FAQs
Have questions?
Feeling Anxious About Your First Chiropractic Visit?
You’re not alone — many people feel uncertain before their first appointment, especially after seeing those dramatic “cracking” videos online. The truth?
Chiropractic care at Handcrafted Chiropractic Māngere is gentle, precise, and entirely tailored to you.
We take time to explain every step, answer every question, and help your body feel safe and supported. No pressure. No overwhelm. Just an honest conversation about your health, your goals, and how chiropractic care can help you move, heal, and thrive naturally.
Take a moment to explore the FAQs below — we promise, your first visit will feel more like connection than correction. Let’s take this first step together.
What does a Chiropractor do?
A chiropractor is a healthcare professional dedicated to helping your body function at its best — naturally and without drugs or surgery.
Our main focus is the spine, because it protects your nervous system — the network that allows your brain and body to communicate. When spinal joints become restricted or misaligned, that communication can be disrupted. This can affect movement, energy, mood, and even how your body heals.
Chiropractic care involves gentle, precise adjustments to restore alignment and motion. One of the most common methods is the high-velocity, low-amplitude (HVLA) adjustment — a quick, controlled movement that releases tension and allows the body to reset. It’s about precision and responsiveness, not force.
At Handcrafted Chiropractic Māngere, we take a vitalistic and holistic approach. We honour the body as an intelligent, self-healing system — designed to find balance when given the right support. This view aligns with traditional healing philosophies across cultures:
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In Ayurveda, it’s called Prana.
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In te ao Māori, it’s mauri — the vital essence that gives life its spark and connects body, mind, and wairua (spirit).
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In Traditional Chinese Medicine, this life force is known as Qi.
Just as these traditions teach that energy and balance are essential for wellbeing, chiropractic care helps realign the spine and nervous system so your body’s natural intelligence can express itself fully.
In essence, chiropractic care helps you move beyond pain — restoring flow, resilience, and harmony between all parts of you.
What is Chiropractic?
Beyond Pain Relief — A System for Whole-Body Connection
Chiropractic is a natural healthcare discipline focused on restoring balance between your spine, nervous system, and overall health. It’s built on a simple but powerful principle: when your spine moves well, your nervous system communicates clearly — and your body can heal, adapt, and function at its best.
While many people first visit a chiropractor for pain relief, chiropractic care goes far deeper. It’s about optimising how your body works, not just where it hurts. Your nervous system connects every cell, tissue, and organ, influencing how you move, sleep, digest, and respond to stress. Chiropractic adjustments help remove interference in that system so your body can operate freely — like clearing static from a radio signal.
At Handcrafted Chiropractic Māngere, we practise both traditional and contemporary approaches — blending precise spinal techniques with an understanding of the body’s innate intelligence. This perspective aligns with wisdom from many cultures:
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Prana in Ayurveda
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Mauri in te ao Māori — the essence that gives life and connects body, mind, and spirit
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Qi in Chinese medicine
Chiropractic is both science and art — grounded in anatomy and neurology, yet deeply respectful of the body’s inner knowing. It’s care that meets you where you are and helps your body do what it was designed to do: heal, grow, and thrive.
What can you Expect from Chiropractic Care?
Realignment. Restoration. Renewal.
Every person’s healing journey is unique — yet most notice profound changes when the spine and nervous system begin working in harmony again. The benefits of chiropractic care often reach far beyond pain relief, influencing how you move, think, and feel every day.
At Handcrafted Chiropractic Māngere, our patients frequently experience:
🌿 More Energy & Vitality — When your nervous system flows freely, your body uses energy efficiently instead of fighting tension.
🤸 Better Flexibility & Movement — Restored spinal alignment improves strength, coordination, and body awareness.
🧍 Improved Posture & Core Stability — You’ll stand taller, breathe easier, and reduce stress on your joints.
💆 Less Tension & Physical Stress — Adjustments calm overactive muscles and promote deep relaxation.
🧠 Clearer Thinking & Focus — Balanced nerve function supports mental clarity and calm.
😊 Greater Emotional Well-Being — When your body is at ease, so is your mind; many describe feeling lighter and more resilient.
💤 Restful, Restorative Sleep — Nervous system balance helps you switch off more easily at night.
📈 Enhanced Performance & Productivity — Whether in sport, work, or daily life, your body performs better when aligned.
🛡️ Long-Term Spinal Health — Regular chiropractic care helps prevent premature wear and supports healthy ageing.
These outcomes reflect the body’s innate intelligence — its natural ability to heal and adapt once interference is removed.
At Handcrafted Chiropractic, we don’t chase symptoms. We work with your body’s own design — helping you reconnect, rebuild, and thrive from the inside out.
What causes a vertebral subluxation?
A closer look at how stress shows up in the spine.
A vertebral subluxation occurs when one or more vertebrae in your spine lose their normal alignment or movement. Even small shifts can interfere with the way your brain and body communicate — sometimes without any immediate pain. Over time, this can affect posture, movement, energy, and your body’s ability to adapt to stress.
Subluxations can develop from many everyday stressors, including:
Physical Stress — Accidents, falls, sports injuries, or even birth trauma can jolt or strain the spine, creating tension patterns that linger.
Postural Habits — Prolonged sitting, slouching, or awkward sleeping positions can slowly alter spinal alignment and muscle tone.
Repetitive Movements — Lifting, twisting, or repetitive motion in work or training can overload joints and weaken coordination.
Emotional Stress — Worry, grief, or chronic mental tension often express physically through tight muscles and shallow breathing, especially in the neck and shoulders.
Nutritional Imbalance — Deficiencies in key nutrients can reduce tissue resilience and slow recovery, making the spine more vulnerable to strain.
Environmental Load — Exposure to toxins, poor air quality, or inflammation-triggering chemicals can impact cellular and joint health.
Genetic or Developmental Factors — Structural differences present from birth or early growth can predispose certain areas of the spine to misalignment.
Systemic Inflammation — Ongoing inflammatory conditions can stiffen spinal joints and disrupt normal function.
At Handcrafted Chiropractic Māngere, we’re trained to locate and correct these subluxations gently and precisely through chiropractic adjustments. Our aim is to restore clear communication through the nervous system — allowing the body’s natural intelligence to express itself freely.
This philosophy aligns with traditional understandings of life force — Prana, mauri and Qi — each describing the energy that sustains and integrates every part of you. When your spine is balanced, that energy flows.
That’s the essence of chiropractic care: helping your body remember what wellness feels like.
What is a chiropractic adjustment?
A gentle reset for your spine, energy, and nervous system.
A chiropractic adjustment is a precise, gentle technique performed by a trained and licensed chiropractor to restore healthy motion, alignment, and energetic balance in your spine and nervous system. By correcting areas of restriction — known as vertebral subluxations — chiropractic care helps clear interference in the communication between your brain and body, allowing your innate healing intelligence to flow freely.
At Handcrafted Chiropractic Māngere, each adjustment is handcrafted to you. Sometimes it’s structural and manual. Other times it’s subtle and energetic — working with breath, tone, and tension patterns to guide your body toward deeper coherence.
This approach combines modern spinal science with time-honoured understandings of life force energy — what’s known as Qi in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Prana in Ayurveda, and mauri in te ao Māori — the spark that connects mind, body, and spirit.
When this life energy flows freely through your spine and nervous system, the body naturally reorganises — healing becomes more efficient, posture easier, and stress more manageable.
What Happens During an Adjustment?
1. Comprehensive Evaluation
We start by listening — reviewing your health history, movement, and goals. If needed, we assess your spine through physical testing or imaging to identify where communication has been disrupted.
2. Comfortable Positioning
You’ll be positioned comfortably on a specialised chiropractic table designed to support your body. Each technique is adapted to your structure, comfort level, and nervous system tone.
3. Gentle, Specific Adjustment
Your chiropractor applies a controlled, precise movement — using either the hands or an instrument — to a targeted joint or spinal segment. You might hear a small “pop,” which is simply gas releasing from the joint, like uncorking a bottle of pressure. Some sessions may also include tonal or energetic contacts — subtle touch or breath-guided releases that help your nervous system recalibrate and settle.
4. Integration & Support
After your adjustment, we take a moment to let your body integrate the changes. You’ll receive guidance on posture, breathing, and gentle movement to help your system adapt and anchor its new alignment.
Why Get Adjusted?
Chiropractic adjustments are designed to:
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Restore alignment and clear nerve interference
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Rebalance energy flow and improve coherence in the nervous system
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Reduce pain, stiffness, and muscular tension
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Improve posture, mobility, and breathing
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Enhance sleep, mood, and mental clarity
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Support emotional regulation and overall resilience
People often come in for pain relief — back pain, headaches, sciatica, or stress — but they stay because they notice deeper changes: more energy, better focus, improved recovery, and a sense of coming home to their body.
At Handcrafted Chiropractic, we don’t just adjust bones — we tune the whole system. Each session is an invitation for your body to unwind, reconnect, and remember its natural rhythm of healing.
What happens during my first visit?
A space to pause, connect, and begin your healing journey.
When you book your first appointment at Handcrafted Chiropractic Māngere, you’ll receive a confirmation email with a secure link to complete your online intake forms. These forms take around five minutes and help us understand your health story before you arrive — so your visit can focus entirely on you.
On Arrival
You’ll be welcomed into a calm, supportive environment designed to help you feel at ease from the start. Our team will take time to connect, listen, and understand what brought you in — whether it’s pain, stress, injury, or a desire for better overall wellbeing.
This conversation helps us see the bigger picture of your health — how your body has been adapting, and what it may need to restore balance.
Your Examination
Once we’ve talked through your goals and concerns, we’ll begin a thorough physical examination. This may include:
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Spinal and Postural Assessment – to evaluate how your spine moves and supports your body.
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Orthopaedic and Neurological Testing – to check how well your nerves and joints are functioning.
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Functional Movement Analysis – to identify patterns of tension, restriction, or imbalance.
If needed, we may recommend spinal imaging or additional testing to gain a clearer view of your body’s alignment and nervous system health.
Throughout the process, everything is explained clearly — no surprises, no jargon, just understanding.
Your Handcrafted Care Plan
After your assessment, we’ll share what we’ve found in plain language and outline how chiropractic care can support your body’s natural healing process.
Your plan is handcrafted — designed around your unique goals, lifestyle, and pace of healing. Depending on your needs, this may include structural adjustments, tonal or energy-based techniques, postural guidance, and practical tools for movement, stress, or breathwork.
Our aim is simple: to help you feel safe, seen, and supported as your body reconnects, realigns, and restores its natural rhythm of health.
Injured? ACC could help
Your recovery doesn’t have to wait.
If you’ve been injured here in New Zealand, you may be eligible for ACC (Accident Compensation Corporation) support for your chiropractic care. ACC helps cover the cost of treatment for injuries caused by accidents — whether from work, sport, travel, or everyday mishaps.
At Handcrafted Chiropractic Māngere, we make the process simple:
✅ No GP referral required. You can see us directly. We’ll complete and submit your ACC claim for you.
💼 ACC covers part of your visit. A small co-payment applies for each appointment.
📋 We handle the details. You focus on healing while we take care of the paperwork.
If you’re unsure whether your injury qualifies, just ask — we’re happy to explain your options and guide you through the process step by step.
Because your time and energy belong to recovery, not red tape.
Health Insurance?
Here’s how it works at Handcrafted chiropractic.
Some private health insurance providers in New Zealand offer cover for chiropractic visits — though the level of support depends on your individual policy. We recommend checking directly with your insurer to confirm whether chiropractic care is included and what percentage is reimbursed.
At Handcrafted Chiropractic Māngere, payments are made in full at the time of your appointment.
💳 Easy Claims: After your visit, you’ll automatically receive an emailed receipt that includes all the details your insurer needs to process your claim.
📞 Need Help? If you’re unsure how to submit your claim or what’s covered, our team is happy to point you in the right direction.
Our goal is to keep your care seamless — so you can focus on your health while we make the admin simple.
What is Nervous System Regulation?
Nervous system regulation is your body’s ability to move smoothly between states of activity and rest — between “fight-or-flight” and “rest-and-digest.”
It’s what allows you to respond to life’s stressors without getting stuck in tension, fatigue, or overwhelm.
Your nervous system is the control centre for everything — movement, digestion, hormones, mood, sleep, healing. When it’s well regulated, you feel balanced, calm, focused, and resilient.
When it’s dysregulated, you might feel anxious, flat, wired but tired, or disconnected from your body. You might notice tight muscles, shallow breathing, poor sleep, digestive upset, or a sense that your body never fully “switches off.”
Chiropractic care supports regulation by improving how your brain and body communicate through the spine. Gentle, specific adjustments help reduce interference in the nervous system — allowing your body to come out of constant stress mode and return to a state of safety and balance.
At Handcrafted Chiropractic, we see regulation as the foundation of healing.
When the nervous system is clear, the body can adapt, recover, and truly thrive — not just feel better, but stay better.
How to reduce the risks of subluxations (Spinal misalignment)
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Support your spine. Support your wellbeing.
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While not every spinal stressor can be avoided, many subluxations — or small misalignments in the spine — can be reduced or prevented through mindful daily habits. Your spine is designed to move, adapt, and stabilise; giving it the right environment allows it to do exactly that.
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Common Everyday Stressors
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Modern life places repeated strain on the spine and nervous system. Common contributors include:
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Poor posture — especially during long hours of sitting, driving, or device use.
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Unsupportive sleep setup — an old mattress or the wrong pillow height can throw spinal alignment off overnight.
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Workstation ergonomics — poorly set-up desks or chairs cause chronic postural fatigue.
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High heels and tight footwear — alter gait and spinal balance.
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Dehydration — reduces disc and joint resilience.
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Improper lifting techniques — strain spinal stabilisers and create tension patterns.
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Your chiropractor can help you identify and correct these everyday triggers with individualised advice and ergonomic guidance.
Habits That Support a Healthy Spine
True prevention comes from supporting your body’s ability to adapt. You can help protect your spinal and nervous system health by:
🌿 Moving regularly — light exercise and daily mobility work keep joints nourished and responsive.
💤 Prioritising rest — quality sleep helps tissues repair and recalibrate.
🥦 Eating a nutrient-rich diet — supports muscle and joint integrity.
🧘 Practising stress reduction — meditation, breathwork, or mindfulness reduce tension held in the spine.
💧 Staying hydrated — supports joint lubrication and disc health.
😊 Maintaining emotional balance — emotional stress often manifests as muscular tightness.
Even with the best habits, life still happens — knocks, falls, stress, and emotional strain all influence your nervous system’s tone. That’s why we recommend regular chiropractic check-ups, even when you feel fine. Consistent care helps your body process daily stress, restore balance, and maintain clear communication between your brain and body.
At Handcrafted Chiropractic Māngere, we focus on prevention through connection — helping you stay aligned, aware, and adaptable so your body can continue to heal and thrive from the inside out.