Good Neighbor Podcast for the Greater Chattanooga Region

Dr. Mel Powell on Healing Through Chiropractic Care and Community Support

August 21, 2024 • Scott Howell

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What happens when traditional medical treatments fail you after a life-changing accident? For Dr. Melissa Powell, better known as Dr. Mel from Wildflower Chiropractic, this was the turning point that led her to discover the power of chiropractic care. Join us as Dr. Mel recounts her inspiring journey from New York to Chattanooga, where she found healing and purpose in a holistic approach to health. Her passion for outdoor adventures, local cuisine, and geek culture, including Dungeons & Dragons and comic books, adds a unique flavor to her story.

Stress is a silent epidemic affecting everyone from children to retirees, and Dr. Mel has seen its impact firsthand. We explore the alarming rise in stress levels, particularly among young people, and the crucial role chiropractic care can play in managing it. Listen to compelling patient stories that showcase the transformative power of ongoing chiropractic treatments. Dr. Mel breaks down common misconceptions about chiropractic care and emphasizes the importance of integrating mental and physical health to navigate life's challenges more effectively.

Family, community, and connection are at the heart of healing, and Dr. Mel embodies this ethos in her practice. From simple family activities like zoo visits and board games to educating her patients on posture and personalized fitness, Dr. Mel is dedicated to improving lives in Chattanooga. We'll also discuss the importance of supporting local businesses and how you can get involved in your community. As we wrap up, we express our gratitude to our listeners and encourage everyone to keep making remarkable days while supporting the incredible local businesses in the greater Chattanooga area.

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Speaker 1:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Scott Howell.

Speaker 2:

Hello, good neighbors, and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast brought to you by the Friends and Neighbors Group of the Greater Chattanooga Area. Again, like the announcer told you, my name is Scott Howell and I am your host today. You know the purpose of the Good Neighbor podcast. Often I get asked that what is the reason for the Good Neighbor podcast? Well, we want to bring awareness to the residents who live in our communities regarding the local owned and or operated businesses in our area.

Speaker 2:

You know a lot of people don't realize, or have forgotten maybe, that our community was built on local owned businesses and you know they still need our support today, and every one of them have a story to tell about not only what they do, but who they are. And so what we want to do here on the Good Neighbor podcast is we want to help them to be able to tell it loud and proud. And you know we have one of those good neighbors here joining us today. Her name is Melissa Powell, or better known as Dr Mel, with Wildflower Chiropractic. So, dr Mel, welcome. Thanks for being our special guest today.

Speaker 3:

Thank you so much for having me. It's a it's a pleasure to be on your show and this this is my first podcast, so I'm excited to be here.

Speaker 2:

Well, we are happy for you to be here. It is my pleasure to host you here today and looking so forward to learning about your practice and what it is that you like to specialize in or talk about the most or help people with, and and. But before we dive into that, I would like to just give you an opportunity to share with a little bit personal about yourself and your family, if you'd like to.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely, absolutely. So I am actually a former New Yorker. I have been down South for 14 years now, so I don't really claim the title of Yankee anymore and I don't say coffee and dog and all that anymore either. So I've been in Chattanooga for four years now. I love this area, I love hiking, I love being outside and this is just such a wonderful area for that. And I also love the idea that chattanooga is a good hub for other cities, so if I ever want to take a day trip somewhere, I'm like two hours from a bunch of other really awesome cities. I also have a four-year-old daughter she's a four and a half um and my husband and we also like to do a lot of day trips, like tomorrow my daughter's off school so we're gonna go to nashville and go to the zoo up there, and so, yeah, we love doing that. I love hiking. I'm also a bit of a nerd, so I like playing D&D, dungeons and Dragons.

Speaker 2:

And.

Speaker 3:

I have free time which is not current, but and I love comic books, I love Marvel and DC, star Wars, all stuff like that, and, at the end of the day, I also love a good cup of coffee and good local restaurants. So I'm going to be skimming your podcast later for some good eats for the next week here.

Speaker 2:

You know we haven't had enough restaurants on here yet, but I'm telling you I'm the list when it comes to knowing the good places to eat. Oh my goodness, there we go. It's like wow. I love going to local restaurants and trying the different flavors and things. You know, love it, I absolutely love it. And I'm a big DC and Marvel fan too. So you know Star Wars, I grew up on Star Wars. I'm not going to tell you how old I was when Star Wars came out, because that would date me really bad, but let me just say I was young. But anyway, well, you know, let's dive in and talk about wildflower chiropractic. What is it that you would like for our listeners to know? But also, what is your journey that brought you to this career and to this practice?

Speaker 3:

Absolutely so when I've wanted to be a chiropractor since I was 14 years old and I am 32 now, so it's it's been a while and I'm really excited to be here. And when I was 13, I had gotten into a car accident with my mom. Someone had hit us in the back and spun our car and, as a typical 13 year know, 13 year old, how are you feeling? I was like nobody talked to me, nobody. You know, I'm fine, I'm fine, don't, don't pay attention to me.

Speaker 3:

And about two months later, I started developing migraines that were so bad that my mom had to move my mattress from the bed onto the floor because I was getting dizzy. I would black out and it was. It was miserable. I would get about two migraines a month. I would probably miss two days of school each time I got one. And I am a huge nerd, I love school. I actually when my mom kept telling me to take mental health days and I was like no, and like I would try to like sneak out of the house to go to school, and so it was a really big damper that I was having to miss school.

Speaker 3:

And after about a year of going to getting CAT scans and MRIs and all different kinds of medical testing. They basically said we don't know what's causing this, it's all in your head, and I love a good dad joke. So I said, of course it is, that's where migraines happen. But I'm right, and so I was like what do I do? So they started me out with migraine medication that didn't touch it. So they wanted to put me on narcotics and I, growing up in New York and everything I we learned a lot about you know the epidemic with drugs and things of that nature, and even at 13, bordering 14, I was like I don't want to be dependent on these.

Speaker 3:

And so my aunt, who is guru of all things holistic and natural, one day came over to my grandmother's house while I was in the middle of having a migraine and she was trying to talk to me and she goes have you ever seen a chiropractor? And I said I don't know what that is? And she goes well, I'll get your mom to sign off and I'll pick you up once a week and you're going to come with me to my chiropractor. I said okay. And so again, big nerd, I go to the chiropractor. I had a migraine the day before I went. He takes some x-rays and he tells me that my atlas, the first bone in my neck, was rotated several degrees to the right and then the one under it was rotated several degrees in the other direction, creating like a torque on my spinal cord. And every time something happened like I was stressed out or just you know any any little thing what it would do it was trigger that migraine and so I said help me.

Speaker 3:

And he's like, well, if this is the root cause of what's going on, then yes. And so I said okay, and I got my first adjustment and I have not had a migraine since I was 14. And so he asked me one day, you know, like just chit chat, and he goes what do you want to do when you grow up? And initially I wanted to be a psychologist, but I was like I don't know, you know, that might be a little too close to home with some personal things and stuff, and you know I might want to go into a different route. And he said well, the nervous system works directly with the brain. Why don't you be a chiropractor? And I said, done. And at 14, I made the decision that I was going to become a chiropractor. So that's how I got to on my journey to school, and then I can go into my journey on how I figured out where I wanted to specialize in chiropractic as well.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Tell us.

Speaker 3:

So I in chiropractic, as you know we talked about earlier, there's, uh, you know, a lot of different niches, um, but going through school, the big ones that they talk about are pediatric and prenatal sports and your traditional back and neck pain. And so I said well, I know it's more than just back and neck pain and I'm not really into sports too much so, and I'm a mom, so I guess moms and babies sounds good.

Speaker 3:

And so I got an associateship and I was working with a lot of moms and babies and I just started realizing that a lot of the parents were very, very stressed out and every you know they're like how do I raise this tiny little person? And while I'm trying to deal with my own stuff and make sure that I'm like you know, my mental health is good, and I started realizing and putting these pieces together and I realized during my time at this associateship that that's what I wanted to focus on. I wanted to focus on the stress component of that and I decided that I was going to open up my own office to get here. And I opened up my own office in April of last year and right after I opened I went to a seminar and I found this super cool technology that measures how your brain responds to stress and I said this it's all coming together, this is exactly what I want to do.

Speaker 3:

So that's, that's how I've kind of gotten into that, and then we can dive into, if you want, into, exactly what I do and how I do it.

Speaker 2:

Please do? I mean? We're all here. We're here for you. So, Dr Mel, take it away.

Speaker 3:

Awesome, awesome, all righty. So what I do here is I focus on neuropsychosomatic-based chiropractic care, which is a little bit different than your typical snap crackle pop. What I do is I look at how your body is responding to stress. I don't have the tech yet, but it is coming soon. It's like 20 grand, so coming soon. But what I did is I formulated some questionnaires and things to kind of figure out where your brain is right now and how you're handling stress. And so I figure out that information and put that together with a in depth neurological exam and seeing how your your nervous system reflexes, muscle testing, all different kinds of things in that realm and I put it all together and I say how your brain is responding to stress. Let's treat you for the best for you specifically.

Speaker 3:

So a lot of people in this world are very overstimulated because we're always very go go go. A lot of business owners I know are very go go go, myself included and so when you're overstimulated, your nervous system needs something to help calm it down, and so the type of adjustment I would give to somebody who is overstimulated would be a more gentle, tonal based adjustment. So either with my instrument called an integrator or things like sacrooccipital technique and more very gentle touch points. Someone who is understimulated and their nervous system just doesn't have a lot of get up and go. They're going to need those more, you know, manual adjustments to kind of excite and wake up their nervous system so that way they can heal better.

Speaker 3:

And so I utilize all of that in combination with doing soft tissue work, because I also have been a licensed massage therapist for the past eight years. I did that through grad school uh, cause I didn't want to waitress through grad school school because I didn't want to waitress through grad school and so all of my patients get their 30 minute visits. It's very in depth. I like to get to know my patients, I like to talk to them, I like to say hey, how are you doing? How's your mom, how's your kids? How's work? How's? Did you get that promotion? I'm very personable because I feel like those interactions help me be a better doctor, to my patients as well. So I allow that 30 minute conversation. But the good news for the patient too is that it's not just a one-on-one, where we're talking face-to-face. You're on the table and I'm doing soft tissue work and figuring out what muscles are holding tension, where you're holding your stress, and I'm releasing those muscles before we actually adjust you. Wow.

Speaker 2:

That that's. That is very detailed and very. I mean, wow, I just learned a whole lot right there and that five minutes of your speaking it was just like so much I was absorbing, because, you know, stress has become. Just you know, the faster our society goes, the more stressful everything is. I remember when I was much younger than I am now I was probably in my maybe 30s I heard an older gentleman talk about all the things his mother used to do when he was a boy. I'm guessing this is probably back in the uh, you know, 20s he can remember uh, 30s maybe.

Speaker 2:

But he could remember his mother waking up early every morning building a fire in the stove. You know, going out and getting wood and building a fire in the stove, getting it it heated up, cooking their breakfast, serving the breakfast to the kids, and then she would clean up and she would go outside and build another fire and put the wash pot on it and take the clothes individually and rub them on a rub board and just put them through the wringer, hang them on the line, then go help her husband in the field and he'd come back and fix lunch and supper. He had this whole story he told and he said she didn't have push button anything, she didn't have automatic anything. He said you tell me how long you think it would take you today to get all that done. That she did. You got push button everything and you can't even get near all your work done in a day.

Speaker 2:

It said there's something about time that has changed and it said it's stressing everybody out and it doesn't matter what part of your life you're in. I've heard a lot of people that are retired say man, I just thought I had to work before. I just thought that I was working before I retired. I'm retired now. I got more to get done than I'll ever get done. You know the stress don't stop.

Speaker 2:

No, I see, though, dr Mel, you tell me if you agree with this or not. What I see is stress starting in a much earlier age. I see this nowadays with stress. There's a reason. I see this nowadays with stress.

Speaker 2:

There's a reason and please to the listeners out there, please forgive me, I'm fixing to talk about a sensitive topic there's a reason that young folks are killing themselves, and it comes down to there's a stress level. Oh, yeah, one thing that's causing that stress level to be raised above a place where it used to be when I was young. Stress level to be raised above a place where it used to be when I was young, and so we're needing people like yourself to dive into this, to learn why, what's going on and what can we do to have some help, because I mean, you know, if I had a child, if I had a teenage child that was going through things that he was saying stress out, the next thing I'd be doing after I listened to this podcast picking up the phone, calling Dr Mel, and said can you please see my child, because this is serious.

Speaker 3:

It is. It is. Even my four and a half year old daughter comes home from school and is talking to me about the things that she's stressed out about and I'm, like you're four and a half, like how.

Speaker 2:

Well, go outside and play. I mean, what are you talking about? Stressed out, you know they go through things we don't have a clue about in schools today. I mean, if I had to go back to school today as a young person, but knowing what I know now I would, I'd be stressed out too, I mean, you know. So, yeah, what you're saying is very helpful.

Speaker 3:

I agree. So, yeah, what you're saying is very helpful, I agree. Yeah, it's the biggest thing that I tell people is stress is not going anywhere, like you said, even in retirement, and what I like to do is utilize your nervous system, and where your mind and your body meet is your nervous system and in your brain, and so I take that information and I help your body adapt to stress better. So an example that I like to give is I have a patient and I'm not using her name due to HIPAA, but she told me I can share her story so she's been under care with me for about a year and she found out she was pregnant and she's very excited, they're super excited about that.

Speaker 3:

She was pregnant and she's very excited, they're they're super excited about that. And she got into a car accident recently and the vehicle hit her, going about 40 miles an hour and she got out of the car and she it's about a month post accident now and she's like, honestly, I have a little bit of pain in my upper back but I don't feel like like I've gotten in smaller accidents and had more pain and I was like what was different. And she goes because I've been coming to see you.

Speaker 3:

My body is able to handle not just emotional stress but physical stress better because, of how I've been under care and she's like I don't even know like I'm thankful my baby's okay, I'm okay, everyone's fine. I just have a little bit of tension where my muscles, you know, tensed up during the accident. But she's coming in once a week now and she's great and she's like. I think it's because I've been seeing you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

And so the and she's not even stressed. She's like, yeah, like I got to the hospital Once I found out my baby was fine. She's like I wasn't even emotionally stressed about the car, I was just like it's okay, it'll work out. And I'm like that's amazing because someone who would have stressed out a really hard about that a couple of years ago. She's like, yeah, it's, it's going to be okay. I have a really nice rental and I'm going to, you know, be excited about the rental. So you know so.

Speaker 3:

I love it. I love working with people. My bachelor's degree is actually in biopsychology, because I love psychology so much and how that it all ties together Everyone. You know when I was a massage therapist, where do you hold your stress? Right here in my shoulders. I hold my stress in my shoulders and I could go off on a tangent for a million and 10 years about why that happens and your fight or flight response and fetal position and all of that. Yeah and I'll. We can save that for another time where we can go into that too. I just I love talking about it.

Speaker 2:

So I think I hold mine in my back. I think it's about my mid back. It just when I get stressed, I feel I can feel it back there, you know. So yeah, I, when people come to you. What kind of myths and misconceptions do you hear coming from people when they come to you for maybe the first time, or they're bringing somebody they love to you for the first time?

Speaker 3:

So I get a lot of, I get a lot more misconceptions than other people because I do things in not a traditional way, not a traditional way, and so typically, when people think of chiropractors, it's one of two emotions that they feel. They either feel excited and they are expecting like a big snap crackle pop in and out, boom, boom, boom, adjust, adjust, adjust kind of aggressive, and then out the door in five, 10 minutes. Or they're terrified and they're like you're going to, like take my neck and you're going to, you know, rip it around and I'm scared and like what if you could hurt me? Or I've had, I know someone that's had a bad experience or whatever, and so it's one of those two things that people typically come to me with.

Speaker 2:

And.

Speaker 3:

I tell people well, I do things very, very differently and I have, you know, one patient who I literally only use my instrument on because she's hypermobile and she doesn't want any of that twisting or turning, and she's had great results with just a little instrument that goes and just very, very simple. And so, and the fact that I spend so much time with my patients, that's something very different than what they're expecting as well. I had an intake the other day that took two hours because we literally went over every single thing that in their health history and they're like you're so personable, you're so like invested, you feel like I feel like you, you care about me, and that's something that a lot of people I feel like it's kind of an assembly line when they've been other places, and so I like to tell people you're allowed to be human in my office. You can cry, you can pass gas, you can do whatever you need to. I'm not going to judge you. You're allowed to be human. We can laugh, we can cry and everything in between.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Sometimes those things happen when somebody's pressing on you, right Exactly.

Speaker 3:

Exactly. No, you can be comfortable, I do not care, I do not care, we're all human and we all do it.

Speaker 2:

Dr May, let's step out of your office for a minute and let's talk about you and your husband and your four-year-old. You're talking about you like hiking, you like doing things. What do y'all look for doing as a family? You know, just to have fun.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we like to do a lot of imagination games. My daughter loves to play and we're very engaged with her. We love watching that show, bluey, because they do a lot that the parents are very involved with their kids and so we do a lot of stuff like that, like where she's the leader and she kind of tells us what we're doing. She's a little entrepreneur, maybe a future chiropractor, but yeah, so we love doing that.

Speaker 3:

We love trying local food. My husband's a huge foodie. He loves going out to eat and he's kind of picky but he likes trying new places and you know, giving him a good his own personal review. I told him he should be an influencer or something. Told him he should be a an influencer or something. Yeah, we love doing that. We go to, uh, the zoo and the creative discovery museum a lot and we try to get involved in like doing like events downtown, just being out and about and having fun or being at home and just hanging out and running around and chasing each other in our, you know, pajamas.

Speaker 2:

So when you've got a kid around, fun's not hard to find, is it?

Speaker 3:

It's not.

Speaker 2:

My mother, sometimes some of my best memories of my childhood. We just sat around the table playing board games. Exactly, that was way before the electronic games in homes we just sat around playing board games Sorry and Trouble and game of life and all that good stuff.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we just did a floor picnic for dinner the other night, and so we take a big sheet and we put it on the floor and we put pillows down and we eat dinner and we were playing Candyland, so oh yeah, candyland, that was my sister's favorite.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know what, when you talk about the things that you do for people and the things you offer, what do you find in general, besides the stress factor that you're treating people more for than anything?

Speaker 3:

Outside of stress, I think it's just people's ability to adapt to their environment.

Speaker 3:

Like a lot of people do carry pain in their neck and shoulders and their back, and a lot of it is educating people on posture, educating people on self-care, taking time for yourself, moving your body, is really important. Important too my office is actually located within a one-on-one personal training studio, so we network a lot with them too, and the personal trainers. So people who have, like you know, who are gym shy it's literally just you and your trainer, so you don't have to worry. So I kind of do a lot of referrals to that as well, because I'm adjusting you and you're holding these adjustments, but you could be holding them better, because we need to retrain your muscles from not looking down at a phone all day, because we all do it even myself sometimes.

Speaker 3:

I would say that pain factor is something that a lot of people do do suffer with, and I like to treat the root cause. But dealing with the pain is also very important and I give people their bodily autonomy and say, hey, your pain is, I see it and it's valid. And I'm not going to brush it off and say, oh, but don't worry your nervous systems, you know, I'm treating this. I want to say, yeah, your pain is valid and I'm so sorry that you are having to struggle with that pain. And that cannot be easy, because I understand, because I was in pain for over a year when I first started my journey.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's amazing that your chiropractic journey actually came from you receiving help from one. That's a. That's a good story. I like that. I like your story. If there was one thing I love asking all my guests this question If there was one thing that you wish that people knew about the heart of Dr Mel and Wildflower Chiropractic but they probably wouldn't know it unless you shared it with them. And you'd like to share it here today on the Good Neighbor podcast, loud and proud. What would that be like?

Speaker 3:

to share it here today on the Good Neighbor podcast, loud and proud.

Speaker 3:

What would that be? I would say that, above anything else, I am a healer and not a business person. I have big dreams of being, you know, having a big wellness center and everything someday, but at the end of the day, I still want to see patients and I still want to talk to them, and I'm going to retire someday and still see patients because I genuinely love what I do and I care about you as a patient, regardless of what that means for me, whether that means referring you out to somebody else who might be a better fit for you, or if you're moving, finding someone and doing research, you know, to figure out a new person in your city. I, ultimately, my heart is for helping my patients, because they're my family and they're people in our community, and if I can help you have a better day, then you're going to be a better person to the people around you, and then they're going to go off and the ripple effect is going to take over, and that's how we make a better community.

Speaker 2:

Wow, that's wonderful. That's very well put and you know what? That didn't sound rehearsed at all. That sounded like it came from your heart.

Speaker 3:

Always.

Speaker 2:

I appreciate that, dr Mel. I want to give you a moment to take it and you just tell everybody how they can find out more about you or contact you, whether online or offline.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely, so you can go to my website, which is wildflowerchirocom, so W-I-L-D-F-L-O-W-E-R-C-H-I-R-Ocom. You can also find me on social media at Wildflower Chiropractic and Wellness. On Facebook, it's going to have a pink logo. If you see the picture of my face on it. That's an old profile that I don't have access to anymore. My Facebook got hacked, so don't message me with my face or I'm also on Instagram and TikTok.

Speaker 3:

I do a lot of reels and stuff on there as a Wildflower Chiropractic or Wildflower Cairo, and then you can reach me. My office phone number is 423-708-4319. And the best way to get in contact with me to get an immediate response is to text my office line, just because I don't have any reception staff or anything right now and so it is just me, and so that's the best way to answer in between patients and stuff.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's great, all right, it doesn't matter that it's just me and so that's the best way to answer in between patients and stuff. Yeah, that's great, all right, it doesn't matter that it's just you.

Speaker 2:

That means you have more time for your patients, so that's great. Well, it has been a pleasure, dr Mel, to have you on with us today, and I thank you for taking all your time out of your busy schedule to be with us and talk to our listeners, and I know they probably feel, like I do, well informed, so thank you.

Speaker 3:

I appreciate you. Thank you so much for having me, and I'm going to tell all my other business people to come on and grab a spot.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. We would love to have them all We'd love to. That's what we want to do here is to help local business. So you know and thank you to all the listeners out there the greater Chattanooga area I know after hearing Dr Mel talk about her practice there wildflower chiropractic I know that you probably feel informed, like I do.

Speaker 2:

But I know that she hopes that you'll consider her, if I could put it that way when you need or offer, need her services. I'm sorry I'm getting a little tongue tied here. I know she hopes you'll take them up and consider her when you need her services. My mind is kind of racing 90 to nothing because all the things she shared with us, you know, if you're feeling that stress, if you're feeling that tightness in your body, if you're feeling the overwhelming, you know the things in your mind that are just overwhelming, life's overwhelming. You know, consider what she has to offer, consider what she went through.

Speaker 2:

I know a lot of people today are suffering from migraines. A lot of people are and just consider what she has to offer. Give her a chance to earn your respect, to earn your help. You know, if she can help you, I know you'd be glad you went to see her. And, of course, before ending this episode, I'd like to thank you all, the listeners, for taking time out of your busy day to visit with us at the Good Neighbor Podcast and always remember to support the locally owned and operated businesses in the greater Chattanooga area. From Cleveland to Dalton, from Jasper to Benton, you're all important. So again, my name is Scott Howell. I'm with the Friends and Neighbors Group. Everyone, go out and make this a remarkable day.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpClevelandcom. That's GNPClevelandcom, or call 423-380-1984.

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