Dr. Kenneth Cushman was born and raised in mid-Michigan. From a young age, he has had the drive to work hard and be successful. As a young man, he developed a desire to run his own business someday, and pursued an education in business. He graduated with a business degree from Baker College of Owosso in 2000.
Shortly after graduating, he injured his back pretty badly. He suffered for months under the care of a medical doctor who prescribed muscle relaxers and pain pills, and told him not to see a chiropractor. Out of desperation he finally acquiesced to his mother’s request and saw her chiropractor. Miraculously, within two weeks his back pain was gone, and he had found a new purpose for his life. He immediately got his wife, Amanda, under care, and she responded so well that they both decided they needed to become Doctors of Chiropractic, in order to help others the way they had been helped.
Kenneth and Amanda chose to go to the place where chiropractic originated: Davenport, Iowa. Multiple cross country moves and three babies later, they graduated from the prestigious Palmer College of Chiropractic. Upon graduating, Dr. Cushman knew that he desired the mentorship of training under a master in his chosen technique, Knee Chest Upper Cervical Specific Chiropractic. So he packed up his family and headed to the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains in Hendersonville, North Carolina, where he spent three years under the guidance of Dr. Henry Dallias. With his skills developed and experience under his belt; he decided to bring his family home to Michigan to open his own office.
The Cushmans prayed long and hard about what community they should serve, and decided to open up their chiropractic clinic, The Shiawassee Spinal Center, in Owosso, Michigan, in 2012. They quickly developed a strong connection to the community and found many ways to enjoy community involvement. Dr. Cushman never lost his passion for business. He has found joy in not only running his own successful clinic, but also in mentoring other small business startups. Dedicated to bettering the local community, he serves on many local boards, including the Downtown Business Development board, the Welcome Home Veterans board, and several more.
Over the years, Dr Cushman has grown his office, relocating to a bigger space, adding more chiropractic doctors, and adding personal training and percussive therapy programs. In recent years, Dr. Cushman has been able to shift his focus to mentorship, and has had the joy of training chiropractic students in his own office through Palmer College’s Precepting program. His desire remains to bring the healing power of chiropractic care to as many people as possible.
As a small child, Dr. Amanda always dreamed of becoming a doctor. Years of dedication and hard work resulted in her graduating Ovid-Elsie high school as valedictorian and being accepted to Michigan State University’s pre medical program (Bachelors of human biology). Thriving on the educational process she graduated Magna Cum Laude with plans to enter the college’s school of osteopathic medicine. A final step to the application required a tour of the medical center where she would be developing her knowledge and eventually realise her dream to be a “doctor”.
During this tour she quickly began to realize that her perceptions did not reflect reality. The reason she has chosen this specific school was the fact that this program focused on the osteopathic medical approach which most believe is more natural and vitalistic than the MD programs other institutions offer. What she saw was something that was indistinguishable from any other medical approach that still focused primarily on masking symptoms through the drug/ surgical approach.
So with much heartache she abandoned her lifelong dream and began to explore other options for her future career path. During this time of exploration her husband began to suffer horrifically with unrelenting low back pain. He had sought out the help of numerous medical professionals and was told that anti-inflammatories and narcotics were his only feasible options. Seeing this suffering led her eventually to convince him to seek out the care of a chiropractor against his doctor’s recommendations.
To make a long story short, her husband found relief and healing very quickly through this approach and Dr. Amanda witnessed the vitalistic and root cause approach she had been looking for.
Shortly after, Dr. Amanda began her chiropractic education at the fountainhead of chiropractic, Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa. It was here that she finally began to learn a system that was not focused on treatment of symptoms but rather a systematic approach to wellness through root causes.
Nearly a year before graduation from Palmer she was exposed to a specialized approach called Upper Cervical Chiropractic and began the extensive training program to become an Upper Cervical Chiropractor. After nearly 10 years of schooling, work experience in both, and six cross country moves she and her husband decided they had finally learned enough to move home and open the Shiawassee Spinal Center in Owosso, MI. Dr. Amanda has been serving her community ever since.
Although Dr. Amanda is a seasoned clinician and adjuster who can care for whoever comes her way, she enjoys a thriving pregnancy and pediatric subset to practice and has cared for countless moms and babies from day one birth traumas to all of the childhood traumas that go mostly untreated until other secondary problems arise from them.
Anyone who meets Dr. Amanda would agree that her commitment, confidence and caring is unparalleled and she will not stop until she gets the patient the answers they are searching for. Dr. Amanda Cushman strives daily to live out the clinic motto which she coined over a decade ago…“This is where YOUR healing begins!”.
A quote by Dr. Palmer, the Father of Chiropractic medicine, has been able to embody and resonate with Dr. Chapman’s decision to become a chiropractor, “Do not forget that chiropractors did not treat diseases. They adjust causes, whether acquired, spontaneous, or the result of accident.” Dr. Chapman will always remember his first adjustment. He walked into the Shiawassee Spinal Center in 2016, as an athlete and bodybuilder with severe back pain. Jacob was being treated by a medical doctor, taking muscle relaxers and afraid his athletic days were behind him. In the last effort to prevent spinal surgery and lifelong medical complications, he decided to see a Chiropractor. That Chiropractor was none other than Dr. Kenneth Cushman at the Shiawassee Spinal Center.
Jacob walked into the Shiawassee Spinal Center a skeptic. Jacob wondered what kind of relief he could provide that his own doctor could not. That skeptic was made a believer that day. After one adjustment, his range of motion returned, his pain was alleviated, and Jacob felt like he could truly now perform to the best of his abilities. Dr. Cushman treated the cause of Jacob’s symptoms instead of putting a band-aid on the problem. He walked out of Dr. Cushman’s office that day; finally getting relief from the pain that had plagued him for the last few months. Jacob was studying to become a Registered Dietician at the time. He made the drive back to Mount Pleasant and made the decision to change my major and pursue my Doctorate in Chiropractic Medicine. Jacob wanted to share that same healing gift that Dr. Cushman had given to him.
Dr. Chapman received his bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science from Central Michigan University and later went on to obtain a degree from Palmer College of Chiropractic. Jacob and his now-wife Alexa decided to re-locate to Port Orange, Florida so that he could study and learn the craft of Chiropractic medicine. After his four years at Palmer College Jacob moved back to Michigan and accepted the preceptor position at the Shiawassee Spinal Center. Jacob has been blessed with the opportunity to continue to cultivate, develop, and grow as a chiropractor and serve his community at the Shiawassee Spinal Center.
Dr. Dillon Sibley was born and raised in the small town of Hesperia located in the Western Michigan area. Dillon grew up as an avid outdoorsman with a love of wrestling which he competed in during high school. During his Junior Year, he suffered a horrific back injury during a wrestling match that made him turn to chiropractic care. Once he got the help he needed from his chiropractor he was back on the mat in no time. Upon completing Highschool, Dillon decided to further his education at Central Michigan University where he ended up majoring in Exercise Science along with a Minor in Business Management in hopes to open and train at his own gym facility. During school, he suffered more back injuries in the gym and yet again found himself in the hands of a chiropractor.
Chiropractic care really helped him get through his numerous sports-related injuries, and he wanted to help bring this kind of healing to all kinds of people. Upon graduation, he decided, with a little bit of motivation from Dr. Chapman, he wanted to continue his education at the prestigious Palmer College of Chiropractic located in Port Orange, Florida. He began competitive bodybuilding while pursuing his education and was able to learn how he could utilize chiropractic to help in the gym and on the stage. Ultimately, he learned how chiropractic care can change someone’s life and improve their quality of life.
Dr. Sibley finished up school and was in a preceptorship under Dr. Kenneth Cushman at the Shiawassee Spinal Center in Owosso, Michigan. After receiving his diploma, he was offered and he accepted a position under his mentor Dr. Cushman in order to get his specialization in the knee-chest upper cervical technique. He continues to refine his skills and techniques to help his community as much as possible. Anyone who meets Dr. Sibley would agree that he is determined, hard-working, and blessed with a heart capable of compassion for anyone he meets.