Meet the Doctor

 A MESSAGE FROM THE DOCTOR

Hi!  I’m Dr. Terry Poth.  Thanks for visiting our website.

I’ve been a licensed practicing chiropractor for over 20 years.        The most valuable health concept I’ve learned is that an unimpaired nervous system is essential to our good health. 

That one system controls all our growth and repair processes.  We have the ability to heal ourselves as long as there are no interferences to our nervous system.  Unfortunately, our nervous system can be shut off by repetitive and traumatic strain/sprain or emotional injuries, poor nutrition, poor elimination of body wastes and environmental toxins and stinking thinking.  The therapies and guidance I provide promote optimal function of the nervous system.

EARLY YEARS

My desire to become a doctor may have begun with the massages I gave my dad to help ease his chronic back pain that resulted from a severe back injury in WW2.  I know I felt better when he felt better for a while.  I know I felt sad when the pain continued to plague him. 

In high school I volunteered as an aide at the local hospital and at college I took the pre-med curriculum.  But I found the traditional Western approach (allopathic) to medicine unsatisfactory, especially after receiving unsuccessful treatment (prescription drugs) for my own back injury.  I decided against becoming a medical doctor and graduated with a degree in biology.  Even then, I had great respect for life.  I loved learning about living creatures, and disliked killing them simply to dissect them to learn more about their parts.  In my senior year, in collaboration with my professors, I did projects other than dissection to complete my classes.  What biology really taught me was that any whole living being is greater than the sum of its individual physical parts.  This was my first thought about holistic health concepts.

MAKING A LIVING
A degree in biology didn’t provide an immediate income.  So I turned to other interests.  I began building and restoring wooden boats in Port Townsend.  While that may seem like a large departure from biology (aside from the incredible flora and fauna in Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands), I came to appreciate that a well constructed and appointed boat exemplifies the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  (It’s much easier to sail in a boat than on a stack of lumber!) I also learned another valuable lesson through personal experience: even using safety equipment and following all the “rules”, the toxic chemicals used in boat building can harm the body.  The chemicals I was working with on a daily basis adversely affected my health, and as much as I enjoyed building boats, I valued my health more. 

BACK TO SCHOOL
So, I found myself in school again.  I thought about how much I enjoyed using my hands and my concern for good health. I decided that massage therapy held the possibility of being a good career for me.  I enrolled at the Seattle Massage School, graduated, and officially entered the healthcare field as a licensed massage practitioner in 1979.

I enjoyed the art of massage and watching my client’s health improve as blood and lymph circulation was improved and they experienced the benefits of being touched and cared for.  However, as my clients asked me about more and more complex health concerns, I realized that I needed to know more.  It was then that I decided to become a doctor of chiropractic.

AND ONCE AGAIN…
I enrolled at the University of Western States (formerly Western States Chiropractic College).  It is a private college specializing in chiropractic care.  There I learned in great depth about anatomy, physiology, pathology, biomechanics and kinesiology.  I learned how to use diversified chiropractic techniques to restore optimal function of the nervous system.  I graduated with my doctorate in chiropractic in 1988.  I opened my practice, with my wife Char, in Bellingham in 1990. 

PRACTICING MY CRAFT
From my early days in practice, I again realized that what I had learned in chiropractic college was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to really knowing optimal methods to promote healing.  However, I now had a solid foundation of knowledge on which I could build.  I continued to want to know more. 

Most of the patients I was treating had sports-like injuries from work, home projects and sports activities.  So it seemed a natural fit to study sports medicine.  I completed a 1-year program and earned the designation as a Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician.  This training introduced me to the concepts of functional movements in exercise and rehabilitation. 

I wanted to learn more about functional rehabilitation for the whole body.  I completed a 3-year, 30-seminar program in Chiropractic Rehabilitation.  I then went on to study with Drs. Vladimir Janda and Karel Lewit.  They are internationally recognized physicians who discovered methods in which chronic pain could be resolved through re-training the nervous system.  My continuing education did not stop there. 

The conditions my patients came in with taught me that there were interferences to healing that could not be removed by the primarily mechanical methods I had learned. The idea that energetic blockages interfered with healing was not new to me.  Nor was it new to many other chiropractic practitioners. 

I attended seminars and became certified in the methods taught by Dr. John Brimhall and Dr. George Gonzalez.  Dr. Gonzalez has developed Quantum Neurology® methods for using cold laser therapies.  These therapies rehabilitate the nervous system and have evolved over the 12 years that I have attended his seminars.  I am also a practitioner of Dr. Kam Yuen’s:  The Yuen Method® and Dr. Hector Garcia’s:  Garcia Innergetics™.  Both teach how to perform energetic corrections to facilitate healing.  All these doctors have taught me to balance logical thinking with intuition to discover creative solutions for people’s health concerns. (Brief discussions about their work are listed below.)

There are many methods out there that advertise that they are the best for promoting healing.  So I attend each new seminar with skepticism.  While I extensively research the doctors’ concepts, I still want to make sure that the techniques I explore are appropriate and effective.  The wonderful thing that has happened at the seminars for the methods I’ve chosen to learn is that I saw healing happen in people right before my eyes.  Sometimes, I even experienced the healing of my own health problems!  These practitioners, each in their own way, identified other ways to remove interferences to healing in the body.  I soon found myself with many additional therapies in my tool chest. 

Patients tell me about the improvements in their health from the application of the unique combination of the skills I have learned.  I am encouraged to continue to search deeper and wider for ways to remove interferences to healing.

MY PRACTICE TODAY
My practice looks a lot different than when I first started.  My patient begins by telling me what’s troubling them.  Then I use my acute observational skills, specific orthopedic and neurologic testing and my intuitive abilities, to help identify what that patient needs to help them with their health concern.  I allow a patient’s body to help me select the appropriate therapies for each appointment.  It may sound unconventional, but it works very well!

The therapies I use are very gentle and are effective for all ages of adults, newborns, children, pregnant women and elite athletes.  Although I am very skilled at manual adjusting techniques, I have replaced them with other techniques.  Most are gentle and effective low force and non-force techniques.   In addition to physical signals that are often the result of pain, I also look for nutritional and non-physical interferences to health. 

My experience has taught me that everything that happens to us—everything—is recorded in our nervous system.  I offer you optimal health care.  I bring it to you through a combination of therapies that I have learned from doctors who have the wisdom, courage and vision to offer holistic care.

INTERESTS
In addition to my practice, I enjoy playing music on guitar and ukulele, snorkeling, biking, motorcycle touring with Char and having tons of fun with our grandkids. 

EDUCATION AND CERTIFICATES
BA Biology, California State University at Sacramento, Sacramento, CA, 1973.
Seattle Massage School & Licensed Massage Practitioner, 1979-1985.
Doctor of Chiropractic, University of Western States, Portland, OR 1988.
Yuen Method Practitioner, 2007-Present.
Garcia’s Innergetics Practitioner, 2011-Present.
Licensed Quantum Neurologist, 2011-Present.

Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician, 1994.
Board-Eligible for the American Chiropractic Rehabilitation Board, 1997-1999.
Certified in John Brimhall, D.C., 6 Steps to Wellness Programs, 2001-2006.

METHODS I’VE STUDIED / TEACHERS I ADMIRE

• George Gonzalez, D. C., QN:  Quantum Neurology® Rehabilitation
  Quantum Neurology is a patented system of neurological rehabilitation. The techniques can be done on anyone regardless of age or fitness level. Quantum Neurology is used to improve neurological function. The same techniques that are used with elite athletes to help maximize their performance are also used for restoring function lost after an injury. We have had much success with recovering function in patients who have suffered from accidents, strokes, brain, and spinal cord injuries. We have also helped patients with dyslexia, learning disabilities, Autism and ADD. Anyone can benefit from this form of rehabilitation because it focuses on strengthening the nervous system.  I first met Dr. Gonzalez in 2000 when he was teaching Cold Laser seminars.  I have continued to learn the neurology rehabilitation concepts that he has continued to develop over the last 12 years.
• Hector Garcia, D. C.:  Garcia Innergetics™
  Dr. Garcia has had intuitive abilities since childhood.  He teaches that everything, including each of us, is energy and has energy.  Energy imbalances may result in disharmony in our relationships with money, people, health, fitness, the future and our life purpose.   Intuition is an internal knowingness of truth.  An Innergetics™  practitioner uses their intuition to find and correct imbalances in the energetic field created by our body.  The ability to do this allows the practitioner to identify and correct the less obvious causes of dysfunction and illness.  Healing results as the mind, body and spirit returns to homeostasis.  Since energy is not confined by time or space, the corrections can be performed remotely over the phone at any distance.
• Kam Yuen, BS, DC., Shoalin Kung Fu Grandmaster:  Yuen Method® 
  The Yuen Method®  is a blending of anatomy, physiology, structural analysis, energetic technique, quantum physics and Qi Gong and Shen Gong training.  Developed by Dr. Yuen, Chinese energetic healing resulted after his lifetime of study in the martial arts and his study of nutritional therapy and homeopathy combined with his training as a structural engineer and doctor of chiropractic. The premise is that your body functions like a computer – you are either on or off, strong or weak to any given issue.  The Yuen Method® identifies the weaknesses and then makes the corrections.
• Valdimir Janda, MD, DSc:  Locomotor Rehabilitation
  Professor Karel Lewit. MD, DSc:  Locomotor Rehabilitation
  Through my courses in Chiropractic Rehabilitation I was introduced to the work of Drs. Vladimir Janda and Karel Lewit. They were key figures in the 20th century rehabilitation movement which focuses on re-training the neurological control of muscles to reduce or eliminate chronic pain.  Both medical doctors (Janda, an accomplished neurologist), were founding members of the Charles University Hospital in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and identified the importance of muscle imbalances, faulty posture and gait, and their association with chronic pain syndromes. They etiologically, diagnostically, and therapeutically influenced the rehabilitation world. I was able to meet the doctors and attend a 10-day program in Prague for training in the evaluation and rehabilitation of the locomotor system.  The techniques developed by these doctors to create spinal stabilization include the use of rocker and wobble boards and balance sandals.  It was visionary chiropractors like Dr. Craig Liebenson who first brought Dr. Janda to the United States to teach his rehab concepts.  His protocols are used in many chiropractic and physical therapy settings.  I use Dr. Janda’s protocols extensively in my practice.   
• John Brimhall, BA, BS, DC, FIAMA, DIBAK:   Six Steps to Wellness
  Pursuing the thought of restoring health with holistic care led me to Dr. John Brimhall.  He teaches a curriculum entitled, “Six Steps to Wellness”.  It is based on the concept that there are six interferences to consider when restoring and maintaining optimal heath.  These interferences are:  structural imbalances, emotional issues, electromagnetic radiation, toxicity, nutritional deficiencies and allergies/sensitivities.   There are specific therapeutic protocols for correcting each type of interference.