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Spartanburg: (864) 609-3928
Chiropractic Care
Our bodies are absolutely brilliant! Without any effort on our part, our nervous system adapts to the stresses life throws our way. Our body is designed to respond to these stresses and return to a baseline of ease. When this doesn't happen and stress becomes chronic, we start to lose our health.
Chiropractic care influences the nervous system in a way that enhances the tone of the vagus nerve and helps the nervous system become more resilient to life's stresses.
There are many different approaches to chiropractic care. Often, people think of chiropractic as involving the "twisting, cracking, and popping" of the spine and neck. However, there are several techniques beyond the traditional methods of adjusting.
At Vitality Chiropractic, Dr. Niccie uses a tonal technique where all adjustments are made with an instrument.
What is a Tonal Technique?
Great question! The spinal cord resides within the vertebrae of the spine, stabilized by ligaments called dentate ligaments at various levels.
When a vertebra with these dentate ligaments shifts out of its proper position, moves improperly, or stops moving, it alters the tone of the spinal cord. This change in tone can cause other bones to subluxate (move out of their proper position) or move improperly as well.
Our chiropractic approach focuses on adjusting these primary subluxations to bring ease to your entire spine. All adjustments are performed with an instrument and are safe and gentle for everyone!
By restoring proper movement to your spine, your nervous system can function at its highest potential. This not only enhances the tone of the vagus nerve but also places your nervous system in a state of ease, allowing healing to occur.
Insight Scanning
Much like x-rays provide a picture of the structure of your spine, Insight Scanning provides information about how your body is functioning due to the structure of your spine. Our technology measures various aspects of your nervous system and evaluates its efficiency.
Two of the scans focus on your spinal nerves, which branch directly from the spinal cord and can cause the pain associated with a "pinched nerve." Using thermography and surface EMG, Insight Scanning provides information about interference at the level of spinal nerves due to improper or lack of movement in the joints of your spine.
Heart rate variability (HRV) evaluates cranial nerve function, particularly the function of the vagus nerve (CN X).
The vagus nerve has a big job! It not only brings sensory information from the body to the brain but also delivers instructions from the brain to the organs in response to this sensory information. HRV measures the tone of this nerve.
It is widely accepted that HRV is a strong predictor of future health outcomes, and chiropractic care has been shown to positively influence HRV.
We use this technology at our Spartanburg location to evaluate your health on your first visit and throughout your care, allowing us to measure your progress. This technology enables us to tailor care to suit your needs and health goals.
Polyvagal and Chiropractic
The polyvagal theory, developed by Dr. Stephen Porges in 1995, proposes that the way we handle stress and our conditioned responses to it significantly impact our health. Additionally, it suggests that the vagus nerve has evolved in a way that has enabled us to become social creatures. This evolution explains how stress affects our interactions with others, especially when we feel overwhelmed.
The polyvagal theory is based on three organizing principles:
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Co-regulation: This is how we learn to manage our emotions and responses to stress early in life. Our early "co-regulators" are the people we turn to for comfort, safety, and security when life becomes overwhelming. This need for safety and security continues into adulthood, as we still seek a safe place to land when the world feels too much. Through co-regulation, we not only learn how to manage our own emotions and stresses but also how to become co-regulators for others.
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Neuroception: This refers to the continuous and unconscious scanning our brain does of our environment to determine if we are "safe or not." Our brain assesses our level of safety based on our beliefs, opinions, experiences, biases, and more. When our brain perceives a threat to our safety, it triggers the nervous system to alter how the body functions in an effort to keep us safe.
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Autonomic Hierarchy: This principle deals with how our autonomic nervous system (ANS) responds to stress, whether real or imagined. The ANS runs all the systems of our body without our conscious awareness. Ideally, the ANS should be in a state of ease, allowing the nervous system to coordinate and control all body systems in perfect balance. In this state, our body can regenerate and heal. When our brain perceives a threat, the nervous system dysregulates to prioritize survival. While this response is initially protective, chronic stress can lead to prolonged dysregulation, causing us to lose our health.
Understanding these principles helps explain why chronic stress can have such a profound impact on our well-being and highlights the importance of managing stress for overall health.
Archetypal Consulting ~ Coming Soon!
Archetypes are patterns in our psyche that influence our emotional, mental, and spiritual growth. These concepts are not new; Plato mentioned them in his writings, and the famous Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung also explored archetypes in his work. Jung rejected the tabula rasa theory of human psychological development, which suggests that people are born as a "blank slate" and their experiences shape their thoughts, behaviors, and feelings. Instead, Jung believed in universal experiences inherent to the human condition, such as belonging, love, death, and fear. He referred to these as the "collective unconscious" and expressed them through "archetypes." Jung thought that these archetypes are shaped by evolutionary pressures and manifest in the behaviors and experiences of individuals.
Dr. Niccie has been studying the work of Caroline Myss and her approach to working with archetypes for the last two years. She has found that the way archetypes manifest in our lives is closely related to how our nervous system responds to life's stresses.
Becoming aware of how your archetypes function can help you better manage life's stresses, which can naturally improve your health. Combining archetypal counseling with chiropractic care not only impacts your nervous system, making it more resilient to stress and aiding in natural healing, but also helps prevent chronic nervous system dysregulation in response to stress. Together, these approaches help you to be your best.
Office Hours
Mon 9am - 1pm
Tue 1pm - 5pm
Wed 9am - 1pm / 2pm - 5pm
Thu 1pm - 5pm
Fri Closed
Sat 9am - 12pm
Sun Closed
Vitality Chiropractic
187 North Church St, Suite 15A
Spartanburg, SC 29306
(Located in the lower level of the Montgomery Building, beside the leasing office)
(864) 609-3928
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