Welcome to her comeback, Transforming Your Life
After 50. I'm your host, Michelle Thompson. If
you've ever whispered to yourself, there has
to be more than this. You are in the right place.
This show is for women over 50 who have hit their
breaking point and are finally ready to stop
going at it alone. You've tried the self -help
books, the vision boards, positive thinking,
but you're still stuck. And here's what I know.
You're not broken. You just need the right support.
And that's exactly what you're going to find
here. Each week, I'll sit down with incredible
women who have transformed their lives. You'll
hear their real stories, the messy middle, the
breakthrough moments, the practical steps that
they took to create the lives that they love.
Because your lowest limit, it can be your launching
pad. So if you're done settling and ready for
your comeback, Stay with me. Let's discover how
other women have made it happen and how you can
too. Are you ready? This is her comeback. Hi,
everyone. Good day. It is so wonderful to have
as our featured guest today, Dr. Michelle Pelletier.
She is a wonderful chiropractor local here to
Southwest Florida. Michelle, welcome to the show.
Hi. Hi, Michelle. I'm very excited to be here
and hello to everybody who's listening and hopefully
you will receive some really good wisdom and
information today. Yes, definitely. Michelle,
tell the audience a little bit more just about
yourself and who you are. Sure. I am a chiropractor
in Benita Springs. I've been practicing for 25
years. I moved here in 97 after I graduated from
chiropractic school. I was living in Minnesota
at the time and I started my business down here
and I just love what I do. different experience,
chiropractic experience for people. And I'm excited
to tell everybody about it. I also live in Benita
Springs with my husband and my two cats. And
so we're pretty involved with the Benita community
for a long time. Wonderful, wonderful. What took
you into being a chiropractor? What was your
interest that sparked there? When I lived in
Minnesota, I was having an issue with my back.
I've actually my back was tingling into my fingers
for a long time. And at the time I was in the
neuropsychology profession as a cognitive rehabilitation
specialist. So working more sort of mentally
with people, you know, kind of in, I wasn't counseling,
but it was very much of a mental type of a thing,
work that I did with people to, to regenerate
their nerves in their brain. And I had had this
problem for several years and one of my friends
said, Hey, you should go see a chiropractor.
And so I was very resistant to it. But once I
went, I read in his office about innate intelligence
and how the body, how that made the body heals
the body. And it happened. And healing happens
from above down inside out. And that was very
interesting to me to know that actually I could
find the power within my own body to heal myself.
And then I wound up going to chiropractic school.
And while I was in chiropractic school, I was
getting the regular, you know, cracking type
of chiropractic, but I kept having to get adjusted
all the time. And I thought, well, why is my,
if you fix the alignment, why is it keep? misaligning
and what's happening. So that's when I met Dr.
Donnie Epstein, who's the founder of Network
Spinal Analysis, or Network Spinal, it's called
now. And he said, well, you know, your body's
strategy when you get under stress is to misalign.
And if we go beyond what we used to, what they
call car part is called the subluxation and look
at the connection of the brain to the body through
the nervous system, you can actually function
at a higher level and your body won't have to
feel like it's protecting itself all the time.
And so here I am 25 years later after doing that
work and through the evolution of all the work,
he's constantly evolving the work to match what's
happening in culture. I find this really fascinating
because for me, I am a longtime chiropractic
patient. I started having similar to something
you described. I started having issues in my
early twenties where for me it was my neck. It
would stiffen my back so much that like I couldn't
walk. I found for all these years that the work
with a chiropractor has enabled me to function
and able to manage whatever my issues are without
any type of surgery or that type of thing. But
when you talk about this network approach, that
is new to me. So what is it that drew you to
that specifically? And then maybe you were mentioning
that a little bit, but is there something that
just you feel makes this network? very different
from other options. What I think I was feeling
at the time, and I was in chiropractic school,
was, and chiropractic, don't get me wrong, is
a very great profession, or I wouldn't be doing
that, is what brought me to, made me who I am
today. But what I felt was, is that was keeping
me in the same place. Like I really didn't feel
like I was able to make any changes, or I didn't...
I feel like it was just working for me. I felt
like it was something like I kept having to put
a bandaid on. And so when I learned about network
and actually started receiving the care, which
is I'm a very experiential person. So when I
started receiving the care, one of the questions
when I first went to my first network doctor,
she said, are you aware of your spine? Well,
I was in chiropractic school. Well, yeah, I am
aware of the spine because we're studying it.
But that's not what she meant. And I didn't really
realize that I didn't, I was not connected to
my body. I wasn't aware of what was happening
in my body or how my thoughts and how everything
around me was affecting my body physically, emotionally,
and even chemically sometimes. So after my first
session with her, I remember I could feel my
spine moving. Like I was like, Oh, so now I'm
aware of my spine. And so I said, I really felt
like I need to learn what this is going to do
to help other people to move forward. Because
at the time I thought, well, if people keep having
to keep coming in to see me to reduce their subluxations,
why can't their body do that on their own? How
can I help somebody to empower themselves so
that they have the resources and the ability?
to make changes and do things in their life,
not necessarily on their own. I mean, with some
coaching from me, of course, we all need some,
we all need some support and help. But for me,
it was like, how do I do that by myself? If this
innate intelligence is supposed to work, how
can I make that more available to me? And that's
kind of how I fell into it. That's awesome. So
you had your own personal experience, a personal
story with the technique. Have there been other
stories or experience you've had maybe with clients
that really have just solidified your path and
working in the space? Yeah, I was thinking about
that. And I'll give you two examples, one, a
physical one and one, maybe more of a life one
as well. I had a client who had come to me who
had been having that work from the area where
she came in. We have snowbirds here, so we have
people visiting and she came in one day and I
felt her spine and I had her lay down. She was
basically in for maintenance. And then she said,
did you notice anything different today? And
I said, yeah, there was a little bit of tension
in your neck. And she said, well, let me tell
you, I was in a car accident. feel many spines.
It did not feel like her spine was in a car accident.
And she said, I'll tell you what happened. I
felt my neck starting to build up tension. And
then I just put my hand right where you usually
put your hands when you're working on me. I took
a deep breath and it went, the tension went away
and it never came back. So to me, when that happened,
I said, this is what happened was her body had
a choice. Do I go into fight or flight or can
I resolve this tension here? So I don't store
it for later and have to experience it again
later. And so that was physically something,
physical story that led me to believe, you know,
what I've been doing all these years is very
valuable. And then I had somebody else who she
was just going through, you know, She was a little
bit less than 50, but she was going through the
life changes and she was going through some physical
changes, but also her kids had left to go to
college and everything. And she was having a
relationship challenge with people, her husband
at the time, and she just felt stuck. And she
said, I really, I don't know how to describe
it, but I just don't feel like I have the energy.
To deal with anything, we sometimes call it the
bandwidth. She said, I just don't feel like I
have enough energy, enough resources to make
the changes I want out of my life. And she had
found out of this technique, I think it was on
Instagram or something. And so from a colleague
of mine, and so we started working with her,
which, you know, a lot of people would say, well,
what were her symptoms or what were her physical
things? Well, just, I mean, in general, she was
very fatigued. Of course she had the hormonal
changes that we go through. through when we were
in our late 40s, early 50s. And she didn't really
feel like she was connected to herself. Like
she didn't understand why this was happening.
So when we started working with her, I remember
she came to me and she said, I really feel more
like who I am. And now I know what I need to
do to change my life, to be to where I think
I should be. And so she, like the passion in
her just lit up. And those are my favorite stories
when people come in and they say, Oh my gosh,
you know, remember I was trying to start this
business and something was stopping me. And then
all of a sudden I had this thought or had this
idea and it helped me to make the decision that
I've been talking about for three, four or five
years. So that was, that's another way that it's,
when I talk to people in my workshops, you know,
a lot of people come in for physical things,
but there are many people who come in because
either they'll refer to some people like life
coaches, like yourself, or psychologists who
are like, boy, we're really kind of at a crossroads
and there's this thought or this, this experience
that this person can't get through. And, you
know, can network help that? it can because it
gives the person a different connection to themselves.
So sometimes what's happening with all of, you
know, people are feeling fatigued, especially,
you know, when they are done taking care of the
kids or they have to shift what they have to
do at home and they find that they can't sleep
or they're having issues with tension that they've
stored for years in their body. and had to hold
there for whatever reason, it puts us in fight
or flight. And then that's where our filter is.
So instead of responding to things in our environment,
we're reacting. And for those who aren't familiar
with fight or flight or, or, um, they, you know,
a lot of, they're talking about a lot of vasovagal
thing. There's a lot of little buzzwords that
they're using much of our culture. It's like
our foot is on the gas of our car 24 seven and
they can't shut it off. And that is simply reconnecting
the brain to the body will help release those
tensions and all the life tensions in the spine
that will give the body another option to filter
life through. So instead of using fight or flight,
it connects with the frontal. lobe a little more
where we have reasoning and we can evaluate things.
When we're in fight or flight, we don't have
time for that, right? Cause our body thinks that
it's running away from a lion. One of the analogies
we use is with the nervous system is do you want
a nervous system that can hear the lion's roar
from afar? Or do you want a nervous system where
you don't know the lion's there until they're
breathing on your neck? Which one's more, more
adaptable? Right, definitely you want more neuroplasticity
we have the more we can adapt to the changes
that are happening in our lives. So it's not
really I mean it's not magic there's a lot of
science behind it. But when we are not aware
of that of what's going on. This type of work
can help people get there. Yeah, it's really
fascinating because you're really talking about
this mind -body connection that can truly transform
your life. You see transformations in your patients,
and so you've talked about your approach. It's
more than just this physical adjustment. Can
you give any further explanation about how this
mind -body spirit connection works? You've walked
through that a little bit, but just any other
detail there. Well, certainly. I think that what
happens a lot is that we are influenced by a
lot of things that are outside of our environment,
right? So when we're going. through tough times.
And I'm going to use, you know, because your
audience is all about transforming, you know,
in our fifties, you know, we have changes in
our health and our hormones and all these things
are physical and everybody focuses so much on
the physical without being aware that there's
a mind that controls that as well. And we want
that to be in congruence. We don't want it to
be fighting what's happening. Right. So there's
some people are like, well, you know, I don't
know if I want to do this. this physical treatment
for what's going on. And then the mind tells
you, well, you know, you have to because that
society is telling you that that's what the problem
is. But if we just look at the nervous system
and learn how to optimize that so that we have
the energy to make those decisions, we can see
a bigger picture of how everything fits together.
And then you can choose and or come up with a
strategy that works for you. So it might be a
combination of doing some of the physical things
or maybe we start to meditate or start to do
yoga or do something to help our body to reconnect.
But the decision, first you have to decide to
do that. And sometimes because the nervous system
doesn't have the energy or the resources, it's
harder to make that decision, right? Because
you're just thinking. Well, I already can't sleep
and I don't have any time in the day to go to
yoga and I don't have time to work out five hours
a day and I don't have, so it's all of these
things that get piled on top of us, which also
make us even more subluxated or interfered with
with our nervous system. And the nervous system
just shuts down and says, eh, let's just go take
a nap. So how do you help your patients when
they they're in that state that you just described?
Like everything is just so overwhelming and they
just are so stuck. What is it? How do you get
them to take that first step? It usually happens.
When people come in, when we have them come in,
we do an extensive evaluation with them or an
exam. So I do a physical exam. tension and position
of your spine is directly related to the same
tension and position of your of your life. Right.
So we'll take a picture of some posture and at
first just kind of bring people aware of what's
going on. So that first two visits is, oh, are
you aware that you have tension here? Or are
you aware that when you started talking about
your relationship, you had tension in your low
back or are you aware? So I make them aware of
anything that they might feel is prevalent at
their life at the time. And then the work that's
done is physical, but it's also, I hesitate to
call it energetic, but it's an energetic. I mean,
anytime you're putting your hands on somebody,
it's energetic, but we're working with all of
the energy fields that create what's going on
in our nervous system and create our lives. And
so from doing the physical contacts to the spine
to get the brain to be more aware of what's going
on to having a conversation sometimes with people
on table. I'll say, oh, that's interesting. You
told me today that you did X, Y, Z, and now that's
showing up in your spine here. Do you feel that?
Or what thought is coming up when I did that?
Like, what did you think of? Because sometimes
people will have an emotional response on the
table. And they'll say, oh, I'm crying. I don't
know why I'm crying. And I'll say, well, I touched
this part of your spine. And they'll say, oh,
yeah, I remember I fell off my bike and I hurt
myself there. And I never processed it or whatever
it is. We don't know what we're hiding in our
bodies. Because our bodies, when we have tension
and we don't have the ability to transform it
at the time, our body will store it. store it
there until it, until it gets at the attention
again, that it needs to transform it. So it's
kind of a combination and we don't talk about
it like therapy or anything like that. It's just
bringing attention, bringing awareness to what's
going on with the body, acknowledging that it's
there and then accepting it for what it is and
then moving on. You mentioned the word optimizing
it a little bit ago. How can optimizing the nervous
systems. help with life transitions. So we know
women in our 50s, we have all these different
transitions we're facing. So how does this optimization
really help us? So if you think of it in terms
of, say, software on your computer, right? So
let's say you have a really old computer and
you have this, you're working on Windows 10 and
you're trying to run some new programs and they
just won't work. Right. So you need windows 11
to do that. So really optimizing the brain and
the spinal cord, we look at as the operating
system of the nervous system. So this is also
a new term that people are talking about what
we've talked about it network for a while. It's
creating the bandwidth, optimizing nervous system
is creating the bandwidth. So somebody is able
to assess and respond to what's going on in their
environment in a more productive way or in a
more optimized way. And so the connection that's
made from the light touches to cue the brain,
to allow the body to release tensions and start
living a better life, that is optimizing the
nervous system. At some point, will the body,
if you do this with some frequency with your
work, does the brain start to automatically maybe
do some things it didn't used to do? That's a
really good question. I like that question. Yes,
it does. Because I've had a lot of people, when
they've gone through their immersion care or
they're still in what we call beyond wellness
care, they will, they will tell me like, Oh,
you know, the other day, I always use this as
an example, because we're headed towards the
holidays. You know, I always have a lot of tension
and stress and anxiety about going to my in -laws
for Thanksgiving. That's not happening today.
And my in -law said something and I really didn't,
I didn't feel like I took it on that way, or
I really felt like I was able to handle it better,
right? And so there wasn't something conscious
that they did. They will just come back and they'll
make the observation later. Well, the way I see
that, the way I kind of explain it is they had
two options now to take care of it. They could
be really defensive and shut down and not do
anything about it, or they can allow it to happen.
You know, allow that person to see that person
for who they are and what they say and know that
it didn't have anything to do with them and to
move on. And it becomes more organic. That becomes
the thing where the brain makes a decision. Oh
yeah. I don't have to protect myself now. Oh,
it's good. It's good. Well, thanks. Great. We're
going to leave now. Yeah, yeah, that that is
fantastic. I find the work that you do is just
fascinating and I think it's such a great option
that's available for those to try and see what
your experience might be that it could really
open up some opportunities and open up some doors
for you. No matter what's going on in your life,
because it sounds like anything stored in our
bodies, anything that is there, whether we know
it or not, the work that you're doing can really
go a long way with releasing and healing and
being able to move forward without those struggles.
Yeah, for sure. And when we talk about optimizing,
we want to make sure that we're functioning at
the highest level that we want to function. And
sometimes we're not aware that we're not functioning
there. And so when we release those, you know,
physical tensions in the spine and which also
releases the life tensions that we're having
in our environment, we're more able to evaluate.
And, you know, with, they talk about neuro neuroplasticity.
That's another thing they're talking about that
we've talked about for years that people are
starting to catch up with. But when we have the
ability to have, we'll call it like brain gymnastics.
Like if we can do those. brain gymnastics backbends,
we're probably more flexible to be able to heal
things, feel and experience things from a different
perspective and the energy to do that. And so
when we optimize the nervous system, we're making
sure like, do I have the latest download of the,
of the operating system so that I can run all
of my programs? And I use the, that's an easier
way, but it does. And what will happen is you
will default. To that, which is going to give
you the greatest change and the most. The deepest,
deepest experience. Whereas before, if you're
not optimized or if the nervous systems bandwidth
has decreased a little bit, I've had people say
this to me before. Oh, I can't talk about that
right now. I don't have the bandwidth for it.
And I think, well, optimize your nervous system.
It's a matter of changing the channel, right?
We're getting static in that channel. So let's
go to the next one up. Let's go to 97 .7 and
set as 0 .6 because we got to get a clearer message
in our nervous system. And the clearer message
that we can get, the more we can create things
that we want to create and we have the energy
to go ahead and do that. Yes. That's fantastic.
I love it. So tell me a little bit more about
any promotions that you have or what you're promoting
with your practice. So currently, September 18th
was the birthday for Chiropractic. It's 130 years
old. Oh, I didn't know that. It was founded at
September 18th. So it was founded 130 years ago
by Dee Dee Palmer and the developer, his son,
BJ Palmer created it. So it's been around for
that many years. And currently right now for
people who call into the office or anybody who
refers people to the office, that person will
get their first exam for half off. So 50 % off.
It's great to get people in and refer people.
What I find that happens is one person from a
family will come and then they have this experience
and people start seeing the changes in them and
their energy, the way they're doing things. They
might seem happy or they might be a little less
stressed out. And then they're like, Hey, what
are you doing? How can I get that? Or when they
do that, they see that in their children or see
that in their loved ones. And they're like, you're
going to go in now. I need you to get your bandwidth
to where I am so that we can live happier together.
That's right. That's right. Everybody wins. This
is a special one. Anybody who's listening to
this podcast also get the 50 % off, even if it's
not September. Wonderful. Well, thank you for
doing that for our audience. That's fantastic.
And what's the best way for them to contact you
or your office? They can call the office, which
is 239 -949 -1222. Or I do have a website and
it's back to wellbeing .com. And then from the
website, yeah, they can make that website, thinking
all information about how to contact us. You
know, our email is on there and then my assistant
can get them set up. with their appointment,
or if they wanna call and talk to me, they can
do that as well. Oh, wonderful. Dr. Michelle,
I think you go by Dr. Michelle, right? Is that
what your patients call you? Yeah, Dr. Michelle,
or Michelle's fighting. Dr. Michelle, thank you
so much for sharing your expertise with us and
walking us through your approach and how your
practice works. It's just been really fascinating
for me and so many practical things that just
make sense. As you described, it's like, oh,
that really makes sense. So, you know, thank
you for kind of breaking that down for me and
the audience. And I really wish you the best.
Oh, there's one more thing before we close. We
got to share with our audience. You and I. are
doing a networking event together. Yes. Would
you share a little bit more about it? Absolutely.
So I am super excited to be partnering with Michelle
Thompson, Michelle Thompson life coach, coach
Michelle. Yes, there we go. We are having an
event for women in business who just want to
get together and collaborate together and kind
of meet each other and talk about how we can
help each other in our business as women, women
in culture. And it's on October 7th, Tuesday,
October 7th from five to seven. And we're going
to do it at BCN. paella, which is close to my
office. And it's just a lovely place. Uh, the
woman, uh, Kristen, she's very sweet. And, um,
I studied in Spain, so I kind of have a soft
spot for the place. So we'll be having, we'll
be able to meet, um, Michelle and myself, and
then we'll have a time where we network with
everybody and anybody can get up and tell us
what they do and how we can kind of work together
as community to help the people in our community
and help people in business. And also we're going
to have some tapas and looking forward to the
tapas. Yes, it should be a fun evening. I'm very
much looking forward to it. And I'm very grateful
that Michelle wanted to partner with me on this.
Yes, yes, me too. I'm so grateful that our paths
cross and that we've been able to have some shared
experience together here. Thank you again. And
I wish you continued success in your work and
hope your business will just flourish. Thank
you so much. And you as well. Thank you. We work
very well together. When somebody needs some
help to make that transformation, they need a
coach. Yes, that's right. Yes, there's complimentary
services. Yeah, that's right. All right. Well,
thank you again. Have a wonderful rest of your
day. Thank you. Thank you. You too, Michelle.
Thank you so much for spending time with me today.
I am truly grateful that you chose to listen
in and I hope that this conversation sparked
something meaningful for you. Please take a moment
to subscribe, leave a review. It helps other
women to find us who need to hear these stories
too. And if you know someone who is ready for
their own comeback, share this episode with them.
I'd love to connect with you beyond the podcast.
Visit me at hercomebackpodcast .com. That's HerComebackPodcast
.com to learn more about how we can work together.
I have a gift for you. Get your free copy today
of five powerful shifts to reclaim your life.
Remember, your comeback story is waiting to be
written. The question isn't, can I transform
my life? The question is, are you ready? Let's
go.