September News - Oaktree is 10!!! And check out our Spine Makeover Contest Results :)

Subject: September News - Oaktree is 10!!! And check out our Spine Makeover Contest Results :)

Oaktree has been open for 10 years! It is hard to believe how time has flown.

A little history….we first moved into 231 Lisgar St. downtown one week after I was due for my firstborn. I was already 2 weeks overdue, and was hoping to already have had this baby by the time we moved in! Well, that wasn’t the plan. We had a chance to move in, get settled, get our work computers and software….and then, one week later, our first son arrived. Since then it’s been a whirlwind for sure. Martin started seeing acupuncture patients within 2 weeks of our move, we had constant construction going on - the early patients never knew where they were getting acupuncture. 2.5 months later, we opened the chiropractic portion, hired a receptionist and off we were!

Our clinic was also our home for 8 years. Oaktree grew so fast we quickly outgrew our original space. We had to have acupuncture patients come upstairs into part of our home to accommodate (we built a wall to separate but I still had to sneak out of the shower sometimes and hope no one was coming out!). Then when our second was born, we had the basement dug out (by hand) to accommodate acupuncture growth again!

Eventually we ran out of space for chiropractic too and our family had to move out. 2 of my children were born in the house and it was so perfect to work downstairs and still be able to see them at lunch and tuck them into their nap. It was also so great to sneak downstairs to mark xrays at night once they were asleep. We were extremely blessed to have this clinic and home. Thankfully we still get to work in the same location, even though our family has moved out!

4 years ago Martin had a vision to expand. We wanted to share what we knew and help more people in our community. We couldn’t physically do that ourselves so we opened Oaktree Orleans with Dr. Katrina! Then downtown outgrew me again and Dr. Vanessa joined us. The vision continued into a west-end clinic in Stittsville with Dr. Marie-Pier. We thankfully have also found wonderful acupuncturists to join our teams at each location. Look out for clinic #4 soon :)

Now enough about us, Oaktree is really all about all of you! The incredible amount of people we have met and helped over the years is astounding. There is so much need for healing in our community and we have been so happy to help bring you all to better health. You heal us in many ways too. Healing is a two way street and we are blessed that you trust us and bring us into your confidence - we are all better for it.

Finally, we could do nothing without the support of our team. We’ve also had support help at home and from our families. There’s no way we could've done this alone.

We absolutely love what we do, we love you and are so happy we get to do life with you. Here’s to 10+ more years!

p.s. Later this month we’ll celebrate in the clinic with our annual anniversary quizzer. We have 10 gift cards to give away :) The actual winner gets a prize, but we have 9 more for a draw just for participating! It’s always great fun :)

Welcome Veronique!

Oaktree's New Orleans Acupuncturist

Veronique is passionate about helping others feel their best selves. She wants to work with her patients, looking at the big picture to create a well rounded plan. She has a special interest in the mind and body connection, as well as the effects of proper nutrition and gut health, and having a balanced lifestyle.

“Achieving full homeostasis is unlikely, but I would like to treat patients before help is “needed”, and get them as close to it as possible. Chinese medicine is preventative, so even those who think they feel fine could benefit from a seasonal treatment. “

Summer 2021 Colouring Contest

Congratulations to our colouring contest winners! Each of our winners will receive a $25 Chapters gift card and all runners up can collect their colouring pages and a special treat from reception at their respective clinics.

Thanks to all of our amazing Oaktree kids for participating, until next summer!

Apple Spice Muffins

Recipe

Peach & Mint Caprese Salad

Recipe

Congratulations to our Spine makeover winner Luc! He has been receiving corrective chiropractic care for over 6 months at the clinic and has had amazing results!

Luc was excited to win as his wife and child have been patients for years with great results. As a bus driver, he had been suffering with mid back and shoulder pain for years and unsure how to correct it. He now reports no pain and better function overall!

At Oaktree we focus not only on helping improve function and reduce pain, but actually getting to the source of why the pain is there. Take a look at Luc’s pre and post X-rays and you’ll see he’s really improving!

Routine & the End of Summer

-Dr. Marie-Pier, Stittsville chiropractor

The summer is coming to a close, a new school year starting, and time to create some new habits and routines. Most people tend to thrive on routine, and I know I am definitely one of them. I love plans and when things derail, it can be overwhelming. But with that comes the opportunity for growth. Life can never be perfectly planned out, things happen, and not letting yourself get caught up with those moments is an important skill to develop (if it doesn’t come naturally to you).

Personal growth is something I have been striving for this summer, and it was quite difficult. I am very goal oriented, so something like personal growth can be very difficult to quantify, therefore making it a more difficult goal to set, let alone achieve.

I’ve started doing a few things to help me on my journey to that growth. One of them is to start working out consistently. Now that doesn’t mean I workout every day; it means that on specific days/times of the week, I go to the gym - even when I’m having a bad or off day. To help me stay on track, I joined a small gym that offers classes. That community support and the individualized attention from the coaches keeps me accountable. They continuously push me to go out of my comfort zone and try heavier weights or more complex movement patterns.

Another thing I’ve started is just going for a walk. I try to do this every day - whether it’s hot or cold, rain or shine. Since moving and working on building the new Stittsville clinic, going for a walk is something I had stopped doing. And it took a pretty big toll on my mental health. So now I make sure to go for a walk - even if it’s just quickly around the block - to make sure I get outside, get moving, and enjoy some fresh air.

Something I very recently did is create a schedule for myself. On that schedule I have written when I’m doing what. I have my gym times, my weekly adjustment and acupuncture, grocery shopping, social media content creation, other marketing things, walks, work, meetings, cleaning, etc. I also built in ‘flex’ times to allow me to catch up on things, for when other things come up, or to simply allow me time to relax. This schedule gives me the peace of mind to know that I won’t forget to do anything, but also the freedom of knowing it’s not set in stone and things can be moved around.

Lastly, I want to also note the importance of self-love. Being goal-oriented can be crushing when you’re not meeting those goals. So it’s important to remember that it’s okay if you’re not where you thought you would be. What matters is what you do when you’re not feeling great, or when you’re not where you want to be. Do you dwell on that fact? Or do you push forward and give yourself a new timeline, a new goal?

No goal is too big, no dream is too unrealistic. You have to know exactly what you want, and come up with a game plan of how you’re going to get there. In the words of country singer Gabby Barrett, “there’s footprints on the moon”.

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Subject: September News - Oaktree is 10!!! And check out our Spine Makeover Contest Results :)