🧩Empower Your Healing: Tune In and Take Charge of Your Health - Conversation with Dr. Mckenzie

We are starting our first Interview Series here on Inspired By Design with Katie Ruppert!! In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Shawn McKenzie, a board-certified Chiropractic Physician and passionate community educator, to explore how your nervous system holds the key to healing old injuries, improving posture, and restoring function—sometimes decades after the original stress or trauma.

We talk about:

• Why you might feel “fine” but still have hidden dysfunction
• How stress and organ health connect to pain and posture
• The power of applied kinesiology as a diagnostic tool
• What it really means to treat the body as a whole
• How small, consistent changes can make a big difference

Whether you’re curious about alternative care, feeling stuck in your healing journey, or just love nerding out on body wisdom—this episode will leave you feeling both empowered and intrigued.

🌿 Bonus: Many of the things we cover in this episode are a sneak peek into my upcoming masterclass, 3 Days to Less Overwhelm and More Peace. Tune in, then come join us!

🔗 Register Here anytime between 4/11/25 & 4/18/25

Learn more about Dr. Mckenzie's practice:

Mckenzie Chiropractic

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👉 DM me on Instagram or join my Facebook group to share your biggest takeaways! 🎙✨

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🧩 Free Human Design Guide

🙀 Overwhelmed? Break Free From the Trap with my free workbook

💤 Need better sleep? Check out these 5 yoga poses 

Transcript

0:33

Hey listeners, it's Katie. I am really excited for you to hear this interview. The first one on the podcast. I have selected people that have really inspired me to Come on and share their stories. One of the things that I notice it's what, it's what I need, and I'm hoping that it will inspire you to whatever your next step is. This conversation with Dr. Sean is, it's about health and wellness. It's about being an advocate for your own health, and this is a lesson that I've been learning for a long time and I hope that you will listen with open ears to the end and share your feedback lemme tell you about Dr. Sean. Dr. Sean McKenzie is a board certified chiropractic physician. He's a proud O'Fallon Missouri native. He has degrees in human biology, sports science, and chiropractic from Logan University, and he blends modern science with timeless principles of chiropractic health to help the body function its best for over 20 years. Dr. McKenzie has been passionate about serving his St. Charles County community in variety of ways. Always with a focus of helping others live full, vibrant, and empowered lives. When he is not in the office, you will find him enjoying the outdoors with his friends and family, hiking, fishing, playing sand volleyball, and I can't wait for you to experience, uh, just. His personality and consider your own health as he shares, and whether you're curious about alternative health or not, or if you're feeling stuck in your healing journey or just love nerding out about body wisdom like I do, this episode will leave you feeling empowered and intrigued. And as a bonus, the timing of this couldn't be better because many of the things covered in this episode are little sneak peeks into my upcoming masterclass. I'm launching it today on April 11th. It's three days to less overwhelm and more peace, and I can't wait to tell you more. You can check that out in the show notes and register. It's free. If you can't make the exact times that I've picked out, then the recordings will be available for 30 days. So I hope you'll be part of that community and find yourself with less overwhelm. And so our peace'cause who couldn't use some of that, right? Here is my conversation with Dr. McKenzie. I hope that you'll enjoy it. Thank you so much for being here, Dr. Sean. Thank you for having me, Katie. I appreciate it. Very much so. We did a little wellness, what do we call it? Wellness retreat. Yeah. A retreat at your office. And when I heard you talk, I was like, yep, I believe all these same things that he's sharing and a lot of the things that I've learned about health and wellness along the way. but it was really when I saw a client come in to pick up a supplement from you later after our event and the way that you chatted with her and I immediately was like, Ooh, what is he doing? And you were doing like a little muscle test to make sure the supplement was still right for her. And then I was. I was like, I have to know more about this person and how he does his practice and oh my gosh, I'm so excited. I mean, I have learned a little bit about, muscle testing through the Emotion and Body Code. so immediately I was like, I have to know, like, everything about what you do. So I just want you to share a little bit about your story, maybe how you came to decide, okay, I'm gonna open up a chiropractic Practice, and, but oh, before we do though, I do want to share with our listeners about your human design. Shawna is a manifester, and manifesters are a very unique type in human design. all that means is that you're here to initiate and create things. So whenever you have an urge to do something that is a great idea and it sparks inside of you, you're really meant to tell people, Hey, I got this idea and I'm going for it. And people will, um, self select to follow you and support you. You've got a lot of community Focus and friendship within your design and you have a, an emotional authority, so really the ability to find clarity and just waiting for the right decisions to feel right and then taking actions on them as well. you're a 3 5, that's your personality profile, and what that really means to me, and I can't wait to hear in your story if it feels right. True, I know we've had, we've had plenty of time together, so I already see your personality profile come shining through in wonderful ways. But a three is really meant to bump into life and to learn by doing. And all of the lessons and all of the quote unquote failures that you have are really meant to, um, pick the wisdom from those things. And that is what you have to gift to the community, to the collective, to your tribe, to this. Even in your bio, they're sharing about how you are so focused on community. It shines through there. And then the five is the leader and the problem solver. And everything that I've experienced in our time together has been you helping me solve problems. So I can't wait for everyone to meet you. So tell us, tell us all about you and share anything that you fill in. Absolutely. Okay. So, um, from a very young age, I recall maybe when I was 23, maybe even four years old, I remember taking my toys and I was pretty rambunctious as a young boy would be right. And anytime a toy wasn't working right, or it got busted, and I would further take it apart and try to figure out how to It was operating and see if I could fix it, which seemed to be quite in my nature because my father is a mechanic. His father is a mechanic, as well as my mother's father is an auto body or was an auto body mechanic. So it was in my nature. To essentially to understand and work on things and to improve upon them if they were to be inoperable or had some difficulty. So, that looking back was absolutely the start of where my brain was trying to figure things out. And how the world, operates. So essentially, as I grew older, into my late teens and early twenties, I started to have a passion for, for health as I became more active within sports and my community, as well as I learned about, um, my own family's struggles with their health. That really inspired me to learn more about, health and fitness and wellness as well. As well as the bad sides of things of where, um, if somebody is having difficulties with their health, what could cause this to, or what could create this within to have an end result of where somebody is feeling ill, right? I remember my parents telling me from both sides that some of their, their other family members would have cancer and it was to run into the family. So that's certainly. Furthermore, inspired me to learn more about health and how it is that I can help people, um, essentially stay on top of the health regularly. I met a lot of wonderful people in my late teens and early twenties, and we would exercise on a regular basis and it was a fun activity, especially beyond those high school years to really engage, stay active and have a good time within those years and just stay and feel like young extending those child or kid years, right? You gotta feel, um, appreciative of having your health, right? And we took advantage of that every day. So, furthermore, going into my college education that inspiration of all of those things I just talked about it grew, right? And I, I knew working with my hands, I was destined to work with my hands, as I already shared with you, not only was my mother's father a, um, but he was also a farmer. made sense to me for me t and I had seen those family members Nature of their work, although I ended up being on a very physical job later on in my life, but it was what inspired me to take a different approach and combine that appreciation for figuring things out and having a physical nature job. And really helping people. So I also had a passion with helping people and doing, customer service for many years within the restaurant industry, as well as the pharmaceutical industry and giving, working with the public directly. So, um, it made sense for me to figure out what it is, uh, that I needed to do. I just didn't know what it was. So I took a test in, in my college years. Uh, to give me more direction on what it was that I was going to be doing for a career for the rest of my life. And, um, it appointed to me to be, uh, a physical therapist and, uh, which if you're familiar with physical therapy and chiropractic, they are similar. They have a lot of similarities, but yet very many. So I inspected, uh, a local college here in, uh, Chesterfield, Missouri, Logan college of chiropractic at the time is what it was titled. And, uh, absolutely fell in love with the campus fell in love with the people talking about health and all the natural opportunities for improving upon one's health through, uh, chiropractic methods. And, um, from that point on. I told myself that I was going to complete my college requirements in order to apply to the College of Chiropractic, and from there, the rest is history. I applied, I went in, um, and I was absolutely sold. So, uh, interesting thing about my story, there was actually a quite a large bump in the road, right? I started my college education at Logan, and unfortunately, I struggled immensely, um, which was very confusing to me because I was, uh, quite, um, what they call, like, a straight A student, on the honors list, all through my younger educational years. And I got connected with a chiropractor who dives deep and is more of a full body holistic healer, all from, chiropractic methods, talking about, um, nutrition based education, talking about acupuncture, homeopathy, all of these things included, and it inspired me to actually Have that opportunity to further better my health and understand why it is that that was struggling in my education when it was very confusing me that I had the efforts and the focus and the attention to do what it is that I had set my mind out to, but it just seemed like there was a disconnect from my brain. Into the information that it was being asked of me and and to be able to actually convey that I understood the things that were being put into my brain. So that investment was absolutely there. With the time and the energy, I just struggled with it. So fortunately by seeing this, this doctor of chiropractic that practiced bit quite a bit differently than what's the standard, uh, within the chiropractic field itself, I was actually inspired to, Follow through with him for many years. And at this point in time, I've been a patient from him or with him for the last 10 years and absolutely one of those changed my life for the for the better. While working with him, I've been able to successfully, of course, complete the curriculum and was able to graduate with my doctor of chiropractic just a few short years ago. And in doing so ever since then, I said, Yeah. Out to start my own business because a man in his early thirties that had worked in the service industry for approximately 20 years. At that time, I felt like it was my time to start something of my own. I had plenty of experience with working. In those service industries, whether it was from just an employee perspective, a trainer's perspective and some management perspectives as well. So I feel that I was ready to spread my wings and start my own business. And in doing so I have been extremely satisfied and filled with gratitude of the community that has continued to Essentially support me as well as I feel that it is extremely fulfilling within itself is helping the people of this community and continuing to meet more people and help more people. So that is really what drives me and I'm passionate about. So, again, I want to take a quick time out if you don't mind. We have, we have to just pull out a couple of little nuggets. I didn't know. So I'm so glad that you went back and shared some of it. I think it's so neat. One of the things you said, just that experience, that challenge that you had in school and finding a mentor. there's two little examples that I love. I love, I don't know where I picked them up, um, but I'm sure I didn't create them, but it was like, you know, if. What you desire in life, even if you can't see the top, if it's a ladder, right, and we've got these rungs on a ladder that help us climb each rung is going to be an obstacle or a challenge that we face, and it makes us stronger. I mean, they're literally, if you had a ladder with no rungs, no challenges, you would not be able to reach the top. And then the building, the building of the muscle by learning When you said I was so confusing that it was I wasn't a straight A student anymore. It wasn't coming easy like everything else had. Essentially, I've had a very similar experience and it's how I chose my major. I was like the first class I ever got a C in in college. I was like, well, I guess I'm going to have to dig in and figure this out. Um, and it was so much better for it, you know? So I really appreciate that part of your story. The other example that I just love that, that you brought to mind was when a toddler needs to learn to walk they walk a little and they fall and they just, they crash over and over and over again and they pull back up and. If it wasn't for falling, if it wasn't for messing up and they fall and that's the only way that their muscles will build enough to be able to support them as they walk and for the rest of their life, they get so, you know, I mean, generally, but our challenges sometimes are what get us here. So now you're a chiropractor and I, I. I love how you do your practice so you can pick up your story where you left off, especially if there's anything else you want to say. But I do, I want to hear about like why your practice is different. It is we met for, gosh, was that four or five months consistently, uh, working on some things, and what I experienced, but I want you to share a little bit about. your practice and how it's unique and I've worked for at least seven or eight chiropractors in my work history and none of them practice like you did. So, all right, tell us a little more. Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, with chiropractic, most people aren't aware that there's over 170 different techniques within chiropractic itself. Chiropractic has been established for a little over 120 years now. And, um, it is something, of course, is holistically minded. And, the basis of what it was established office is improving function of the nervous system. It's important to know that there are three forms of stress that we. Come across on a daily occurrence. There is physical stress, such as something as simple as walking, taking a walk, or going for a jog or a run. Something is significant as a physical stressor as a car accident. The second form of stress is like a chemical stressor, something that we consume that is not natural, or some sort of dysfunction or lack of appropriate function, I should say, of an organ within our body that can create a chemical stressor, as well as a mental or emotional stressors, such as worry of a loved one or anxiety or depression, any of those types of things, all three of those forms of stress can affect us and not allow our body to heal like it's naturally designed to do. So, taking that into consideration and I felt Going through chiropractic college that I wanted to utilize my doctorate education to more of a degree than what's the standard or the typical within the chiropractic field, which would likely bridge that gap from what you've shared with me that you've worked with a few chiropractors and what it is that I do is very unique that it is more in depth and it takes more time than you and that's and I truly believe due to the fact that chiropractic, typically, unfortunately, at this day and age, typically in the fast paced, world and society that we live in, people are looking for what's ailing them at the present time. So oftentimes, even though chiropractic is a proactive type of treatment, it is oftentimes utilized as a reactive type of treatment. So, um, and that's truthfully what brings people the, you know, nine times out of 10 will bring someone to see a chiropractor in the first place for some sort of reactive treatment because they have quote unquote injured themselves or they're feeling like they've got an ailment. So when, you utilize that chiropractic., approach is very advantageous in alleviating some of those, those ailments or pains that people are feeling, but it's much, much more than that. for example, uh, people come to me very frequently with some sort of, um, digestion stress, stress that they're unaware of is in. infiltrating their nervous system and creating a whole host of other issues., I can't tell you how common it is for people to come in with acid reflux, um, and or indigestion and bloating with meals, and they attribute it to, oh, it's just because I ate some fried foods or. Um, I,, drank a little too much on the weekend or whatever it may be. And yes, those, those things do play a role in our health and how our body, heals or has difficulty healing, but those are all the things that are extremely important to take into consideration when addressing one's health. So, I like to ask questions further than the norm is why, or why, why would that be? Or what is it that is contributing to this? and from what I have found. I had the opportunity while I was in college to shadow. Many chiropractors locally here in St. Louis, and there's, they all have their different procedures, but, they generally treated the same way, right? And the treatments were very focused on the adjustment and then there were some additional modalities or treatments on top of that, that they would do. I wanted to do something different in my practice because. I had that experience with customer service, and I understood how important it is to have that face to face interaction and make things personalized with the methods that I utilize and everything that I shared just a moment ago about how it's important to take the whole bodies into perspective, not just what you feel on the outside, but also on the inside. And providing a conversation. more like a concierge style of service that is very personalized to the individual needs of that person that's in front of me. And the style of practice that I do beyond that is one on one, right? So as you've experienced here recently, when you come into my office, we're face to face the entire time. There's no extra therapies. And I find that that within itself is very therapeutic for, for some, um, just, just, uh, having that assurance that that the doctor you're speaking with and the and the treatments are 100%, fulfilling and therapeutic, as opposed to using some sort of machine. I mean, these, these are the tools and this is like that I can do a lot with. So, um, I'm very appreciative of having those. skillsets that have been bestowed upon me, as well as the inspiration of my mentor. And, essentially, let me give you a quick rundown of the methods within itself. So feel free, I give you permission to talk about what we've done together, if that helps with absolutely, absolutely. So like, for example, you came into my office and you had no aches and pains. that you were aware of. And that is common for some people and also is common for some people, like I referred to before, that actually have a designated thing that they're dealing with, that they're having trouble with, that's affecting their life in some way or another, right? when you utilize the full body approach and focus on the function of the nervous system as opposed to symptoms themselves, you're able to find a lot more information. And in doing so, we were able to find, some injuries that you were dealing with that you had no idea that you were still dealing with from, maybe a couple of decades ago, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, that, that was absolutely fantastic to essentially use the nervous system as a center focus to find out what, the body has been holding onto for many years. So for example, like you had an ankle injury that you had happen A couple of decades ago and we were able to not only reconnect the, the brain with that tissue, and making that connection, which is ever so important and, essentially also take out the strain and the tissue that has been held onto for so, so long the way it works is you have some sort of stressor that I referred to before and your body, is made to adapt to that stress. And if it's unable to adapt and to completely heal with it, it holds on to that for many years. So, uh, that's what we were finding in your case, that your body had adapted and started utilizing other, um, other structures within your body to compensate for the fact that you had lost function and stability within that ankle. So just, just let me just break this down for our list. He. put his fingers on my head and it's like, Oh, I need to go and work on her left foot. And then, Oh, your, your core isn't engaged. Oh, you're not using your glute muscles. Like all of this from like touching my head and testing my body. And I can't I can't even imagine how it sounds for me to say those things like if you've never experienced it right but I had full and complete trust that you knew exactly what you were saying and whenever you weren't sure you would go and find your reference guide which I found very very refreshing supportive for me. It made me, so grateful that you like knew where to go for that answer. Cause of course we, there are so many things going on in the body. You can't memorize it all yet, I guess. So go ahead. Yeah, absolutely. So what you're referring to is, traditional Chinese medicine has, where acupuncture has been established for thousands of years and there's a lot of connections that have been established, throughout the body, uh, through the muscles and the organs. They're actually connections, the Specific muscles of our body and a specific organ right within the midsection here. So for example, a common one within the ankle itself is, our common symptom that someone may experience is, uh, shin splints, right? For, especially for younger, uh, children and when they're active in their active years with sports and such, right? There's many things that you can. Evaluate to see whether that connection has been lost and that is creating that symptom that somebody is experiencing. For example, it could be a structural stressor, like it could be that that anterior tibialis muscle on the front of the lower leg Has been injured in some way, whether it's through trauma or whether it's, somebody's lower back is just out of alignment and it is not allowing them to engage that muscle appropriately or it could be that someone's, had some stress to their bladder or their, their, stress handling capacity has lowered and that has allowed them to have a weakening of the muscle or, or even it could be, they have chronic stress, throughout their life and that's creating, difficulty for them to manage their stress and along on a day to day basis and therefore that creates, a shin splint type of symptom, right? So I don't like to take things at face value. So there's lots of connections going back to the acupuncture connections that they've established, you can do what's called a muscle contraction test and determine whether something is truly engaging against the resistance of an outside source. And if it is not, then you understand that there's loss of some sort of function there. And my job is to determine where the function has been lost and what needs to be done in order to restore it. So, by placing my hands on your head, there's essentially a guideline that helps me understand or clue me in on what your nervous system is having struggle or difficulty with. So that's how I was able to hone in on a specific region of your body and determine what needed to be done in order to restore the function to get you back to healing that area and utilizing it on a, on a more optimal playing field than what you had previously. Hopefully that bridges the gap from what, what you were sharing with your viewer. Yeah. I mean, I was cool with it just seeming like magic, but, but it's really awesome that you can, that's something you can learn and that it, it works so well and you're very good at it. So, um, I, I mean, I, I feel like like my posture is better. I've struggled with hypermobility, so that's better I have always. Like I, if I'm juicing a lime and my wrists hurt, I'm like, Oh, I, I probably need to engage my core or, you know, like now I'm starting to like see, uh, patterns in my own, uh, that, that I just would ignore completely before. So anyway, I think it's so amazing. Um, so you do a lot in our community if someone were listening and they're like, oh, that sounds really neat. I don't know that I would need it, like how, if they're not in St. Louis, how would they find someone that practices like you do? What would they be looking for? And is there anything else you would want to share about your practice or your mission, that you feel needs to be said? There's a website called the ICAK. The International College of Applied Kinesiology. So there on their website, you can find practitioners that practice in a an area close to your zip code, and find someone who practices apply kinesiology. Now, apply kinesiology isn't a technique per se. It's truly a diagnostic tool to help someone find an area of dysfunction on a body and help restore it through chiropractic methods. So, Not one of those 170 techniques, but it takes, apply kinesiology itself. That diagnostic tool takes a few of the techniques, and it combines them to provide a therapeutic, result for its patients. So that's what I would recommend to someone that is not in the St. Louis area and referring back to the 170 plus techniques within chiropractic itself, you truly don't. exactly how, or, and, or why a technique would work well for you. So I always recommend someone to try chiropractic in, in a different technique or a different practitioner. You may be surprised that some. Thing may work better for you rather than another technique. So, um, it's an absolutely wonderful field, that can be very rewarding, when you're able to find the right practitioner in regards to what it is that I do in the community. We host a, once a month educational event here at my office in St. Peter's that's, McKenzie chiropractic right off of Mexico road in St. Peter's. We host that educational event every second Tuesday of the month at 6 30 and we end right around 8 30, that's myself is and a couple of others that, you know, Dina Wolf, which is a holistic nurse and absolutely brilliant mind when it comes to business as well. As well as, Deidre Brown, she's currently a licensed massage therapist as well as a physical therapist. We all like to share, our tidbits on knowledge that we've acquired over the years in practice and share that with others, that's the sole focus, on building community and also just educating and inspiring others to through education and then also motivating them to do something with that information. So as we talked about before, empowering people to make change in their life, right? Otherwise, I've seen it personally, through both friends and family members as well as myself. If I go to attend some sort of seminar or if I read a book or whatever it may be, have that information and that knowledge, but it's just information if it's not utilized. So I love to empower people to be the best version of themselves. That would be my My recommendation for for anyone right to be just a little bit better tomorrow than you were the previous day because we are only have one shot at this thing called life right and being in the proactive. Mindset day in and day out. I practice what I preach. So being in that mindset, I really think it's inspirational to yourself as well as the others around you. If if you are able to be here and have a higher quality of life for the For yourself, not only for yourself, but also for the others around the close ones for or close ones, excuse me to you later on, you know, Because what a gift if we can take care of ourselves enough that we don't become the sole focus as we need help with our health. I think said another way just piggybacking on what you're you're saying I tend to Say over and over you have to be the advocate for your own health, right? Like I can go and see you and explore and you have all of this knowledge that I don't have and you help me be an advocate for my own health, right? Like I'm learning from you. I'm learning about self discovering, uh, my physical body and how can I, how can I optimize? I really don't take to the, I have a symptom, please help me find a band aid for it, because that, what we're talking about, that holistic health, it's all about, no, that answer's not good enough for me. I'm going to advocate for my own health and I'm committed to exploring ways that are beyond a band aid, right? And, and that's, that's what you do. And I love how, you take that one to one approach that you're willing to take the time and make sure that it's custom. There's no cookie cutter approach when it comes to what you're, Serving the community with so I just really appreciate that. And yeah, what better way to empower yourself than to take care of your own health. So I love it. Thank you so much for this conversation. Is there anything else that you'd like to share or say before we go? Just lastly, that, I'd like to share with others that When given the opportunity to improve upon your health, don't be discouraged if you're not finding the results, that you are looking for. I have personally through many experiences, been there, been frustrated and, been discouraged, but never gave up. So, certainly, It would be very helpful to take, um, no as an answer in that regard, and to continue to find more answers. Uh, we have this wonderful, resource called the internet nowadays that has so many things and so many different perspectives. Of course, you've got to use discernment, right? And what would be applicable for you or for Anyone else. And there's just a lot of misinformation, but the field of science is always evolving, so there's going to be changes. certainly ask questions and, and use that discernment, that you have of your own to, to continue to raise the bar for yourself.'cause you owe it to yourself to be happy, to be healthy and to be successful in every Right. So, I I, that, that, the bit of, that empowerment coming out, so Right. That's perfect. Yeah. That's helpful. We're not going to settle. Don't settle. That's right. That's right. Absolutely not. So that's the last thing I want to share with you. I really appreciate the opportunity to to have this meeting with you and share it with others. What it is that I do. Oh, same. Yes. And if anyone is in the St. Louis area, it is worth any drive to get yourself to St. Peter's, I know you offer like a, a first time, like get to know. You and, that first session with you was really eyeopening. So I highly recommend for anyone or, or go to one of these Tuesday night educational meetings for sure. So, yeah, thank you again, and thanks to our listeners for listening through the episode. If this sparked any curiosity in you, do take the time to share what you want to take action on. And I can't wait to hear what you think of this episode. Thank you so much for listening and have a great day.