Dr. Monica Maroney, owner of Shorewood Family Chiropractic, first realized she wanted to be a chiropractor at the age of 9, after a neck injury left her father in extreme pain and discomfort, with no apparent relief in sight. After months of suffering, he took the advice of a friend and visited a chiropractor. “He immediately felt so much better, and he could actually sleep at night,” says Maroney. Inspired by the results, she knew then that chiropractic medicine was what she wanted to do.

Another defining moment came just as Maroney was starting chiropractic school at Western State Chiropractic College, in Portland. Her young daughter was suffering from chronic ear infections that neither antibiotics nor other medications could alleviate. “Once I started school, I learned there were other options, so I started taking my daughter to a chiropractor, with amazing results,” she recalls. “My daughter is now 18 and hasn’t been on an antibiotic since she was 4. I knew I wanted to do that for other parents who also felt as if they had run out of medical options.”

Determined to focus on the whole family, Maroney completed three years of postgraduate studies through the Palmer Institute, with specialized training in the treatment of infants, children and pregnant women. She is the first chiropractor in Milwaukee to receive her diplomate in clinical chiropractic pediatrics (DICCP) and is now board certified in chiropractic pediatrics through the International Chiropractic Association Council on Chiropractic Pediatrics.

Maroney notes that few chiropractors go through a diplomate program due to the required time and money, but for her, it was a priority. “I had this idea that if people were going to trust me with a newborn, I wanted to have the maximum training allowed,” she explains.

After graduating in 2001, Maroney returned to her hometown to open her practice, which focuses on overall health and wellness for all members of the family, from newborn to adult, through chiropractic care and other modalities. She takes pride in creating a family-friendly, personable environment, and patients are welcome to bring their children along for appointments, whether the kids are being adjusted or not.

When seeing patients, Maroney uses a whole-person, holistic approach. While she addresses any obvious problems, such as stress on the spine, she also creates a detailed evaluation of a person’s sleeping, eating, exercise and lifestyle habits to determine what else may be taxing their nervous system. Shorewood’s additional massage therapy, acupuncture and nutrition services are synergistic complements that promote overall health.

“Given the proper nutrition, your body has the capability of keeping itself healthy,” Maroney explains. “But nutrition should be individualized to meet each patient’s needs. Therefore, we work with individuals to help rid their bodies of toxins and put them on the path to wellness.”

Passionate about the advantages of chiropractic, Maroney is especially pleased to offer pediatric care. Although chiropractors have been working with children for many years, only recently have people become more aware of the therapy’s benefits for youth. Maroney believes that many adult spinal problems originate in childhood, and she says the birth process may be one of life’s most traumatic events, irritating the nervous system and causing numerous newborn health complaints. She adds that colic, unexplained crying, difficulty breastfeeding, ear infections and allergic reactions can often be traced to nervous system dysfunction caused by spinal misalignment.

For those concerned about the safety of pediatric chiropractic, Maroney offers this reassurance: “Of all forms of health care, chiropractic is one of the safest. It is an extremely light pressure. Many parents bringing their newborns are amazed at how much their infant enjoys their first adjustment.”

While chiropractic is at the core of the Shorewood practice, Maroney emphasizes its philosophy: that health, not merely the absence of symptoms, comes from within the body, not from without. She says the job of the chiropractor is to remove the subluxations, or misalignments, so that the same power that created the body may also heal it.

Location: 4433 N. Oakland Ave., Shorewood 53211. For more information, call 414-962-5483 or visit ShorewoodFamilyChiro.com.