Honest Chiropractic, along with founder Dr. Makenna Conway D.C., is a breath of fresh air. Nestled in a Gretna shopping plaza, upon entering one immediately senses the shift from the bustling world outside. Here, it is calming and peaceful. A beautiful foyer and warm staff greetings invite you in. Soothing music plays as you take a moment to breath, pausing the day’s worries to make space to care for yourself.
This was always Conway’s dream: to own a company that’s a respite, a safe haven, a place to pause and reset, especially for women and children. She just didn’t know how it would manifest.
A prospective medical student planning to work in Obstetrics, Conway was preparing for her Medical College Admission Test when she ended up at Cleveland Chiropractic College’s open house.
“I didn’t originally associate chiropractic as something I could do with children,” Conway shared. “A doctor spoke who had a pediatric practice focused on women and children. I was like, ‘Wait. This! I’m in.’ I switched gears and signed up that day.”
Now a handful of years into her chiropractic practice, Conway has many families under her care and is already expanding the business, recently welcoming Dr. Piper Houlton D.C. Both chiropractors are Webster Technique Certified through the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association to better serve women with prenatal and postpartum care, as well as pediatric patients. But the similarities go deeper than just that.
“She’s wonderful!” Conway lit up, reflecting on the addition of Houlton. “We're aligned in our passions, our mission, our purpose, and why we love to do what we do. We're both mamas. And we prioritize creating an environment that's different than what else is out there. We want patients to truly feel part of ‘The Honest Chiropractic Family.’”
Conway loves the chiropractic modality for it’s emphasis on finding root causes versus putting a bandaid on symptoms through a quick diagnoses and a prescription or ten — a narrative sadly common in the mainstream medical community. She enjoys fixing problems, unraveling the riddles of a patient’s ailments, and watching lives drastically change for the better.
“I love chiropractic. I can totally nerd out on it,” Conway said with a laugh. “The body has an innate ability to heal itself but it has to have the right tools. We figure out the health roadblocks for patients and how to supplement their body so they can heal and function optimally.”
A pivotal tool used to help Conway problem solve is a thermography scan, a non-invasive procedure that captures heat variations in the body. From the scan, she determines where inflammation is, guiding her to root causes of a given dysfunction — something especially helpful with young children unable to tell parents where or how they are experiencing pain. From there, Conway adjusts a patient’s body — often tonally, a gentler alternative to the musculoskeletal adjustments most are familiar with.
“Not a lot of chiropractors practice tonal adjustments. With tonal, we’re working with and for a patient’s body versus having their body fight against it. It’s a lot more caring and nurturing, a reason I think we attract so many mothers and children,” Conway explained. “Especially when children come in, they're not popped, twisted, and cracked. It's a nervous system focused adjustment, so if a child presents in sympathetic overdrive, also known as fight or flight — the colicky babies, the constipated kids, some neurosensory or neuroatypical kids — we help them transition to a parasympathetic ‘rest and digest’ state. It often doesn’t look like I’m doing much, more of a massage, but I’m feeling to see where their nervous system is off so we can reset it.”
Conway gets emotional sharing stories of the families she’s had the honor of helping: Colicky babies who’ve never slept more than a few hours sleeping six hours through the night after a single session. Children with years of trauma from regular bedwetting or chronic constipation functioning normally after tonal adjustments.
And Conway’s expertise reaches beyond just mothers and children. She sees men too, helping entire families through pregnancy and postpartum care, breached babies, infertility, as well as typical chiropractic maintenance.
Said Conway, “No matter what you choose to do in life, you hope it makes a positive impact. Not having patients just be a number — really getting to know them and loving them — it becomes a family. You invest in them and their victories become your victories. I’m cheering them on. It’s crazy. It’s beautiful. It’s really fun.”
Not having patients just be a number... it becomes a family.
Their victories become your victories.