
When I returned home on Sunday night I stopped at my parents’ house, excitedly grabbed my portable table and after one contact on my Mom’s neck she instantly developed a full wave. I knew that I could do it! Starting that Monday, every patient in my office received Network care (along with Gonstead – for awhile).
I had a few interesting experiences with patients in those early days that cemented my conviction to the work. My co-op student at the time (Amy Malyon – who is still a patient 24 years later) came limping into the office with a charley horse from soccer. I entrained her and the charley horse was instantly gone. Another man showed up doubled over with back pain and his wife had to help him onto the table – when I examined him the only thing showing up was his upper neck. I was terrified that he was going to think I was crazy for adjusting his neck when it was his back hurting. He danced out of the office under his own power and referred me people for many years.
It was also at this time that I started receiving weekly world class care from Dr. Bernier in Gatineau – which was probably the most important part of my development as a practitioner.
This was an exciting time at Gault Family Chiropractic, and I was a man on a mission. It was also a time of rapid growth and my second assistant, Sandra Hanniman played an important role in that explosion withing the practice.
ADOLPHUS WELLNESS CENTRE
In the spring of 2004, I was approached by local RMT Mathieu Beaudette with an offer to team up into a new ‘Wellness Centre.’ Matt had already made an accepted offer on 24 Adolphus St. and was looking for a business partner. I signed onto the mortgage, and we opened Adolphus Wellness Centre. In addition to our professional services, we had a number of RMT’s, naturopaths, yoga teachers and other practitioners work along side us.
In the first years of Adolphus Wellness Centre, our group entrainment room was at the front of the building in what would become my living and dining room later.
Not long after moving to Adolphus St., Sandra moved to Ottawa and Cindy and Adele came on board within weeks of each other. This really started the ‘modern era’ of the practice.
My personal life was also growing at that time. My wife and I started dating and soon after she started her PhD in Windsor that led to us travelling back and forth most weekends. We got married in 2004 (Aug. 14th – same as the office anniversary!) while she was in the middle of her degree. We bought our first house in 2005, and the two boys were born in 2006 and 2007 – all while she was still studying, interning and writing her dissertations.
I was also pushing hard to master NSA care. I was kind of obsessed and was travelling constantly to seminars and workshops to refine my skills and understanding of the work.
Our office also started participating in the XCELS chiropractic leadership program in 2008 and I later worked as a consultant to chiropractors around the world as a part the XCELS team.
NEXUS CHIROPRACTIC
In 2010 Mathieu decided to go back to school to study acupuncture and was leaving the Centre. Originally, we were going to sell the building and just go our separate ways. In the end I decided to buy him out, build an addition onto the building (the current entrainment room) and my family moved into the house. Hilarity ensued as toddlers were known to crash our workshops with underwear on their heads.
In 2013 we changed the name of the office from Gault Family chiropractic to Nexus Chiropractic. The reason for the change is that I did not want the practice to be about me, especially when the time comes to bring on new doctors or pass the practice along to someone else.
Somewhere during this timeframe Jaime McRae, RMT joined the team at Nexus.
In 2015, one of the most exciting developments for Nexus Chiropractic began. Dr. Epstein opened a new program for Network practitioners who had achieved the highest level of certification in the discipline (which I completed back in 2006). This program – called Master – E – was the most recent iteration of his technologies. It felt like it was exactly what I had been waiting for, and I was part of the pioneering class of doctors to complete the year long program. This continued into a second year and completely changed the way we worked with people and the results we achieve.
In the ensuing years I continued to upgrade my skills with ongoing seminars and also shifted my home life focus to coaching, organizing, driving and spectating as my children became more heavily involved in sports – in particular lacrosse and basketball.
We all know what happened in 2020 – and this is one of the periods I feel most proud of the role Nexus Chiropractic played in the community. A large percentage of the population was freaking out – either because of fear of the disease or the government interventions. It was a time of massive stress, fear, anger, and uncertainty. While I did not agree with much of what was going on, we made a decision to make our office an oasis of ‘normal.’ We were going to make the experience at Nexus as ‘normal’ and stress free as possible, while continuing to follow the letter of the law.
To me, there was never a more important time for people to take care of the state of their nervous system than during this extended period. Despite plenty of inner turmoil, and the loss of Adele to another job, we did what we could to serve our people to the best of our ability when they needed it most.
As we have moved into 2025, the spectre of Covid still lingers. While we have been happy to get back to our normal modes of operation and in house workshops and events, the impact is still noticeable. The average person coming into the office is more messed up than they were pre 2020 – regardless of their view of that time. There remains more polarity in the world. Spines and nervous systems are more obstructed. People are more defensive in both body and mind.
If anything, this has strengthened our dedication to providing this essential care. People need it even more than they did before. Cindy and I certainly know this and our newest staff member, Angele is right on board with us in this.
It feels like as a culture we are at a bifurcation point. The old way of doing things is clearly not working any more. At moments like this there are two possible outcomes. Those who are unable and unwilling to adapt and change will fall apart. Physically, emotionally, and psychologically. We have seen this already. On the other hand, those who have the capacity to adapt and shift will thrive in the new world. Better yet, those of us who can lead and contribute to the change will have a massive impact on creating what comes next.
The latter two require unobstructed, adaptable nervous systems in order to accomplish what is required. A system locked in fear and defense is simply incapable of thriving through the coming changes. A compelling future is available for us and our children and our children’s children but it requires a greater capacity than most currently people possess.
I have spent most of my 25 years of practice feeling like what we were doing was a little bit ahead of it’s time. The was always some tension that we were a little beyond where most people were coming from. If anything, we embraced this role and the challenges that came with it.
Now, I sense that the world is rising to meet us. People require something more than just chasing pain and symptoms around for the rest of their lives. They are starting to realize that the pain and symptoms are actually there to wake them up to the fact that they require greater capacity in their spines, nervous systems, and lives. As it becomes obvious that short term symptom treatment is not enough for people to have the health and lives that they actually need and desire, the care at Nexus will become an important contributor to what is coming next.
And we are so excited about that!
Thank you to everyone who has been a part of the last 25 years. Thank you for your support, trust, wisdom, challenges, laughter, tears, successes, heartbreaks, gratitude, criticism, love, hate and everything in between.
I plan on being here for at least another 25 years and I look forward to whatever and whoever that brings into the world we call Nexus Chiropractic.
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