Meet Dr. Mike Williams of Williams Chiropractic and Internal Health Center

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Mike Williams

Hi Dr. Mike, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I grew up in Greenville, MI, about 45 minutes from where I practice now. When I was in 5th grade, my mom got a job working for a chiropractor. When your mom works for a chiropractor, it becomes difficult not to see the amazing things that can happen in a chiropractic clinic. The more I saw, the more I was convinced that chiropractic was my future. By the time I was 14, I decided I wanted to be a chiropractor and I never looked back. After graduating from high school and completing undergrad, my wife and I, as newly weds, moved to St. Louis, MO so that I could enroll at Logan College of Chiropractic. With my diploma in hand, I left Logan in the summer of 2009. Moving back to Michigan was not in the cards at the time, so I opened a practice in a small town in Illinois, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. That practice was a very typical chiropractic office. I was a “back cracker,” a “bone cruncher.” I mostly adjusted patients for The Big Three: back pain, neck pain, and headaches. My practice grew and became successful, but I began to notice that not all patients that came to see me had one of the big three, and not all patients with the big three got better after an adjustment. The longer I was in practice, the more of this I noticed. The more I noticed it, the more it bothered me. I didn’t like the idea that there were people that needed my help and I had no help to offer. I was doing what I had been trained to do, but it wasn’t always the answer. Could there be something more?.

To begin to answer that question, I started to research and study. What I learned, is that there are actually three ways the body can get into trouble and if there are three ways problems can start, I had better have three ways to fix them. Those three types of issues are mechanical, emotional, and nutritional.

Chiropractic College had done a great job preparing me to handle to mechanical issues, but like most other chiropractors I know, I had very little skills to deal with either of the other two. In fact, when I left school, I didn’t even know those other two existed.

I needed to be able to understand how problems from nutrition would cause a negative reaction in the body, so I began coursework to become a Digestive and Internal Health Specialist. This advanced training taught me nutrition, but so much more than that. I learned about digestion, about normal and abnormal organ function. How to tell when the body was out of balance because of vitamin and mineral deficiencies and how to decipher the clues to recommend herbs and enzymes to correct the problem. With this new knowledge I had two of the three pieces to the puzzle, so I set out to find the third.

Emotional problems, or problems that come from abnormal or incorrect thinking can be some of the most complex and difficult issues to work with, so I knew that learning to help patients in this way would take a very special set of skills. Those skills came in the form of advanced training in the brain. I took classes in neurology, neuroanatomy, biochemistry, psychology, and physiatry. I learned that “thoughts become things” and the connection the brain has to the function of the body. It is no secret that for some, when they get angry, their blood pressure goes up, but why is that? What is the link between our thoughts and the function of the body? Through this work I learned how to recognize incorrect thinking and techniques to guide a patient back to health.

I now had the tools and skill necessary to help patients with the issues I wasn’t prepared for in those early years. I was ready for a new beginning and a fresh start, so in the summer of 2020, after 11 years at my practice in Illinois, my wife and I, along with our two kids, moved back to West Michigan and in the late fall of 2020 I opened Williams Chiropractic and Internal Health Center.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There were plenty of challenges along the way. While living in St. Louis, one of the biggest challenges, and possibly the biggest reason for our move back to Michigan was that my house and my practice were an hour and a half apart. After driving so much for so long, I needed a change and there was no way to stay in St. Louis and make that happen. With my newfound knowledge about the ways the body reacts to stress and how to help it heal, I was ready to start implementing drastic change in my practice, but I was mired in the red tape and oversight of a business model that was dependent on insurance companies. I felt powerless to change anything and realized that a fresh start would be the best way to move forward.

Once we decided to move, and had sold our house and my practice, the world fell into a global pandemic. We moved in the summer of 2020 and had no idea what was in store for us. I started my new practice with daily fear that things would shift and I wouldn’t be able to see patients.

When the immediate pandemic situation changed, and my worries about being unable to practice could subside, I had the difficult task of trying to build a business. I was new, in a new place and had a unique way of helping patients and had to find ways to let people know I was there and could help them.

As you know, we’re big fans of Williams Chiropractic and Internal Health Center. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
I am a chiropractor and have a chiropractic practice, but that only tells a small piece of what I do. In addition to my chiropractic education, my training in digestion and nutrition, and work with our thoughts and the brain, allows me to practice with a holistic approach that is very unique. It gives me the tools necessary to help patients who feel they are beyond help, that they have been everywhere and tried everything. When everything else has failed, I am able to provide hope.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
Grand Rapids is a great town full of great people. I love that all of the things; sports, culture, art, music, and food, that you would find in a much lager city are here in GR, but without the size and problems of a major city.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://williamschiropracticgr.com
• Instagram: williamschiroandinternalhealth
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/WilliamsChiropracticGR