Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Visits for Care
The standard visit length is 20 minutes. This includes visits for DNFT chiropractic care, Neurological Integration System (NIS), Neuro-Emotional Technique (NET), and Nutrition Response Testing (NRT). Depending on your needs, we may extend or shorten the visit length on a prorated basis. Most often this is to do a double-length visit. In some cases, we may find that it is suitable for you to do 10 min visits for NET.
Cold laser therapy sessions are typically 5 minutes per location, with 1-3 locations covered.
Evaluations
Initial consultations and exams are typically 30-60 mins, and depending upon the complexity of your condition, and re-evals are usually 15 mins. The Report of Findings is 5-15 mins, depending upon how many questions you have.
In order to make payment as simple as possible, we accept cash, check, credit cards and electronic payments. Payment is due at the time of visit. If you wish to seek reimbursement from your insurance, a superbill with diagnostic and billing codes will be provided for you to submit yourself. Dr. Marla Lerner-Powers is not in network with any insurance, and is a nonparticipating provider with Medicare.
Exams and D.N.F.T.® Chiropractic adjustments have the highest likelihood of reimbursement, while NET is usually not covered, because it does not fit into traditional billing code descriptions. Dr. Lerner-Powers suggests using Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), because of the freedom of health care spending that they allow.
We have a 24-hour cancellation policy, and missed appointments and late cancellations (within 24 hrs of your appointment) are charged in full.
That depends upon your condition, and your goals. In initial and re-evaluation exams, we gather information about your goals and needs. Dr. Marla Lerner-Powers uses this information to develop your custom NeuroBlossom™ Care Program.
That depends on your condition.
An example of a peak performance schedule is a visit for NIS/NET weekly or biweekly.
Depending on your needs, it may be appropriate to do a series of 3-4 laser sessions per week for 2 or more weeks to achieve rapid results.
If you are visiting from out of town, you may choose to do an extended morning and afternoon session for one or more days. This allows you to take advantage of the unique opportunity to benefit from NeuroBlossom methods, and also increases the likelihood of experiencing fatigue, as your body relaxes into parasympathetic (“rest and digest”) mode and directs energy to repair processes.
That depends upon your condition, your lifestyle, and your health goals.
Many patients choose to do maintenance at a frequency of 4 visits per year. This means having a seasonal tune-up.
Depending upon state of health and lifestyle, others prefer to do maintenance at more frequent intervals. Life stress, change, and physical demands such as from sports or certain professions increase the need for care to maintain optimal health and function.
That depends on what you mean by “functional neurology.” Neurological Integration System (NIS) and other NeuroBlossom™ methods are as functional as neurology gets. There are many approaches to functional neurology in the descriptive sense of the term.
Often when people are talking about “Functional Neurology,” they are referring to a specific chiropractic technique. Dr. Marla Lerner-Powers takes different approaches, because of the powerful and rapid results achieved through NeuroBlossom methods, and she prefers approaches that do not call for the “cracking and popping” chiropractic styles. Even if you currently see or have previously been to a chiropractor who refers to his or her work as functional neurology, you will likely find additional benefits from NeuroBlossom methods.
If you prefer traditional, “cracking and popping,” chiropractic adjustments, and you still want the benefit of NeuroBlossom methods, we can design a multi-practitioner care plan for you in which you will see another chiropractor for traditional chiropractic adjustments, while filling in the gaps of your needs with NeuroBlossom methods. Dr. Marla Lerner-Powers finds that NIS in particular helps increase the holding power of chiropractic adjustments, potentiating their effects.
No. Directional Non-Force Technique® Chiropractic is a specific technique requiring rigorous training and annual seminars. Referral list status verifies that a doctor has maintained a high level of technique competence as demonstrated by annual hands-on workshopping in D.N.F.T.® Seminars, and passing a written exam biannually.
Chiropractors who practice other methods than DNFT Chiropractic may state that they practice “non-force technique” in order to reassure patients that they can perform gentle chiropractic. The techniques that they use are usually entirely different. Chiropractors who have made the effort to learn D.N.F.T.® Chiropractic are distinguishable by their use of the trademarked name.
DNFT Chiropractic takes a lot of work to learn, and historically there have been fewer readily available learning resources for DNFT Chiropractic than for other techniques. For example, when Dr. Marla Lerner-Powers began chiropractic school, only one or two faculty members knew what DNFT Chiropractic was, and there were no DNFT Chiropractic resources in the college library.
To remedy this, while at LCCW, Dr. Marla Lerner-Powers co-founded and led the D.N.F.T.® Chiropractic technique club, creating a space for chiropractic students to learn about and gain skills practicing gentle, specific chiropractic. As D.N.F.T.® Club President and Student Representative, she spearheaded the student-led effort to establish a DNFT Chiropractic elective, successfully petitioning for DNFT Chiropractic to be taught in a chiropractic college for the first time in its 100 year history. Dr. Marla Lerner-Powers also coordinated DNFT Chiropractic speaker events, and library acquisitions. She encourages the use of gentle and specific chiropractic approaches based on testing the nervous system, and continues to support chiropractic students through technique demos. Dr. Marla Lerner-Powers looks forward to welcoming a steady stream of new D.N.F.T.® doctors into the D.N.F.T.® doctor network.
Neurological Integration System (NIS) works by re-establishing disrupted neurologic signaling through rapid neuroplasticity of your brain. Breaking this explanation down:
- We discover neurologic signal faults affecting your health
- Your brain restores the disrupted neurologic signaling through the Integration Step
The Integration Step works through principles of neuroscience: topographic neuroanatomy, which is the representational mapping of the body onto the brain; and the Hebbian principle of learning, known as “fire together, wire together.” Crucially, it prompts a phenomenon of rapid neuroplasticity that Dr. Marla Lerner-Powers describes as an effect of “putting a magnifying glass to the brain, such that attention there is so great, that the normal need for repetition for permanent learning is bypassed, and neurocircuitry is restored instantaneously.”
During initial NIS visits, Dr. Marla Lerner-Powers uses brain models to further explain how NIS works, and you will gain an experiential understanding of NIS.
Neurologic signal faults result when tolerance is exceeded. The body’s tolerance can be exceeded by many stressors, such as chemical (toxins), emotional (stress), inadequate sleep, poor nutrition, mechanical, electromagnetic, etc. Neurological Integration System (NIS) is a uniquely specific and rapid approach for restoring normal neurologic signaling, thus restoring the function of the involved neurologic pathway.
All body functions involve neurologic signaling, and NIS evaluates and resolves signaling issues in the broad categories of pathology, immunology, physiology, neurology, joints, toxicology, and emotion.
No, NIS has nothing to do with tapping. They have entirely different mechanisms. NIS works directly with neurocircuitry at a high level of specificity, while tapping is considered a type of energy medicine associated with general stress-relief.
Dr. Marla Lerner-Powers strongly encourages her patients to use stress-relief and self-healing methods on a daily basis, and notes that while she principally recommends a stress-relief tool called First-Aid Stress Tool (FAST), tapping is a method that one may find beneficial. When you use self-healing methods daily, that allows us to go right to the issues that require expert care—such as NIS—rather than having to first peel through layers of issues that may respond to self-management.
No. While one could argue that everything—including pharmaceuticals—is energy, NeuroBlossom Methods are outside the scope of what is considered to be energy work. A very general distinction between energy and NeuroBlossom methods is that energy methods work with increasing or moving energies or qi, while NeuroBlossom methods actually rewire the circuits through which energy flows. Energy methods usually provide temporary benefits and require ongoing care or practices, while NeuroBlossom Methods create lasting change.
Dr. Marla Lerner-Powers is familiar with energy medicine approaches and knows practitioners and resources that she can recommend to those who are interested. She especially recommends medical qi gong or EFT to patients who want to expand their self-care repertoire. Energy medicine, while supportive, does not replace NeuroBlossom Methods.
From the perspective of your brain, any health issue is a neurologic issue. This includes emotional stress, joint dysfunction, pain, digestion, sleep, cognition, etc.
Dr. Marla Lerner-Powers LOVES when people are already attending to their foundational health, because they heal faster than those who aren’t, and are physically primed to achieve the most rapid results with NeuroBlossom™ methods. That said, NeuroBlossom Methods produce unique benefits. Clear neurologic signaling through restored neurocircuitry is the most significant, distinct result.