Personalized chiropractic care, never an assembly line.
Every adjustment at our Puerto Vallarta clinic is a full 15 minutes, tailored to what your body needs to heal — spine, cranium, organs, muscles and more. Your first visit begins with a complete 30-minute examination.
★★★★★ Trusted by patients — 120+ five-star Google reviews
WhatsApp is for written messages only, please — no calls.
Why Choose Chiropractic?
Chiropractic is the method of natural healing most chosen by those seeking complementary or alternative health care for acute and chronic conditions. While people choose chiropractic for a variety of reasons, you will find that a chiropractor views the body as one full functional unit, where all parts affect each other. A chiropractor works in partnership with you to ensure your optimal health and wellness.
Chiropractors recognize that many factors affect your health — exercise, nutrition, sleep, emotions, environment and heredity. Chiropractic focuses on maintaining your health naturally, helping your body resist disease rather than simply treating the symptoms of disease.
How Chiropractic Was Born
One day in 1878, while working in an inclined position, Harvey Lillard felt and heard a bone move in his neck. Days later, he lost his hearing — and 17 years passed in total silence. Then on September 18, 1895, Harvey shared his story with Daniel David Palmer, a practicing magnetic healer who worked in the same building in Davenport, Iowa.
D.D. Palmer examined Harvey's spine and found the area where he had felt the bone move. He reasoned that the misaligned bone might be the cause of the hearing loss — and convinced Harvey to let him put it back in place.
Palmer applied a precise force and felt the bone move back into position. Within days, Harvey Lillard's hearing was restored — and chiropractic was born.
See What Makes This Clinic Different Than Any Around
Dr. Colby combines classic chiropractic with advanced Sacro Occipital Technique (SOT), following the teachings of its founder, Dr. Major DeJarnette — a whole-body approach few clinics can offer.
Cranial Adjustment
The skull is made up of 22 different bones that fit together like little puzzle pieces. These bones are meant to have slight movement — and when they lack movement, the body is not as healthy as it could be. As an advanced-certified SOT Doctor of Chiropractic, Dr. Colby also does cranial adjusting, done very differently than the cranial work of osteopaths or craniosacral practitioners. Proper cranial work requires many parts of the body to align first — and knowing when, where and how to move. It is a learned process, and an intuitive one as well.
Trauma to the head — being born, sports injuries, auto accidents, or any other hit to the head — almost always leaves some kind of cranial misalignment. Once the body is ready, cranial adjustments can begin, and the most amazing healing is done this way. Dr. Colby has been fortunate enough to help a patient who was legally blind become able to see and learn again, relieve headaches, improve hearing, reduce tinnitus, lower overall stress and much more.
The Dura
The dura is the outermost lining of the spinal cord and brain. When the body has trauma, the dura is likely to form adhesions — little scars that decrease movement in the area. Working with the dura is done as major subluxations (misaligned areas of the spine or other bones) are addressed. It is a wonderful experience to receive as the body heals.
CMRT — Organ Work
CMRT, Chiropractic Manipulative Reflex Technique, is most commonly referred to as organ work. SOT doctors of chiropractic have specific ways of knowing which organ or organs need to be addressed — and the work is done entirely by hand.
Dr. Colby wrote the patient-education material on CMRT that other chiropractors use. You can read the whole story below, or take her brochure with you.
Myofascial Release
Muscles move bones — and muscles have memory. That is why almost every adjustment here includes muscle work, or myofascial release: getting the muscles and the fascia (the material around the muscles) to make positive changes, helping your adjustment work better and last longer. Release work is done by hand and/or with a percussion instrument.
Time & Specialized Adjustments
Here at Chiropractic Health Center, each adjustment is 15 minutes. Your concerns are heard and addressed — this is not a same-adjustment, assembly-type practice. Your first appointment is 30 minutes and includes a consultation, intake, orthopedic and neurological examination, as well as a spinal examination, before any adjustments are done. We want to rule out any problems before you are adjusted!
Adjustments are personalized to what your body needs to heal: spinal adjustment, SOT blocking as dictated by the teachings of Dr. Major DeJarnette (founder of the Sacro Occipital Technique), cranial adjusting, CMRT organ reflex work, adjusting of arms, legs and ribs as needed, and myofascial release — with the ArthroStim and percussor instruments used as helpful tools along the way.
CMRT — Chiropractic Manipulative Reflex Technique
A way to achieve better health with healthier organs, using the Sacro Occipital Technique.
CMRT is an extension of the Sacro Occipital Technique, created by Dr. M.B. DeJarnette so that specialty-trained doctors of chiropractic could treat the organs directly. The technique involves manual stimulation of the vital organs of your body, performed in addition to the adjustment your chiropractor gives your spine.
When there is dysfunction in an organ, messages are sent from that organ to the spine and on to the brain. The spine will often subluxate — move out of alignment — and the organ supplied by the nerve at that spinal level is affected. The organ can also affect the spine through the nerve returning from it. In many situations it is best for you to have work done on both the spine and the organ, restoring proper nerve supply from the spine, through the organ, and back again, stimulating the organ to regain proper health.
When blood and lymphatic flow are restricted to an organ, it becomes "fixated" and begins to dysfunction. CMRT restores motion to the organ and improves circulation and lymphatic drainage so that healing can occur.
The Spinal–Organ Relationship
Each area of the middle and lower back corresponds to a specific organ.
What has improved with CMRT?
- Autism and ASD
- Immune deficiencies
- Many chronic conditions
- Sluggish or overactive organs
When is CMRT needed?
Your chiropractor has the training to determine when CMRT is appropriate. Your body gives indicators that a trained SOT practitioner reads to tell whether an organ is creating a problem. CMRT finds minor dysfunction at a very early stage, when it can still be easily treated — needing it does not mean there is severe damage.
Helping your body heal
- Avoid excessive alcohol — it destroys the covering around the nerve
- Limit caffeine — it overly excites the nervous system
- Limit sugar — it excites and weakens the pancreas and adrenals
- Drink plenty of water — eight 8 oz glasses a day helps rid the body of toxins
- Rest — your body heals as you sleep; eight hours is suggested
Technology That Makes Adjustments Gentler
Hands come first here — but the right instrument can deliver an adjustment more gently, reach deeper into tissue, and help the work last longer.
The Pro-ArthroStim®
A specialized hand-held instrument that gently and safely adjusts the spine. It takes the force a doctor would use in a traditional adjustment and divides it into smaller pieces delivered rapidly to a specific area — mimicking a traditional adjustment, but more gently and without the "crack" you would normally hear. Its motor frequency is matched to the frequency of the brain, so the adjustment communicates with the brain, working better and lasting longer.
This lets us keep your adjustment effective while reducing the force applied — a combination that allows us to comfortably manage a much wider range of conditions.
Especially helpful for:
- Infants and young children
- Anyone in acute pain
- Particularly sensitive people
- Anyone who dislikes being "cracked"
- Elderly patients
- Larger, stronger individuals
The VibraCussor® Percussor
The percussor is a hand-held instrument that sends waves of percussive impulses deep into the tissues of the body, promoting increased lymphatic flow and circulation.
Percussion is also used to decrease muscle spasm, release joints, and loosen fixated areas — all without heavy force.
Red Diode Light — 680 to 1080 nm
Red and near-infrared light in the 680–1080 nanometre range is applied to the areas being treated, complementing your adjustment and muscle work.
Dr. Susan Colby, D.C.
A graduate of the University of Iowa with a Bachelor of Science from its school of medicine, Susan Colby worked as a Medical Technologist for several years before realizing it wasn't her calling. She had grown up with chiropractic since age 8 and spent years adjusting her friends — and animals. When her brother suggested she become a Doctor of Chiropractic, that is exactly what she did.
She chose Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa — the first chiropractic school in the world, and the place where both she and chiropractic itself were born. A Doctor of Chiropractic since 1986, she has held five state licenses in the US and brings four decades of experience to every patient.
She brings to Puerto Vallarta a strong desire to help every patient who walks into her clinic heal — using the full power of chiropractic. Her results are easy to see in her 120+ Google reviews.
- Doctor of Chiropractic, Palmer College of Chiropractic — since 1986
- Advanced certified in Sacro Occipital Technique (SOT), and certified to teach SOT
- Author of a peer-reviewed paper on SOT and Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Wrote the CMRT patient-education material used by other doctors of chiropractic
- Personally met Dr. M.B. DeJarnette, founder of SOT, and carries on his work
- Extensive study of autism, brain injury and immune dysfunction disorders
- Proficient in Diversified, Palmer Method and more — ask for specifics
- Cédula Profesional #13010280
A Calm, Welcoming Space
Book Your Adjustment in Puerto Vallarta
Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, México 48335
Ready to feel better?
Appointments are booked online through Jane — pick the time that works for you in just a few clicks.
Book an Appointment Online