FAQs

Sequoia Chiropractic is not in network with any insurance plans. The only insurance claims we submit are to Medicare. Medicare patients pay up front and are reimbursed by Medicare directly.

If you have PPO insurance and would like to submit a claim yourself for reimbursement, Dr. Phillips can provide you with a superbill form.

This setup allows the doctor to put all her focus on you instead of contending with paperwork that can be confusing and time-consuming to process. Sequoia Chiropractic has set their rates with affordability in mind so that you can access the care you need.

A new patient visit includes the initial consultation, an adjustment, and the travel fee, which come to a total of $195. Subsequent visits are $85. When two or more people receive adjustments on the same visit, they are eligible for a group discount.

For an individual, the first visit usually lasts about an hour and subsequent visits last about half an hour. As Dr. Phillips gets to know your spine better, individual visits may not last the full half-hour. Similarly, if a new issue comes up, Dr. Phillips may need more time to evaluate this issue and determine the best plan to address it. For couples or families, the visits will last longer depending on how many people are receiving care.

While something like massage therapy is based on units of time, Dr. Phillips wants you to know that chiropractic care is different. The adjustment is not quantity-based, but quality-based. Getting more joints adjusted doesn’t mean you are getting more health improvement. The benefits you get from chiropractic are entirely based on how the chiropractor analyzes your spine and body, and what joints they determine need to be adjusted, while leaving alone the ones that are functioning properly. Adjusting a joint that is functioning well can actually put too much motion in the joint and make it less stable! BJ Palmer, a pioneer in the field, used to say, “Chiropractic is specific or it is nothing.” It is a philosophy that Dr. Phillips stands by.

If you have never experienced chiropractic before or you are seeing a new chiropractor for the first time, it is understandable that you might be worried. Rest assured, you will have opportunities to ask questions and address concerns from the first phone conversation onward so that each appointment is as comfortable as can be. At each visit, Dr. Phillips will walk you through every step so that you are never surprised by what adjustment is being performed. Dr. Phillips will not do any adjustment you are not comfortable with.

Dr. Phillips has a variety of gentle–yet still effective–techniques for patients just like you. With these gentler techniques, the joints don’t make a popping sound at all, and you do not need to be twisted into position either. Let Dr. Phillips know your concerns so that she may accommodate them at your visit.

You may find it useful to know that with adjustments that do make a pop, that sound is not from your bones. It is just air bubbles dispersing in the joint being adjusted.

If you are already in pain, the process of examining the area and setting up the adjustment may aggravate your discomfort briefly. However, after the adjustment you will likely feel some immediate relief. If you are new to chiropractic care, or haven’t been adjusted in a long time, you may feel sore for a day or two, similar to how you might feel after a good workout.

You will feel Dr. Phillips palpate your spine and back muscles until she finds the vertebra (spine segment) to adjust. Then you will feel her hand apply pressure to the vertebra and finally you will feel a thrust through the vertebra in a specific direction. During the thrust you will feel the muscles around the vertebra relax. This same process is applied to other vertebrae that need to be adjusted as well. To target vertebrae in different areas of your spine, you may be lying on your back, lying on your stomach, or lying on your side. As Dr. Phillips decides what vertebrae to adjust, she will look at and touch your feet, and she will prompt you at times to turn your head left or right.

If you are concerned about something specific related to the visit, please let Dr. Phillips know so that you can come up with a solution together that will put you at ease. For example, if your concern is related to her entering your home, you can have Dr. Phillips set up her treatment table on a flat surface outdoors such as a driveway or patio. Dr. Phillips invites you to call or email to discuss any concern you might have so that together you can find out what will work best.

Dr. Phillips follows whatever the federal, state, and local guidelines are at the time. She has been vaccinated and boosted against Covid-19. As a healthcare provider she is obligated to follow mask mandates if they are in place. Dr. Phillips also disinfects equipment between patients. If you contract Covid prior to an upcoming appointment, please let Dr. Phillips know as soon as possible with a call or text.

Dr. Phillips would love to take care of your whole family; all ages can benefit from chiropractic care. However, if your children are under age 6, they may require the expertise of a pediatric chiropractor to whom Dr. Phillips can refer you. Pediatric chiropractors undergo additional training to manage the developing spines of infants and toddlers. On the other hand, Dr. Phillips loves taking care of older adults and will happily accept all patients ages 6 and up (way up)!

The number of appointments and the duration of your care depends on both the severity of your condition and what your treatment goals are. For the most severe cases, Dr. Phillips recommends daily visits plus anti-inflammatory supplements. For milder cases, 1-2 visits a week will suffice, and then you can space out visits further as treatment goals are reached. Some issues can even be resolved in just a few adjustments. Conditions that have lasted a long time take a long time to heal, while newer issues can heal more quickly.

Dr. Phillips monitors progress not only by assessing pain levels, but by assessing the function of your body. Have you improved sufficiently to do the things you need to do? Are you able to get back to doing what you love? Regaining function usually involves a longer treatment plan than if all you want is to reduce pain.

Finally, some people find that they simply need regularly scheduled adjustments to keep their body functioning well once they’ve healed from a specific problem. Having regular visits every 2-8 weeks is common to maintain spine health and prevent recurrence of old issues. However, Dr. Phillips allows you the freedom to schedule the visits you want at the frequency you want. Together you come up with a treatment plan, combining the doctor’s recommendations with your input and final say.

Cracking your own back may feel good, but keep in mind that the “pop” sound you hear is just an air bubble dispersing in the joint. It is not the bone popping into place, and the sound you hear does not indicate that an adjustment has been made.

An adjustment involves changing the messages between your body and brain at a specific spine level so that all the muscles and organs that are controlled at that level of the spine can be better regulated and healed properly. When you crack your own back, you are not able to isolate the dysfunctional segment of the spine. Most often, you just end up stretching out a spinal joint that already has great motion, causing it to have too much motion. This can make your spine less stable over time. Every joint needs balance between motion and stability.

Chiropractors find segments of the spine that don’t move well, are swollen, in pain, or have some sort of dysfunction present. Then they adjust these segments to restore motion and function. But that’s only what’s happening at the surface. Chiropractic care actually changes your brain.

When you experience an injury, the big muscles around the injury tighten to brace and protect the area. This makes it harder for the deep muscles that control posture around the injured joint to send information to the brain about where the joint is and what it is doing. Without accurate information about what is happening in and around the injury, the brain sends best-guess instructions to the injury site about what to do. Thus, injury leads to poor joint regulation, and poor joint regulation leads to misuse of the joint, perpetuating the cycle and setting up an individual for chronic or recurrent pain.

Chiropractic interrupts the cycle of joint dysfunction. The adjustment stretches and re-activates the deep muscles that support posture around each dysfunctional joint, giving the brain accurate information about what is going on in and around the joint that’s injured. Then the brain can better regulate motor control at the area and restore proper function.

Chiropractors complete more than 7 years of post-secondary education to become doctors of chiropractic. Chiropractors first earn a bachelor’s degree that includes chiropractic preparatory coursework similar to the pre-med course requirements. Then chiropractors earn their doctorate degree at a chiropractic college or health sciences university.

At the doctoral level, chiropractic students take advanced coursework in human anatomy and physiology, pathology, and nutrition. Alongside the life science coursework are extensive clinical diagnosis coursework and technique classes, in which students learn the art and science of adjusting the spine. Eventually students become clinic interns under the guidance of faculty clinicians, honing their history and exam skills, clinical problem-solving, and hands-on chiropractic technique. Hundreds of patient encounters must be completed to graduate.

Along with their doctorate of chiropractic, chiropractors also complete national board exams and state jurisprudence exams to be licensed.