Focus still on family

Chiropractors John Funnell (left) and wife Margi (right) used to treat Nicola Phillips (centre) when she was a child. Nicola has now joined Funnell Family Chiropractic as a chiropractor. 27 Janua

It's all about family at Funnell Family Chiropractic, according to owners John and Margi, and they have walls of baby photos to prove it.

"There's roughly 24 people that came through the practice as kids that have gone on to study through the New Zealand College of Chiropractic up in Auckland.

"We keep in contact with them too. When they're in town, they'll come and get adjusted. And we email them and go to seminars with them.

"Once a year there's a big seminar in Auckland and we pay for the students to come along with us as a team from our practice. We all hang out together and have fun together.
"Now some of them have gone off to practice all around the world. And they're all really good chiropractors too," John says.

Nicola Phillips is a "wall baby," coming through the service as a child. But unlike the others, Nicola chose to come back to Rotorua and join the team at Funnell Family Chiropractic.

"Both Nicola and her sister were both child patients from when they were really little, and they've both been through chiropractic school. Three generations of the family have been through here as patients, and Nicola has ended up working here with us for the last three years. It's pretty cool," he says.

Margi says Nicola's family are still patients at the practice and drive from Tirau and Putaruru to get aligned regularly.

"Melanie Archibald, who also works here, her family used to come in as well. So we really are family."

John says his decision to study chiropractic was almost fate.
A near fatal rugby injury at the age of 22 meant he had to give up his law degree.

"I had a really bad rugby accident in the last year of law school, and I ended up in a spinal ward in hospital for five or six months. There was a chiropractor that helped me a lot, and he suggested becoming a chiropractor, so I went to America and became a chiropractor," he said.

John came back to Rotorua and started Funnell Family Chiropractic in 1987, with just one patient on his books.

"I started from scratch. My first patient was the lady who had sold me the building that I was living and working out of," he says.

"But we love being chiropractors. It's fun. People often think it's a bit weird, but I never think, 'oh no I have to come to work'. We just had a lovely long weekend in the sun, and I was still quite happy to get up this morning and head into work. I love it. That's saying something after 28 years."

Margi came into the practice in 1995 and the couple have been practicing together for the last 20 years, with more than 19,000 patients on their books.

"We checked the stats, and we see between 500 and 600 new baby patients a year, and there's about 1500 babies born in Rotorua every year, so we are seeing about a third of all the newborns in Rotorua. I think it's vital to get their spines checked," says Margi.

"And I think chiropractic is a really good profession for women, especially with families, because it's so flexible. I had nine years at home with my children, but I still worked. I didn't take on new patients, I just saw my regular patients, but I was still able to keep my hand in without having to sacrifice that time with our kids."

John says they hope to continue seeing generations of families, and adding their pictures to their walls.

"We have become part of peoples lives. If you look at the baby photos on the wall, plenty of them now bring their kids in. Chiropractic has just been part of their lifestyle, and their family. That's what this practice is all about," he says.