The method · Grand Rapids, MI
The Gonstead System is a complete method of chiropractic exam and adjusting, developed by chiropractor Dr. Clarence Gonstead in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, over five decades of practice. The idea behind it is simple: examine before you adjust, and never guess. Only a few chiropractors in the Grand Rapids area practice it. Dr. Connor Knapp, D.C. has attended 17 Gonstead seminars, is an active member of the Gonstead Clinical Studies Society, and built Knapp Family Chiropractic on it.
Book my first visitMost trouble in a spine hides at one or two segments while everything around them compensates. A full-spine film shows the whole structure at once: alignment, disc spacing, posture under real gravity. It is the map the rest of the exam is checked against, and it is why a Gonstead adjustment is aimed rather than guessed.
A dual-probe instrument is drawn down the spine reading heat, because inflammation runs warm. It does not care how anyone feels that day and it cannot be imagined into a finding. When the instrument flags the same segment the X-ray questioned, the exam is closing in.
Careful hands over each segment, feeling for swelling, tenderness, and changes in the tissue. Slow, specific, and done every visit, because a spine is not the same two weeks running.
Each joint is moved through its range to feel which segments glide and which are stuck. Two segments can look identical on film and behave completely differently under motion. This is where the direction of the adjustment comes from.
How you stand, walk, sit, and carry yourself, read against everything above. The trained eye cross-checks every other finding, every single visit.
Any one finding can mislead. A sore spot is not always the problem spot, and the segment that hurts is often the one compensating for the one that failed. When the X-ray, the instrument, both palpation exams, and the visual read all point at the same segment, that is the one that gets adjusted, in the exact direction it needs. Nothing else gets touched.
That is the difference: a more specific adjustment, not a stronger one. For many patients who tried chiropractic before, it is the part that was missing.
Book my first visitThis page describes a method of chiropractic analysis and care. It is general information, not medical advice, and results vary from person to person. Dr. Connor Knapp, D.C. refers patients for medical evaluation when examination findings call for it.