– written by Jessica Wick
No one ever knows what will lead them to their calling in life. For some, it’s a life-long passion. For others, it’s a journey. For Dr. Jill Goldberg, it was an injury.
Dr. Jill already had a degree in Nutrition and an MBA in business when a back injury sent her to a chiropractor’s office. She wasn’t looking to return to school. But she found herself fascinated by the practice as well as the kind of adjustments her chiropractor was using. Eventually, she asked so many questions that the doctor looked at her and told her she’d make a great chiropractor herself.
Her degree in Nutrition had sparked her interest in health—and as much as she loved business, she just wasn’t inspired by the corporate world. Dr. Jill took a chance, left her corporate job and went chiropractic school. She realized that becoming a chiropractor and opening her own practice would allow her to tie all her passions together—health, nutrition and business. After she graduated, she left New York (where she is from) and started a practice in a small town in Massachusetts.
During her 16 years in Massachusetts, Dr. Jill developed many long-term relationships with her local patients. People would come to see her because they were in pain, but they often kept coming back long after their original issues had been fixed. This is because Dr. Jill created long-term wellness plans that made their continuous treatment affordable and easily obtainable. While working on her patients, Dr. Jill saw the relationship between the nervous system and the immune system and how it relates to a person’s overall health.
“A lot of people think they can’t be helped,” she says. “They live with pain, they live with problems, and they think that’s normal. they get used to living a mediocre existence, people can actually feel better as they age instead of worse.”
Dr. Jill fondly remembers one of her favorite patients from Massachusetts, an 80-year-old woman named Josephine. When Josephine came to see her, she couldn’t walk. Not only did Dr. Jill help her walk again, but she kept her walking and feeling good for 14 more years until Josephine passed away at the age of 94. Mobility and health until our golden years is the greatest gift we can give ourselves, and chiropractic care can help make that possible.
Dr. Jill views health and wellness as a comprehensive treatment plan, which is why she also believes in the power of modern medicine. During her time in Massachusetts she worked with many medical doctors, one of which being an ob-gyn who started sending many of her pregnant patients to Dr. Jill. Dr. Jill would treat the women throughout their pregnancies until after they gave birth—and eventually, she’d treat the fathers who’d been carrying their babies around. She also treated many of the babies themselves. Children benefit very well from chiropractic care—the adjustments are extremely gentle, and they can help set the little ones up for a lifetime of good health and proper alignment.
After 16 years, Dr. Jill decided she’d had enough of the freezing Massachusetts winters and moved back to New York to be closer to her mother and set up a beautiful office overlooking Central Park. While she loved being back in New York, she eventually started craving a more laid back life. After her mother died, she decided it was time and made plans to move. The destination was obvious: Seattle, where she’d visited right after graduating chiropractic school. She’d fallen in love with the Emerald City and moved here to set up her dream office.
Dr. Jill’s current space, a loft in South Lake Union, is the office she’s been dreaming of. Stepping inside feels more like a visit to a friend’s place than a medical space. Beautiful art hangs on the walls, relaxing music plays at just the right volume, and an authentic Coney Island carousel horse sits in the lobby, reminding her of her East Coast roots. She keeps a flexible schedule to accommodate her busy clients’ needs, even working evenings and weekends at times.
Dr. Jill loves her South Lake Union location (she’s located just a few blocks from Amazon and often adjusts employees on their lunch breaks), and she loves Seattle. She sees it as a friendly, high energy, open-minded city. She enjoys educating her patients about all aspects of health and wellness and even offers free nutritional consultations to all her current patients. She is well-connected with nutrition companies, often consulting with people who hold PHDs in Nutrition, and can help people get high quality supplements if they need them.
Dr. Jill’s goal for her Seattle practice is to develop the same kind of long-term relationships she was able to cultivate in her Massachusetts office. She places real value in helping people, and it shows.
Jessica Wick is a freelance writer and social media strategist in Seattle. More information can be found at www.wordedbliss.com.
