Spotlight Series

Guest Name: Dr. Steven Roushar

Credentials: DC

All right, welcome Dr. Rochard. Thank you for coming on today for our spotlight series in the for the best of Utah in public health. So I’m just going to read your bio here and then we’ll jump into all the questions.

Dr. Stephen is focused on facilitating lifelong optimal wellness flow in his patients so that they too may live life at a higher level and be empowered in health and life. He received his undergrad degree in exercise science at Brigham Young University and completed his doctorate of doctor of chiropractic degree in Northwestern Health Sciences University in Minnesota where he is from. Dr. Stephen is a member of the ICPA through which he is specially trained in pre-perinatal and pediatric care.

Additionally, he is Webster technique certified and trained in cranial sacral tonal drop activator and other gentle techniques. Working with expected mothers, infants, and children is his passion and expertise and he has spent countless hours learning how these populations can be healthier and happier through chiropractic care and other natural health solutions. Dr. Stephen dealt with chronic ear infections, ADHD, and corticollis as a child and where Western medicine continued to fail, chiropractic helped him to overcome these health concerns.

Dr. Stephen loves to pay it forward and help all members of the family become healthier through chiropractic care. Aside from chiropractic and perinatal and pediatric specialists, Dr. Stephen is proud to hold the titles of husband, father, and king of the silly human tricks. I didn’t even know that.

In his time off, he loves playing with his kids, writing music, skateboarding, being active, and enjoying all that Utah nature has to offer. He is married to Marie who helps manage the business and has five amazing kids, Eleanor, Oliver, Gilbert, Felix, and Jeremiah. Amazing.

Okay, we’re going to jump right in with the first question of what made you decide to be a chiropractor?

Well, to start at the very beginning, I dealt with chronic ear infections as a young child. Like I said in my bio, I’d get like eight to ten ear infections every year. And if you remember having ear infections as a kid, to me, I remember it felt like knives stabbing into my ears.

And it was absolutely the worst. And I just couldn’t wait to go to the pharmacy and get the bubblegum medicine. The trouble was, is I kept getting bubblegum medicine, but I just kept getting ear infection.

And finally, someone told my mom to bring me to a chiropractor. And when she did, they found out that I had a head tilt. I still have it a little bit today, but it was, I think it was way worse when I was a kid.

And I was pretty far out of alignment in my upper cervical, so the top of my neck. And lo and behold, there are a lot of nerves that go to the ears and to the jaw and to the mouth. And actually that helped run the immune system, like the vagus nerve.

And I just was not having good neurologic connections. Not only that, my Eustachian tubes weren’t draining very well. And so I started seeing a chiropractor and I never got an ear infection again.

And I saw chiropractors throughout my life. It said in my bio as well that I skateboarded. I just, I loved going to the chiropractor.

I hated, sorry to say it, but I hated going to other doctors. I actually did enjoy going to my physical therapist when I broke my ankle, but I always felt better going to my chiropractor. I was left the office feeling better, right? Just feeling like a million bucks.

And I was like, man, I put it on the list of my careers that I could potentially do at a young age. But then I looked and realized it was a doctorate degree. I was like, no way.

Just like, again, it said it was in my bio. I had ADHD, still have it today to a certain extent. I find it as a strength rather than a weakness, but that’s a different topic.

But yeah, I didn’t think I could make it through school because I always felt like I got through school through the good graces of my teachers just liking me. I didn’t get good grades when I was younger. So anyways, I was thinking about doing something else that didn’t require college.

But I said, let me just try the college thing and take anatomy and see if I like it. And I fell in love with learning about the body and boom, went down the trajectory of becoming a chiropractor. And so, like I said, I had this awesome experience as a kid and then figured out, hey, I can do this.

I’ve been passionate about learning about this as opposed to other things. And boom, that’s why I’m a chiropractor today. Amazing, amazing.

Okay. And what makes you different?

Different in what way?

Well, I guess anyway, but in the care that you provide, in the services that you do, in who you are as a chiropractor.

I mean, I’d say number one is I have a really strong passion for what I do.

If I didn’t have to support my family with my living, I’d probably just be doing it anyways. It’s just, I have a strong passion for what I do. One of the things about chiropractic and some of my other passions is that you probably heard I enjoy skateboarding.

I also enjoy dancing and learning like silly human tricks. And basically, chiropractic in essence is like learning a trick to heal someone or to help someone feel better, function better. And so, because of that, I basically get to do my hobby for work and that I get to learn techniques that help people feel better, kind of like doing a trick.

Other things, what makes me different, our office, we marry this Eastern and Western side of things where I give a lot of credence to holistic philosophy and Eastern philosophy and that the power that made the body can heal the body while actually gathering a lot of data and doing a lot of analysis and getting nerdy about my patients. And we do a really in-depth evaluation with every single one of our patients before we even do adjustments or come up with a treatment plan. And yeah, I’d say that’s one of the biggest things that makes me stand out, our office stand out as opposed to other chiropractic offices is we do a lot of gathering of data and coming up with a game plan based on that data.

And I want to bring a wide array of things in my tool belt to be able to help people to get healthy and well. Yeah, outside of that, I mean, I could probably talk for hours about myself, but I’d rather not. But one other thing that really makes me different is I love working with kids.

I’m just a big kid. I know we’re talking a little bit more on the perinatal side of things, but obviously a pregnant woman creates a kid and it is just so fun for me to work with kids. It just brings a fun, youthful energy.

And I know that’s not everyone’s jam, but for me, I enjoy the chaos in my office. We’re doing handstand contests, we’re throwing face paper balls into the basket, we’re running around, we’re just being goofballs. So yeah, I’d say that’s another thing.

Awesome. Okay. Leading into that, who’s an ideal fit for you?

That is a good question.

I would say an ideal fit for me is a mother that has a more holistic philosophy, wants her kids to be healthy in a more natural form, is looking for solutions for herself and her children that are not going to be medicine, surgery, those sorts of things. Not like I’m against those things, but that’s not going to be my first line of defense there. And so I love working with moms who have kids, of course, who are about to have a kid and who are more holistic and wanting solutions because not only do we provide excellent chiropractic care, but we talk about all things.

In my office, for example, a patient came up and was like, hey, what do you do about sinus infections? And I talked to them about humidifiers and steam showers, breathe essential oil. We talked about nebulizers and other sorts of things that you can do to treat these sorts of things naturally. And I love to equip moms and empower moms with a toolkit for how they can take care of their kids at home without necessarily seeing a doctor.

And then when to notice when that borderline is like, okay, we need a doctor now either. So yeah. Cool.

And then how does this ideal person come to work with you? What’s the process look like?

Typically they hear about our office from a friend or they find us on Google and they call our office. I always like to do a personal call either with myself or have my staff kind of walk them through what the process looks like here. And that we do a in-depth evaluation first, before we address you and provide treatment to figure out what your goals are.

And yeah, they just, that’s how they get started here. Amazing. Okay.

What does in the grand scheme of things between like pregnancy, postpartum, that kind of thing like that, or even new baby being born, since you do both of those things, what does recovery look like in your context and ethos?

Recovery from birth?

Yeah. Yeah.

So birth is an amazing thing.

It’s a beautiful thing. It’s one of the coolest miracles, in my opinion, in the world. And I think when it comes to anything amazing, it comes with some sort of sacrifice, right? And I think that sacrifice brings a mother and a baby and a family that much closer because if it wasn’t hard and it didn’t require sacrifice, then maybe we wouldn’t be bonded as closely together.

So kind of prefacing it with that, recovery starts with just understanding the sacrifice that it took to bring this human into the world and now adapting to that sacrifice. And so a mother, for example, basically sacrifices her comfort for nine months and then bringing that baby into the world. And not only that, her body expands, her spine shifts and her abs separate and she brings a beautiful human being to the world.

And now we want to help that all recover. We want the pelvis to go back to where it was. We want that tailbone to shrink back in rather than be stuck out.

We want to help make sure that the rib cage comes in normally and in alignment. In fact, oftentimes the process of birth itself can put the body out of alignment. And so my support for mom, first and foremost, is making sure that her body comes back to how it’s used to being without a child inside of it in alignment and with proper mobility in the joints and making sure that we have really good flow.

And not only that, of course, mom’s breastfeeding as well at this point in time. And so there are hormonal shifts that are occurring and there are also physical shifts that are occurring. So we want to support moms.

And now that they’re holding their babies and they’re breastfeeding their babies. And so we want to make sure that their spine and their arms and all those sorts of things are supported as they’re going through the postpartum phase. I also love referring moms to other specialists that I’ve worked really well with, such as yourself, to make sure that their pelvic floor gets healed up, that their abdominals come back together properly.

And I like to advise them in stretches and other places they can go to find advice in different areas. I also send them out to a perinatal hormone specialist. Brittany Fox is one of my favorite referrals around here.

And just want to be part of their village to help them support in a full recovery, whatever that looks like. A, for them, I want to support them in their goals first and foremost. And then when it comes to their infant, we actually, for any pregnant mom that comes to my office, we do a complimentary newborn check on them where we run through a series of 20 primitive reflex tests to make sure that the infant is wiring and firing neurologically fully.

We do a scan on their spine to make sure that there’s no excess inflammation anywhere. And then we’d make sure that their posture is normal and that their spine is moving normally. And that’s one of my biggest passions is checking every newborn because if we get them started out on the right footing, then it just sets a foundation for success.

It doesn’t guarantee that life’s not going to smack you. But if we can start out on the right footing and being balanced and making sure their brain and the body is connected well, that’s what I’m looking for here, as opposed to maybe the checkup you’re getting at the pediatrician office where I’m not doing blood testing and I’m not necessarily tracking their progress from a measurement standpoint, but I am tracking it more from a neurological and developmental standpoint. Awesome.

So cool. Okay. Next question is, what’s something that most people don’t know that you think that they should know? And that could be whether it’s about chiropractic, about pregnancy postpartum, any little nugget that you have that you can share with us.

I’m going to keep it really simple and just say that the power to heal is actually within side of you. And I think that’s a really empowering message that we lose sight of sometimes is that we need this and we need that and we need this and that. And most everything you need to heal from anything is actually inside of you.

And if you can just accentuate that, find the right people around you that are going to help you see that and facilitate that. In fact, that’s what flow chiropractic stands for, facilitating lifelong optimal wellness. We just really want to facilitate that power that is inside of you.

And you are way more incredible than you give yourself credit for first and foremost, and then anyone else gives you credit for it. And so I’d say that’s just one of the most important, I think, just life nuggets is just, you have incredible power within you and focus on that and the beauty that’s there and the power that that can give you in your life. Absolutely.

Couldn’t have said it better myself. We have that sign right there in the middle of each of our rooms. It says, your body’s ability to heal is far greater than anyone has permitted you to believe.

And that includes yourself, includes us as practitioners, includes anyone. So like spot on with that. Love that nugget.

Okay. Is there anything special that you want to promote to our audience here that’s watching?

Right now, I think the biggest thing that I would want to promote is be healthy. Focus on your health.

Do things that are going to promote health within you. Eat well, move regularly, find people that are supportive around you. Yeah.

Amazing. That’s it. Then my favorite question, which is the last question, is what’s the main thing that you want to be known for?

The main thing that I want to be known for is for my core values in life, which is to spread love, health, and healing to all those within my influence, starting with my family and expanding from there.

And really that’s the legacy I want to leave is that I’m a person that loves others first and foremost, and that cares about people’s health and well-being and shines and radiates that everywhere. So I think that’s a really simple thing, but that’s what I want. Amazing.

Okay. Where can we find you? Website, social media, all the things.

Yeah. So you can follow us on social media at Get Flow Cairo. And then my office is in Lehigh. This is my office.

This is where I adjust all my patients. So we got all the tables right here. We’re almost a stone’s throw away from each other in Lehigh, which is really convenient.

And yeah, our website is getflowcairo.com. And yeah, reach out if you ever need anything. I always like to personally talk to people if possible. That’s just something that again, sets us apart is I’m always happy to at least have a conversation and see if I can help you.

And if I can’t, then I’ll send you to Betty. And if I can’t, then I’ll send you somewhere else to make sure you’re taken care of. Yes.

Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Steven for hopping on today. It’s been a pleasure chatting with you again, and I look forward to seeing you soon.

Thank you, Betty. You’re amazing. And just a quick shout out to you.

I just wanted to share how incredible you are. What a great provider that you are. What a great pelvic floor health and wellness system that you’ve created.

It’s been an amazing pleasure to watch you grow and to watch you help so many people. I love hearing my patients come into my office raving about the referral I gave them to send them to you. So thank you for all that you do.

Thank you for doing a little interview with me.

Right back at you. Same here.

All the patients that we send your way and the ones you send, it’s a mutual, very mutual feeling.

We’ll see you later.