Backbone of the Community
By William Harwood
It’s Saturday, November 14th, 2020, and Premier Chiropractic’s state-of-the-art diagnostic technology and adjustment tables have been safely tucked away. The modern, spacious facility, normally bustling with Drs. Ericka and Mike Montelione proactively attending to their patients’ health, now sees the wife and husband doctors proactively attending to their community’s health, transforming their chiropractic practice into Sip n’ Shop, a holiday market that gives back on multiple levels by generating income for local artists and artisans while raising thousands of dollars for Center of Hope, a nonprofit assisting victims of human trafficking and domestic abuse.
For Drs. Ericka and Mike, it’s all part of their holistic view of what good health entails, not just the absence of malady but also the presence of meaning. And what better way to be meaningful than to serve not only the needs of their individual patients but their community as a whole? Since the doctor duo’s arrival to Spring Hill in 2015, the couple has supported, sponsored, or participated in hundreds of worthy causes, everything from the Kidney Foundation to umbrella drives for the homeless to diaper drives for the Pregnancy Center, the latter initiative not just once but twice, generating thousands of fresh diapers each time. Of particular focus for several years has been Maury County’s Angel Tree, a program fulfilling Christmas wishes for kids in need. It’s all part of Drs. Ericka and Mike’s mission to provide principled care — both at the chiropractic and community levels — to truly promote well-being and improve quality of life for all.
“Since day one, we wanted to sponsor every event in Spring Hill or Columbia,” Ericka says. “We looked for local organizations where we could utilize our practice as a base to give back to the community.”
Mike shares his wife’s sense of mission, a mission that begins at the individual level with the couple’s thriving chiropractic practice and emphasis on preventative care. “Unfortunately, we live in a very symptom-driven mindset in our current medicalized model,” he observes. “We are taught that we are healthy if we feel good or look good, but that is far from the truth. The question we want people to ask themselves is ‘what am I going to do today to ensure my health in the future, the health of my kids, and generations to come?’”
And the answer is the principle that he and Ericka pursue every day: allow the body to heal from the inside out, understanding that health is based upon how the body truly functions. “The nervous system and the spine have a very intimate relationship with one another,” Mike says, “and, if the spine is out of its normal alignment, it will affect the nervous system and can have negative impacts on health, whether a person feels well or not. Our job,” he continues, “is to detect vertebral misalignments and help correct and heal them through a series of very specific adjustments. Think of spinal misalignment as being like a cavity. Often people have no idea that they have cavities until a dentist tells them.”
However, unlike many other chiropractic practices that market and function on a pain-based basis, Drs. Mike and Ericka focus on prevention. “The general public believes that chiropractic is only for neck aches, backaches and headaches,” Mike says. “Of course, we help many people with those every day and we’re very good at it, but our number one goal is to maximize nervous system function.”
To do so, the doctors focus on cradle to grave care, creating a family-based practice that makes care attainable and affordable for entire families. In one room, a newborn might be receiving a gentle adjustment while, next door, the child’s great-grandparent could be benefitting from adjustments as well. For meeting babies’ needs, Dr. Ericka is particularly expert, having undergone hundreds of hours of advanced training and conducting peer-reviewed research regarding pregnancy care and the well-being of infants through the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA).
“We are by far the most well-equipped chiropractic practice for pediatrics south of Nashville,” she says, not boasting, but simply stating that she is one of very few doctors in Middle Tennessee to have such advanced training. She is even certified in Webster’s technique to meet the specific needs of pregnant women by focusing on the proper alignment of the pelvis, thereby optimizing room for the developing fetus, and promoting an easier birth.
To meet this remarkable couple for yourself while supporting the local community, consider attending this year’s Sip n’ Shop at Premier Chiropractic. It’s scheduled for November 13, 2021, from 2 to 6pm. (While there, you can learn more of Ericka and Mike’s charming love story; they met in an undergrad psychology course, but Ericka paid Mike no mind until he asked her if they had any homework.)
William Harwood, a Peabody-Award-winning, Nashville-based writer, teaches US history for Bethel University and serves as the senior editor for Edible Nashville and SEONow. William is active with Achilles International, a nonprofit that guides athletes with impairments in races.