Understanding Activator Method

A Gentle Approach to Chiropractic Care: The Activator Method

If the idea of getting adjusted makes you tense, you’re not alone. Many people picture loud cracking and twisting when they think of a chiropractic adjustment.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

One of the primary techniques Dr. Zoey Landau uses is the Activator Method, an instrument-assisted approach that allows us to adjust specific joints without the twisting commonly associated with traditional chiropractic care.

Dr. Zoey Landau is a certified Activator Methods practitioner and excited to bring this modality to the Redding Chriropractic.

What Is the Activator?

The Activator is a small handheld instrument that delivers a quick, controlled impulse to a specific joint.

Because the instrument moves much faster than the body has time to react, there is often less opportunity for the surrounding muscles to tense or brace against the adjustment. This allows us to work with the body rather than against it.

What Does It Feel Like?

For most patients, the biggest surprise is how subtle it feels.

You’ll typically feel a quick, light tap at the area being adjusted. There is no large twisting motion, and you may not hear any popping or cracking at all.

For patients who have avoided chiropractic because they’re nervous about being adjusted, this can make a significant difference in how comfortable they feel on the table.

Who Is It For?

The Activator Method can be used with many different patients, but it can be especially useful for people who are new to chiropractic, prefer a gentler approach, are particularly sore or sensitive, or simply don’t like traditional manual adjustments.

It can also be adapted for children, older adults, and other patients for whom we may want greater control over the amount of force used.

Gentle doesn’t mean weak. The goal of an adjustment isn’t to use as much force as possible. It’s to use the right amount of force, in the right place, at the right time.

Why We Use It

The Activator gives Dr. Zoey another way to address joints that aren’t moving as they should while keeping the adjustment comfortable and controlled. It also allows us to be highly specific rather than moving a larger region of the body to reach one particular joint.

A Different Kind of Chiropractic Experience

There’s more than one way to adjust!

If you’ve been hesitant to try chiropractic care because you don’t want to be twisted or “cracked,” or you’ve had an experience in the past that didn’t feel right, the Activator Method offers another option.