Dr. Michael Court: A Focus on the Postural Restoration System

Today, I’m excited to share my conversation with Dr. Michael Court, a 1989 graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic. Dr. Court runs an independent practice in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where he utilizes a variety of chiropractic techniques, but has a special focus on the upper cervical region.

In addition, Dr. Court is proficient in the Postural Restoration System and shares valuable insights on its application and his training. 

Beyond his clinical expertise, Dr. Court serves as one of the Board of Directors representative for the Northwest District of the Wisconsin Chiropractic Association.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:13

Welcome to the Wisconsin Chiropractic Association podcast, back to basics. My name is Chris Rush, president of the Wisconsin Chiropractic Association. Today I'm excited to share my conversation with Dr. Michael Cort, a 1989 graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic. Dr. Court runs an independent practice in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where he utilizes a variety of techniques but has a special focus on the upper cervical region. In addition, Dr. Cort is proficient in the postural restoration system and shares valuable insights on its application and his training. Beyond his clinical expertise, Dr. Cort serves as the Board of Directors Representative for the Northwest District of the Wisconsin Chiropedic Association. During our conversation, we touch on some of the key initiatives currently being worked on by the WCA Board of Directors. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Dr. Michael Cort. Hello, Dr. Michael Court. Thank you for joining me today. Yeah, it's good to be here. How did you decide to become a chiropractor, Dr. Court?

SPEAKER_01 1:16

I was always had an interest in the healthcare field. In fact, in high school, my um goal was actually to go into dentistry. And uh that's that's where I would had put my sights. And um I had played football quite a bit uh when I was younger, and as a result, ended up with uh back pain that developed into sciatic pain at age age 12, which is kind of odd for a 12-year-old. My uh parents took me to a number of different orthopedics and neurologists, and uh they really couldn't find what was going on and didn't have much much help for me. I did have a uh grade one spondyl, which is a forward slipping of the lumbar vertebrae in the lower spine, and they kind of said it was all coming from that. And their advice was I just have to quit all sports. And uh I did quit I did quit football, but uh I really I I enjoyed sports uh and ended up picking up soccer. I figured, well, maybe that's not as rough on my back as football, although that can be a pretty rough sport too.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Yeah, no doubt.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

And um, when I was um uh in my senior year of high school, as I would play, I would have to sometimes I'd have to sit out after 20 minutes of a game or practice because the pain would become so bad in my back, I'd have to sit on the sidelines. And uh at this particular time, I was going to a small private school in Aurora, Illinois, uh Chicago suburb. And uh there was another player on the team, his dad was a chiropractor. Quite literally, up into that point, I'd never even heard of what a chiropractor was or what they do, and no one even told me that was an option of uh uh what uh where I could get some help. And he came over and talked with me, and uh what he said sounded kind of interesting. So I decided to ask my dad, you know, if uh I could go see this uh guy. And uh the interesting thing about it, his name was Will Tickle. Uh Will Tickle was my first chiropractor, uh pretty dynamic. Uh you might have heard of him. He's unfortunately passed away now. He there's uh he uh was in a bad car accident uh and and uh suffered injuries from that. But at the uh but at the time, Will Tickle was um uh down in uh the Chicago suburbs, and after uh several weeks of seeing him, I was able to play full games of soccer without any problems.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

So when would this have been if you graduated from Palmer in '89?

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Would this have been like one eighty two, eighty three, right? In that time period, yep.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Gotcha. All right.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Yep. And uh so I was pretty impressed. Now I was still kind of I was gonna go into dentistry, but uh uh Will had a uh pretty big influence on me.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Okay, now think back when you were a patient, you're in high school, and this will be good for the chiropractors that are listening. What do you remember about that first visit, which you didn't know then that you know now?

SPEAKER_01 4:07

I was impressed at um how the spine controlled everything in the body. How uh if the nervous system wasn't functioning correctly, you're gonna have problems in the rest of the uh body and uh sometimes pain, sometimes uh other symptoms in the body. Uh and uh uh Dr. Tickle was very good at uh education. He did a lot of spinal back then, they did spinal care classes. Uh I don't know if there's many now. And uh I remember sitting through the spinal care classes uh and learning about um how chiropractic worked. Uh and uh so I was very impressed with that no one else said that uh was any hope for what was going on. They just pretty much said I had to quit sports, and uh I was uh enthusiastic about being able to uh get back into playing sports again.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Now, did he take x-rays or did he just go out motion palpation?

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Yeah, yeah, he did take x-rays, and he did more Thompson. Uh that's so that was my first experience uh in chiropractic. Uh he did uh Thompson adjusting and he took full spine x-rays, and uh back then uh insurance covered very well, and I was able to number, yeah, it was it uh my dad worked for the railroad and uh picked up pretty much 100% of what we were doing. Uh so was that wasn't a problem. Um, but what was interesting about it is it allowed me to have a lot of contact points with Dr. Tickle over uh a period of time. And um, after uh graduating in uh undergraduate school at Aurora University, I started with pre-dentistry, but then uh I was getting a little disillusioned and thinking, you know, I like this chiropractic stuff, I think I want to look into this more. And so I would every visit I would pick uh Dr. Tickles uh brain a little bit more, uh yeah, each time. And then eventually I kind of followed him around like a protege. Uh, because he would do a number of lectures uh throughout the area, and uh uh that's when I decided this is what I want to do for a living.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Sounds like he was quite the mentor.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

Yeah, he was, yeah, yeah. I miss him quite a bit. Uh his son practices in Moorhead, Minnesota now. Uh Will Tickle Jr., uh who I played soccer with. Uh, and I believe Dr. Tickles, he had I believe he had seven children, seven or eight, and I believe at least five of them are chiropractors throughout the country.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

So that was quite the inspiration. Yeah, I always like to say mentors leave footprints. So if you get inspired, follow what they did and try to duplicate it if you want to be like them.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

So exactly, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:47

So then the decision to go off Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

Right. And Will was very instrumental in that. He actually went to National, uh, but he uh, which was 20 minutes from my house, uh, but he uh he really was instrumental in getting me to go to Palmer College, he would uh really pushed me, you know, to go that direction. Um, so and it which wasn't too far from Chicago, it's only two and a half hours away, uh, over that way. But uh yeah, ended up a Palmer in 86. And then uh so and back then with the quarter system, you were able to go in like about three three plus years, it's just going straight through. And so I was able to then graduate in 89.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

So while you were there, did you get involved in any of the technique clubs or any special interests?

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Yeah, nothing. Um, no technique clubs. I did um uh I I did uh like uh listening to uh Dr. Pierce uh with the Pierce Stillwagen technique. He was uh quite influential at that point. Um, and then um I did touch a bit on upper cervical then, but I never got involved in any of the clubs. Like Nuka was just coming into the school, and uh I had been exposed to Blair later on Atlas orthogonal uh technique, but I never joined any while I was at school. The sad part I was so poor I didn't take any extra uh classes. Okay, it was just it was tough enough to get through.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

So chiropractic college ended in 1989 with graduation, so then I was off to practicing. What did that look like for you?

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Oh well, it was um it was kind of scary jumping out uh at that time. Um now the economy was doing better, but if you remember, we were still coming out of the recession of the 70s and early 80s, and the prospects for starting a business were kind of tough. And uh so I looked into associate positions, and uh an associate position in Eau Claire, Wisconsin opened up with uh Harold Dykomo. And uh so I was able to use, you know, I again I started with uh uh the Thompson work and I was able to use that uh in his office. One of the areas that he uh focused on though was uh he was also heavy into nutrition, so it was kind of an eye-opener for me for uh learning how I could help people uh through doing nutritional work. And uh kind of cut my teeth, you know, there at that point. And uh after about a year, a practice opened up in Chiple Falls, Wisconsin, just north of here. I ended up uh uh buying that practice. Uh and then that's so I've owned the clinic since. Uh over the over a period of time the clinic grew. Uh we expanded to a couple locations. I really kind of burned myself out. Oh yeah. And uh decided to just go back down to back to a small office. Uh and that's when I came back to Eaure and uh just decided to practice here. That's kind of the reader's digest version of uh you know what brought me back to Eau Claire.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

So how did you recognize burnout?

SPEAKER_01 10:05

It would hit me, it would be tough. There would be times I would just want to quit, yeah, quit being a chiropractor and go do something else. And it happened more than once. Um and uh so it kind of sneaks up on you, you know. Uh you yeah, you you get ambitious, you start doing things, and you're you know, you're grabbing the the ring on the on the merry-go-round as much as you can. Uh, and there's just a point of reflection, you're like, uh, I just can't keep doing this anymore.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

Well, I understand. Yeah. Too many irons in the fire sometimes. So well, it's good that you recognize that. And so now you're back in Eau Claire. Yes. So tell me about the techniques that you use. You mentioned Thompson, but I know that you also are very proficient in upper cervical. So what did that look like?

SPEAKER_01 10:52

I have training in uh Atlas orthogonal, Nuca, and Blair. Uh, I do utilize all three of them, but I I prefer to use Blair upper cervical. Uh, mainly because uh uh Dr. William Blair recognized that the human body is not symmetrical. You can't cut you down the middle and both halves won't overlap each other. Uh, that the anomalies within the spine uh have to be taken to into account. And uh Blair upper cervical does that with the uh with the atlas work, uh, in that taking the left and right sides of the occipital and lantal joints into consideration on how they may be different.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

So teach me how you decipher treating a patient from a full spine standpoint or choosing to use just the upper cervical technique. Can you explain that a little bit?

SPEAKER_01 11:46

Sure. Uh I found uh in practice that uh adjusting from sacrum uh you know on up to uh the lower cervicals, you can get some good relief and good changes, but I was never able to get what I felt was lasting changes uh in the in a person uh that they they continue to need repeated uh adjustments uh to get it to hold. Some symptoms I wasn't able to affect at all, whereas with the when I started doing the upper cervical work, I was able to clear out a wide range of symptoms, uh, many of them obviously including like vertigo, dizziness, headaches, and get permanent uh results with that, where I could only get temporary or minor results uh with the Thompson work.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

Hello everyone. I want to tell you about the 2025 Spring Convention hosted by the Wisconsin Chiropractic Association. This year we are shortening up the duration to two days and calling it a spring mini convention. Join us Thursday and Friday, April 10th and 11th at the beautiful Ingleside Hotel and Water Park in Pewaukee, Wisconsin. It's two days packed with educational opportunities that you can use in your practice Monday morning. So save the date and don't miss this opportunity to grow, network, and thrive at the 2025 Spring Mini Convention. Thursday and Friday, April 10th and 11th at the beautiful Ingleside Hotel and Water Park in Pewaukee, Wisconsin. More exciting details regarding topics, speakers, and class times will be posted on the WCA website in January 2025. What about other tools in your toolbox other than chiropractic adjustments? Do you do any modalities at all?

SPEAKER_01 13:38

I do. No, I yeah, we use other modalities. Now I uh when I came to Eau Claire, I was introduced to nutrition through Erald Dicoma. Uh, and over the years, it's just been a lifelong process of learning more and more, uh, taking work uh through um nutrition response testing and then functional medicine. Uh, and so we've been able to help uh quite a few patients in applying that. And really the reality is I don't there isn't a week that goes by I don't learn something about nutrition that I didn't know before. I've never been to a point where I knew it all and that was it. Uh so that's been a continual learning process uh uh on that front. Um, not that long ago, um, a couple years ago, I did get introduced to something called postural restoration, which is not a chiropractic uh technique. Um, it's actually been uh founded by uh Ron Herska, who is a physical therapist out of Lincoln, Nebraska. And uh what uh fits interesting about uh the work that he does with postural restoration, he also comes at it from the standpoint that the body is asymmetrical, uh, and that uh, you know, you have your heart on your left side, uh, your liver on your other, uh, and it predisposes you to be um unbalanced from left to right in certain areas of the body. And he's developed a number of uh restoration exercises to help uh restore that. And uh so I also utilize that uh to help once a person achieves stability in terms of the upper cervical area, maintain their uh alignment and their health after that.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

Nice. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

About 95% of the people taking that work are physical therapists, uh a few chiropractors uh and other practitioners. When I sit uh in a in the training for that, these practitioners are discovering things that we've already known about health and healing from the spine and the upper cervical area, uh, and uh correcting, they're just they're actually just learning that. And um, I mean, I remember hearing one instructor talk for about an hour of the importance of the of the upper cervical area and correcting that and the health benefits, and I'm like, well, that's what we do, right? But that's why my worry is that I other professions are gonna come in and and um they might give it a different name and a slightly different approach, but uh I don't want to lose that as a profession. That's something that you know we've done for over a hundred years and done very well, right? And so I think this is that's probably one of my biggest concerns.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

So the postural restoration, that was actually you said a physical therapy technique.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Yeah, so that these are well, it's taught by physical therapists. I would say the basis uh is uh there's a lot of uh osteopathic basis in it. And uh Ron Herska has um developed a lot of the techniques himself, but it's on aligning the spine uh through unilateral exercises, uh, as opposed to just strengthening you know a muscle group. Uh he's inhibiting muscles that are tightening too much and strengthening muscles that are inhibited. Uh and that might be different from left to right side.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

Yeah, makes perfect sense.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

Yeah, and that that's really where his focus is. And it it it's um it's it's a simple concept, uh, but it has profound effects uh on how people hold their adjustments and how um how they uh maintain their their corrections.

SPEAKER_00 17:21

And where did you go for the training?

SPEAKER_01 17:23

Uh so some of it is uh online, but then also uh Lincoln, Nebraska is where they're located.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

I see.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

So made several trips out there.

SPEAKER_00 17:33

So that leads me to chiropractic education. So from a professional education, chiropractic CE standpoint, what's your favorite mode of education? Is it online? Is it in person? Is it Palmer Homecom? Is it WCA seminars?

SPEAKER_01 17:49

I I mean I don't mind some of the online work, but I really prefer in-person.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

Right. I agree.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

I think that's just my personality. I'm a I'm a more of a kinesthetic learner, uh, and I'm gonna learn by being active uh and involved uh in what's going on.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

Yeah, I'm not opposed to online. I am happy to see that the state of Wisconsin is allowing some online offering, but I definitely prefer the in-person, not only for what you mentioned with the kinesthetic, yeah, you know, hands-on, but the camaraderie. I mean, every time I go to a spring or fall convention, I just run into new chiropractors and old chiropractors, rekindle old relationships, and I just think the in-person experience is far superior.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

But that's actually a I didn't think of was uh you know, since COVID, I've lost touch with a lot of people, you know, over the years and you don't realize it at first, and you're like, My God, I haven't seen you forever. Right. Or yeah, I had contact with the people.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Sure. Yeah. So so you mentioned that you bought the bought you bought a practice. I believe you have an associate.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

Yeah, one part-time associate now.

unknown 18:58

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

So somewhere along the lines, you had to develop some business sense, and I don't think you were taught that at Palmer College of Chiropractic. Uh, I could be wrong. So are you a learner from the School of Hard Knocks, or how did you develop your ability to maintain a private practice for 35 plus years?

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Right. It's definitely been from the School of Hard Knocks. In fact, um, there was a point I had uh four doctors and a total of 14 staff, and that was that led up to one of my burnout points uh around the year 2000. I was not equipped or prepared to handle a staff that size. Um, I did uh try you know some practice management, you know, uh consultants, which it did help, um, but it still wasn't enough. Um I and and and I think at heart I'm a clinician, not a uh manager of a clinic.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

Sure, sure. So if you do a good job with the clinic stuff, sometimes that'll take care of itself.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Right, exactly. All right, and um, there's been a number of things that I've used uh over the years. Um one of them was uh uh cats management that later became integrity. I did uh uh in Newland Nutritional Systems, they utilize a lot of uh Ron Hubbard stuff, the management part of it. I thought it was really good. And there was some good stuff I could take from there. Um, and uh the rest of it has been uh just more learning on my own, right? You know, reading as of late. Uh YouTube has been one of my best uh teachers for uh how to handle things. Uh I spent a lot of time on that, you know, educating myself on how to manage and you know grow and uh educate patients.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

And right. Um so are you a book reader or a podcaster?

SPEAKER_01 20:50

I am a I am a book reader. You have a favorite book, whether it's whether it's business or inspirational or so my it's gonna seem like a cliche, but even like Lord of the Rings was always one of my favorites. Uh uh those were some of the first books I ever read uh when I was in school, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, and uh have always enjoyed uh that uh that type of uh genre of reading.

SPEAKER_00 21:17

So now after 35 years in practice, you have been selected and elected to become a board member on the Wisconsin Chiropractic Association representing the Northwest District. So was there some inspiration? Was there some motivation to do that? And and where do you see that going?

SPEAKER_01 21:36

Sure. I think I would even have to go back to Dr. Tickle and how he mentored me and meant such he was such an important part of my life and what I knew of chiropractic, uh, that I would like to do that uh for others in the profession. Um, I also uh would like to see our profession grow stronger, and I feel that we've uh splintered a little. Bit over the years uh in terms of our strength. And um kind of a alluding back now to another fictional movie, they you know, Planet of the Apes, you know, Apes Together Strong. Well, I think chiropractors together strong. And uh I would like to see that, you know, uh a little more. And I would like to see if I could uh encourage that or foster that, uh, that we may not necessarily see eye to eye on every uh issue, but as a profession, uh we need to uh be strong together.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

I agree. I agree 100%. Great value through our team.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

Yeah. So you know, gaining uh unity within the profession, um, strengthening our base, not that we can't uh branch into other areas, you know, not that we we could never look at uh other areas of scopes of practice or whatnot, but really solidifying you know what we do and what we own as a profession. Uh and we've been doing this for over a hundred years. And I I guess I don't I would be remorse if we lost that uh with subsequent generations of chiropractors, maybe not sure of where the jump-off point was for the ship uh and where we're sailing to.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

Gotcha. Yeah, I think that's good. So one of the things that we're working on uh legislatively at the state level is Medicaid modernization.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

Where hopefully in uh treatment of Medicaid patient chiropractors will someday be allowed to use our full toolbox of treatment and with that be reimbursed. Uh currently we are fairly reimbursed for our examinations. Uh, we're due to some great effort that we had at uh WCA and with legislators. And prior to that, our reimbursement for uh the chiropractic adjustment was uh improved uh in the budget two cycles ago. And now looking forward, we are really trying to get approval for uh reimbursements and utilization of all the tools in our toolbox. So we can not only do spinal chiropractic adjustments, but we can perform and get reimbursed for extremity adjustments, along with any type of therapeutic modalities similar to what physical therapists can do. So that's an effort that we're really working on. And when you join the board, hopefully you can help us out with that. And along with our I agree, along with our colleagues at the at the national levels, uh trying to improve modernization of chiropractic utilization in the Medicare area. So very similar. So look forward to uh you helping us out with that on the uh on the team with the WCA, Mike.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

Yeah, I look forward to it likewise. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 24:51

So sounds good. Well, I'll tell you what, it was a pleasure uh having a chat with you today. And looking forward to your participation on the Wisconsin Chiropractic Association Board of Directors representing Eau Claire and the rest of the Northwest District of the state of Wisconsin. And 35 years in practice, Mike. That's quite an accomplishment. And I know you're not done.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

That's right. Not by any means. Every day's a new day.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

So fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

Thanks a lot, Mike. All right, you take care.