Mayes Chiropractic

Carrie Mayes, D.C.

For more than ten years I had a rewarding and enjoyable career as a teacher and coach. Then it seemed that I was being drawn toward something different in the field of health care. It wasn’t that I was running from something -- I was running to something. That something ended up being chiropractic and helping people live healthier happier lives in a new and different way.

In retrospect, I can point to a number of my own experiences that provided opportunities for me to see the value of chiropractic in action. My first experience with a chiropractor was after I spent three days lying on the floor with lower back pain while in my mid-20’s. I instinctively knew that a medical doctor was only going to give me drugs, which wouldn’t address the cause of my problem, but only treat the symptoms. Chiropractic care helped resolve the back problem. I also noticed that often when I had low back pain, I tended to have digestive problems as well, and those cleared up when I got chiropractic care for the back pain.

Ten years later, in my mid-30’s, two serious car accidents within nine months of each other left me with whiplash, a head injury and an elbow that needed to be reconstructed with surgery. Chiropractic care significantly helped with my recovery from these injuries. This time I noticed that in healing the injuries to my neck, the sinus infections that I had suffered on a quarterly basis every year since college also disappeared. What began as an opportunity to heal my injuries became an opportunity for me to learn how healing the spine positively affects the nervous system and everything it is connected to, including the digestive system and the sinuses.

In 1996 I left teaching and moved from Northern Michigan to Kansas City, Missouri to study chiropractic. I returned to Michigan in 2000 as valedictorian and Magna Cum Laude graduate of Cleveland Chiropractic College and have been practicing chiropractic in the Traverse City area ever since.

Having been an athlete and athletic coach myself, and continuing to appreciate my ability to bike, hike, swim, cross-country ski, snowshoe and kayak, I enjoy working with athletes of all ages and different sports to help them prevent injury, heal injuries faster and keep active for a lifetime.

Working with children continues to be great fun for me and I am one of only two chiropractors (as of this writing in 2009) in Northwest Lower Michigan to have a post-graduate fellowship in pediatric chiropractic (FICPA) from the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association.

Since becoming a chiropractor, the emphasis on wellness and lifestyle education has grown in the field of chiropractic, which holds great appeal for the teacher in me. For a total of 23 years I have been accumulating a wealth of health knowledge and I sincerely enjoy sharing that with those who seek support in moving in the direction of their optimum health.

As a member of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association and the Michigan Association of Chiropractors, I support these professional organizations in their missions to further the awareness of the value of chiropractic health care for people of all ages. I sometimes imagine what a different world it would be if we all had our spines in their best alignment and were living up to our true health potential. It is my mission to help as many people as possible to find out!