Spotlight Series

Guest Name: Dr. Kristina Kill

Credentials:  DC – Family First Chiropractic & Wellness Center

Dr. Kristina Kill: so I was raised medically um I and I say medically like just tra traditionally is a good way to say that with a last name Kill you automatically are like you should be a doctor and it was like yes I should and so it like I was exposed just to like traditional um life and and medicine and the SC my senior year in high school my mom was involved in a car crash she was T-boned at an intersection and I grew up in Maine so she was heading towards the coast and she called my dad and she’s like yeah I’m okay not really but I need to continue to the coast and so like that first day of school I literally get pulled out after practice and we drive down to meet my mom give her another car and have her continue on her trip with by the time she got back though she was in immense amount of pain and issues and everything else so she went to the medical doctor who got an MRI who sent her to a neurosurgeon who discovered that she had herniated a disc in her neck and she was told your only solution is a complete Fusion of your lower cervical spine and that was what she was told and so that’s what she did and so I remember her being in surgery and the recovery from surgery and that’s a surgery that was done in the late 90s and so it’s not like today where we just do the the clips and the and the metal and the screws she had a bony Fusion so a piece of her hip was utilized to literally be into place um instead of that disc so she was in a hard collar and the goal was a hard collar for six weeks she became six months and then she was a soft collar for another six months like she was one of the failures right away and what I’ve learned later on is like 50% of spinal fusions fail and they fail immediately and she was one of those and I remember with my dad asking the surgeon how soon will she feel better and this is like right after surgery and the surgeon looks at us and goes there’s no guarantees and I remember thinking even at that stage like how do you do this and so what happened was I ended up taking over my mom’s part of the family business and my dad’s like it was a small family like um it’s an oil company which is so not anywhere here like they delivered Home Oil and so I ran my mom’s part of the family business I was in in a senior year I was applying to schools I applied to BYU and it’s a it’s a very prestigious school I got in on early acceptance and at the same time I’m like Mom is not better and I’m in Maine which is like liberal College State and I was like I’ll just stay in Maine and I’ll go to school here and my parents are very stubborn New England and they’re like no you will not put your life on hold you go to school we’ll figure mom out so I go to school and a brand new chiropractor opened his practice in our hometown and she went and saw him and she just her health continued to diminish she had then been diagnosed with hypalgia chronic fatigue like she really wasn’t doing well and the cir Rider sat down with her and I and I share all this because of what he said he’s a brand new gr and I think it’s really important because sometimes like we’re afraid of like that new beginning and sometimes it’s just when you’re like most like I don’t know and his answer was your spine has been surgically altered it will never be the same but I believe your health can be better than it is today and he put her on an intensive schedule of care to really allow her body to get to the best function it could have and it changed my mom’s life and I remember coming home at Christmas time and my mom’s eyes were brighter and that’s what we get to see as providers is like that light that shines but I was stubborn I was like cool I’m still going to be a medical doctor and I’ll like chiropractors but I don’t want to be a chiropractor because I want to be a real doctor and so it took a couple more years of me looking at medical schools and then osteopathic schools and really starting to say what do I really want I actually went to the chiropr school simply as a favor to my mom I did not think I was ever going to be a chiropractor because I had this bias against them so when people say I don’t get it I go ah neither did I like I so I’m so okay with that because I get this and so here’s what happened is I went to the school total favored to my mom thought I was wasting my time and I’m in on the tour I’m in the microbiology room where you grow the Petrie dishes and it was like a 2×4 of inspiration that hit me in the back of my head that I was supposed to be a chiropractor and there’s moments in our lives that like you just know and that was one of those defining moments of my life that it chose me and the statement I like I say and I still say all these years later is I want to be a real doctor real doctors help people heal real doctors see people Express life in the biggest way I love being a chiropractor and I love the fact that I went through this journey and I was a little stubborn to get into this journey because I think I can explain it differently and better and understand and I think it’s also why I bring a little bit more of a balanced approach sometimes to chiropratic where sometimes it’s like oh it’s Voodoo and like Voodoo it seems like which it’s not but it’s really freaking cool and yet we can bring it this mindset of how can your body heal and it’s a Birthright of your body to heal without interference how can I help that and I love absolutely love that that is what started me on my path

Dr. Betty DeLass: amazing amazing story I love I love things like that it’s always fun to like hear that like genesis of everything okay next question what do you feel like makes you and your practice different

Dr. Kristina Kill: so I I again that’s another like I love it and so I’m celebrating sping 20 years over 20 years in practice now and so I got married right before I started chiropractice school and so I knew I was going to be starting a family so I immediately was in the mode of family mode which is pregnancy and kiddos and back then um it was not cool to see pregnancy and kids like chiropractors are extremely medical and Rehab based and that’s really what was known in the profession and so I did a ton of training um before I even left chiropractic school I had a fellowship in Pediatrics and pregnancy and so I came to Utah and I was told by every chiropractor I talked to that there was no way I’d be successful seeing just kids in pregnancy I know I know it’s birth capital of the world like seriously I know mindboggling to me I’m like wow I know and so and it’s and it’s also mindboggling because there’s just such a need for it and so luckily I didn’t listen to them and I open my practice specialized in pregnancy and birth from the very beginning and what happened and this is like the thing I love is that there’s doulas and midwives that found me that said I’ve been looking for someone like you for 20 years and it’s like oh that’s cute and the answer is no no no that’s how desperate the need was and just someone wasn’t willing to come and be like and here it is and I shouldn’t say just like I Christine Phillips was already here like she was Blazing a trail and just we they didn’t know about her so it’s like it’s getting that word out and getting around but there were so few of us and so few females like I could count females in the state on one hand when I open my practice and so I got to be known immed immediately like I pigeon hold in a beautiful way pregnancy and kids because they desperately needed the care and what I’ve done is I’ve had my own evolution in my practice to say you know what I love pregnancy and kids and I was going through it and as my kids got older I actually see all the need of older kids and what was going on and then as I got older I saw the need that like I need more love and care as a mom and a postpartum mom and now as a middle-age mom but I acknowledged um about 10 years ago we weren’t seeing the dads and the dads were deciding based on financials and schedules not based on need of what their kids and their wife should be doing instead of getting it and the joke is the men are like the last to come in and they’re going to wait until they have a health trauma themselves or a health condition but what I did is I consciously changed everything in our practice to Family Wellness care and when we did that we got dads and partners to come in from the very beginning and they come in and they’re like this is amazing this is the best thing ever like I this is best decision we’ve ever made but the reason I say this is this is like the beautiful thing that I love when I sit down with a mom and I explain what’s going on with her health and you see this all the time they’re thinking in their head when you say give especially when you give a schedule because you and I totally agree on schedules that are restorative and function I don’t want you just to feel better yes I want you to feel better desperately I want you to feel better but I want you to function better I want you to heal I want you to express life and that’s going to take more work but that’s like the golden ticket but when a husband or a partner could hear that and be there the wife is thinking and I’m just doing traditional gender roles just to help make this like what I saw at the beginning the wife is going inward going can we afford this am I worth this and nine times out of 10 I would watch the husband like do this baby we’ve got this you are a priority you need to take care of yourself and don’t you worry and it just it was this most beautiful thing that I’ve seen time and time again that as wives and as moms we just kind of take on this role and we put ourselves last and when you give yourself that space to be a little vulnerable and to have that support you watch your partner just rise up and go baby like you are the most important thing which means we are going to prioritize you because you always were a priority and it just I watch families grow closer together I’ve watched um families heal through some major issues when one person’s unhealthy the whole family’s impacted and as one person heals the whole family heals and then what happens is the whole family starts care because not because they have have issues but because they want to be their best health and express their best health in life possible and that’s really really what I do is Family Wellness care we do corrective care to get you there yes but then we celebrate long-term life and health where you’re coming in to keep yourself at your very best

Dr. Betty DeLass: amazing amazing okay um who would you say is an ideal fit for your practice

Dr. Kristina Kill: so you can see like it’s changed and I I think that’s what’s really cool is like our ideal fit is really um I always say it’s a reflection of where we are um right now I love like where I am like this stage of of mamood where we have our kids our kids are a little older and then we kind of look around and I did the same thing with you Betty it’s like I’m happy to say this like I have love my investment in and time with you is I looked back and it’s was like hold on this postpartum body still isn’t where it should be and I’m not okay with that and I have the ability to think and breathe because I’m not such in survival mode anymore and I have the ability and time and investment to really dive in and that’s really who’s become like some of my favorites because I can just hold and love and I have like 15 personalities because then I get these new moms or these pregnant moms that just need to be loved and then these babies that truly are disconnected and it’s like this is AA a trauma thing and not it’s not the best word this is just it’s a space that needs to be held these babies are coming coming into the world already in nervous system disregulation and their pediatricians are telling them they’ll outgrow it and they answer is no they’ll grow into their new thing they’ll grow into their next thing and so we’re standing here going no nervous system is everything brain controlling the body is everything and if it’s disregulated from the beginning nothing replaces the fully functional nervous system so when we get these babies it’s like I’ve literally had moms and dads that will hand me a they don’t know who I am they’ve been referred into me I come into the room I introduce myself and they hand the baby to me like talk about this just trust that’s already there because some of them it’s the last thing and these babies have been sent home with failure to thrive or been sent home and the medical community’s done this and go well we don’t know how long they’re going to survive and then they find someone like me who specializes in these really tough cases like I’m known for tough cases and they hand these babies or these kids off to me and pretty much it’s like whatever we got to do and I’m like we’re going to do a lot like we’re going to do a lot because a lot needs to be done in a very succinct way and a scheduled way in a very beautiful like not more two but more four and then Miracles just like you when you see it you just can’t like deny what we get to be part of and it’s just I love it all I love it all because I see Life expressed that’s my ideal client is someone who wants to express life

Dr. Betty DeLass: love it love it okay what does the process look like to work with you guys

Dr. Kristina Kill: so we um we’re value heavy um and so when I say that is the phone call in you’re going to know a lot from the very like don’t do the phone call for two minutes like my team’s going to tell you what’s to expect as you go through and we do like a three visit procedure to get started because I’m a huge believer in knowing what’s going on um before we do anything and having complete confidence in what we’re going to do and a complete agreement of how we’re going to proceed and so the phone call is going to prep you for the visits but the first visit is a consultation we’re going to sit down we’re going to dive deep into your health long term what’s been going on for a really long period how it’s affected your life what really is happening within your nervous system and how your nervous system is the master Command Center of your body so we’re going to ask a million questions we’re going to do a complete um in-depth exam I have so many people that sit down with that exam and go I’ve never had such a thorough exam including all the neurologists I’ve seen included all the Specialists I go because we look for function and if you can pass that exam that tells you that your nervous system is functioning at an appropriate level and what’s shocking and you know this buy is like that exam is not a difficult exam but 90% people fail that exam and that’s why they’re not healing that’s why they’re not able to function like they should so that’s going to be our first goal is to get to you to to pass that exam um but we do a really in-depth exam we do neurological scans we do x-rays when appropriate we do additional brain scans as appropriate and then we sit back down at a different date and we put all this together and we really help people understand how your health is led to where you are now it’s not an event that just happened yesterday so it took time it took patterning good patterns and bad patterns or or comp I always like to say compensation patterns our nervous system is meant to adapt but when it can’t adapt it’s going to break down and compensate and thank you it kept us alive it did exactly what it needed to but we need to now change that compensation pattern to now health and function pattern and that takes time and repetition and so we’re going to say yeah you love it’s like we’re so you and I are so I love it I love working with you because it’s just it’s really one of understanding it takes the like we know everything takes time and yet we all want this but we forget that this isn’t long term and this isn’t sustainable and I want sustainable health and I’ll even hit it like some people say it’s like well I have to go to chiropractor it’s like I got to go like forever and my answer is no you can choose to come forever if you want to like that’s I see people who have come to me for years I’m not going to make anyone come to my practice and I don’t have some Voodoo sense that the adjustment is going to go away in two weeks either but it is going to take a schedule to reach train those patterns and to retrain the brain and how it’s been firing to function well firing to survive and now we’re going to help remove that interference so that now it can fire to thrive and that does take time and repetition and love and support and a space of healing that your body knows it’s safe to heal so we sit down and we go over all that and all your options and then it’s one of saying you let us know because I am not one that play like any of the sales pitch games that can happen and that people are afraid of it’s like no here it is here’s what’s going on here’s what it’s going to cost here’s what it’s going to take how do you want to proceed because I’m a huge believer and it’s got to be your choice and what you want to do and it’s really important to let you make the choice of your health choosing in to take care of yourself is a huge Choice choosing to not take care of your health is also a huge choice and I don’t want to take that away from people and I really want to empower people in what they’re doing in their lives and where it can fit in or the time or to prep some people say I can’t do it right now what can I do in the meantime there’s ways like there’s always conversations around that

Dr. Betty DeLass: yeah love that okay next question is um what does recovery look like in the sense from like pregnancy to postpartum in your and even for baby from being born like what is that recovery process look like or what’s your ethos around that

Dr. Kristina Kill: so I love seeing women during their pregnancy like it’s really one that we find that women under regular Chiropractic Care have faster easier labors and birth they recover easier they recover faster what we do postpartum stages that we have these moms that have already been under care we have them come in once a week um and we do that for the first couple months after they have their baby and so many moms are coming in going I think I’m just sore from birth and um and I’m like yeah you probably are and let’s get you adjusted and then as soon as they get adjusted like like seriously this is like 90% gone I’m like yeah cuz your body just needed the extra love and support and then what we’re able to do is help to see them through the biggest thing I’ll say is that we can take on and really support is that it helps them heal faster it helps their body connect it also gives them a space in place that really allows for these postpartum times that can get really hard to potentially show up we know that as you get adjusted nervous system is going to regulate which means hormones going to regulate better your tissue is going to heal we’re not going to go to scar tissue like we’re going to be able to go to organized tissue that heals like it should but I’m going to go back to the hormones for a second because I think part of it is we have these huge waves of hormones and we’re kind of like well it’s just what it is but what if it doesn’t have to be huge waves what if your body’s actually trying to find itself and it’s struggling in that finding and then it can lead to postpartum depression and it can lead to other postpartum issues that can get even more serious than just depression which is already a very serious condition I actually love the fact that we’re one of the only providers that people are seeing on a weekly or every other week basis because then we can sit down and we can gauge and we can give resources and we can give support and we can give love or we can just say okay we’re at crisis and we’re going to call in some crisis lines and we’re going to get some help like I really I I own that space because it’s really one that I’m like that’s my responsibility when I have the opportunity to take care of Mom’s postpartum I better pay attention to that then for baby there is no doubt that the babies that are born under chiropractic care which means mom was receiving care those are healthier babies like it’s just like it’s tried and true it’s crazy the difference these babies often need like a tuneup and we’re checking them once a week as well because we kind of see things will show up in those first eight weeks if there’s issues um or there was a tough birth didn’t quite go the way that we were planning and we can do some more repair work their schedule may be more involved but they seem to clear through even like if they’re under care those babies clear fast like their nervous system is already regulated because their nervous system follows the pattern of Mom’s nervous system so if Mom was regulated in pregnancy then baby knows a regulated nervous system the flip side is we often have these babies that are coming in they’re the first patient into our practice which means no one’s had Chiropractic Care baby’s been born highly disregulated can’t eat can’t sleep can’t poop we’re talking about colic we’re talking about reflex we’re talking about they can’t nurse on both sides like major things that can be failure to thrive is a major issue um and they need a lot of care and it’s one that I make no apologies for it I have some parents that go well they’re two weeks old I go and they were growing for 10 months and they were growing in a state of disregulation for 10 months and that doesn’t mean you did anything wrong it just means that we got to own the fact but that’s the environment that they were being born and created and patterned in and now we’re actually helping their nervous system learn normal see what it looks like feels like and that keeps that makes us keep a close eye on these babies but they Thrive and I keep a close eye on babies because I want them to thrive as quickly as possible so that they can return to a state or come to a state for the first time ever in their lives where they can eat they can sleep they can digest they can poop they can do these normal life survival things so now they can grow now they can Thrive now they can connect now we can have relationships of bonding that all of that was robbed when baby stuck in survival

Dr. Betty DeLass: right right beautiful okay next question um what is something that most people don’t know that you think that they should know about anything

Dr. Kristina Kill: oh I love that I think most people discount Chiropractic because they we’ve and and I’m going to own it chiropractors has P pigeon hold themselves into back pain neck pain and we go but we’re so much more and I go then let’s explain so much more but there is a bias there’s a medical bias um there’s a joke with pts that we all hate each other I’m like actually I get along extremely well I got asked the the other day of like what’s your what’s your stance on chiropractors and PC I’m like how do you not know this I love them and so I think it’s just one that there’s no if we go through the history there was an active campaign against chiropractors in the 50s and in the 60s and there was a lawsuit that was started in the 70s we won the laws suit because we were being targeted by the AMA it was ugly it was um disinformation they really wanted to shut us down that’s how they shut down natural pass it’s how they shut down herbalist it’s how they shut down acupunctur it’s like they did their job well and it really has been the detriment of our health and as chiropractors we luckily fought back and so now I say within the profession what am I like what is unique I help people with say is give it a chance but know that there’s differences I’m very brain-based I’m very nervous system focused I’m corrective care in what I do and how I look at the body the body can heal can repair as long as there’s no interference and if you want your kid or yourself and you’re pregnant or in this family mode you better see someone who specializes in it that we’re not all the same and it’s a different training that we take I now travel the world to teach this because it’s not taught in school so you get basic OBGYN in school that’s it and so it’s not the same and to go and see a chiropractor who sees a lot of adults and assume that they are going to be able to take care of your kid could actually create a situation that you are not going to be very happy with and So my answer is the all the doctors I know there’s tons of them now in Utah and I love this and I help us get it together on a regular basis is what we do because I love to support the profession none of us take insurance and so a lot of people are just like because we’re outside that model of back neck pain and we’re into life modeling so it’s like a lot of people are like but and I’m like no no no invest in health and invest in what’s best for you and your family but you need to see someone who regularly sees kids knows kids loves kids and knows pregnancy has the right equipment for pregnancy is not going to lay you on your side and do a side posture adjustment when you’re pregnant like it drives me a little bad and nuts and they’re not going to take your baby and treat your baby and adjust them like they would an adult way different you guys way when I’m adjusting a baby the pressure is like pushing on your eyeball it’s soft it’s gentle it’s profound it’s specific it’s done incredibly well and it’s lifechanging and so you have to invest in the right people find the specialist because it is the game changer

Dr. Betty DeLass: yeah awesome awesome okay is there anything special you want to promote that you have going on or anything like that

Dr. Kristina Kill: no this is what we do and I love and I honestly will say like over 20 years in practice I have really just stayed really clean to my purpose and intent and it reminds me on a regular basis why I do what I do and I don’t play the game if I really try to be good at not being distracted because I know that the need is great in our communities and by serving families we see Miracles and we witness miracles on a regular basis and so I stay there because it keeps me grounded it keeps me excited and it’s one that it really impacts generations and that’s huge

Dr. Betty DeLass: love okay the last question my favorite question what do you want to be known for

Dr. Kristina Kill: I’m a huge Legacy person um my dad passed away very unexpectedly um 10 years ago and his funeral was like outpouring of Love um people coming from all over and sharing major stories of my dad just like showing up on the side of the road and just being this amazing amazing man and I learned so much from him I want to leave this profession better than I found it I want Chiropractic to be better because of me and that’s why I give back to this profession so much for sure but I want my community to be better because of me I don’t want to sacrifice me I’m learning that like I’m really learning that um that I don’t have to sacrifice me to to do this um I think that’s something that we all get to learn as business owners and and especially moms but I love this this feeds my soul and so what I want to be known for is the fact that we’re like I left an impact um I left a ripple effect and it’s a ripple effect that I don’t know how far it goes but I’m okay casting that stone in a beautiful way to say you know what let’s just start the process and and I’ve been through some big things in my life and I’m a huge Optimist and I grab life in a big way and to me this is the best thing that I get to come back and go hey like what a great way to live life is live it big and large and really connected

Dr. Betty DeLass: amazing amazing well um where can we find you website social media all the things like that

Dr. Kristina Kill: love it okay so the name is Family First Chiropractic and Wellness Center we are technically in Holladay we’re just barely past Murray don’t let that scare people we’re just off 215 you guys like super easy to now get to us um so the website’s Utah family Utah family chiro.com um social media how you I didn’t even think of those so I want say it’s family. first. chiro for Instagram sounds about right Facebook no one follows I use Facebook to get to Instagram um like everyone does it’s really one that do a good Google search but you got to hit that and wellness center CU family first chiropractic isn’t just us anymore which is our Family Chiropractic is another one great man great doctor but Family First Chiropractic I’ve had that for a good long time and I it’s not just me so I you saw my name change I will say that Stitcher is like what I’ve been known for and I appreciate that journey and I’ve reclaimed my maiden name so it’s Kill and then I have two other doctors that work in my practice Dr. Lawrence Hauptly Dr. Alyssa Rimkus they’ve been with me for like seven and eight years now it’s just like it’s really one that we are here to give back in huge ways so find us and see how it fits I have people that will fly in and spend a couple weeks with us and then we find someone for them down the road especially parents like as postpartum stage you’re being taken care of they’ll come in and see us and we’re like nope we want you to find the best providers you can and I know the providers in the state extremely well and so if you go oh who’s good in my area call us we will happily tell you who we recommend we know we’re not the best fit for everyone because of time um distance whatever it could be but I really believe that finding the right fit in your providers is huge and it’s important and I’ve been seeing patients for over 20 years now it’s like they choose to come in year after year because of the relationship we’ve built and that’s really like that is so cool and it’s an opportunity that people have to really choose how does this fit into a healthy lifestyle

Dr. Betty DeLass: yeah amazing well thank you so much Dr. Kristina for coming on the spotlight series it was a pleasure chatting with you again and we’ll see you soon

Dr. Kristina Kill: thank you so much