First Visit
New Clients
Let's see what else to Expect with Modern Movement Clinic by reading more about your first visit below.
We know we’re not cheap. We also know we don’t take insurance. Because of all that we make sure your experience at Modern Movement Clinic is the best you’ve experienced. We’re not over here making guarantees like we’re selling off the lot, we’re just confident in our skills because this ain’t our first rodeo. We’ve owned the boots and spurs for a while. Let’s see what else you experience before, during and after your first rodeo with Modern Movement Clinic.
Before Your First Session:
Once You Arrive & During Your First Session:
- You won’t be “sent back” or yelled at from another room to “Come on back”. You’ll be greeted by your Movement Specialist or Therapist personally before you come back. We don’t bite…or bark.
- As we sit down, you’ll be surprised at how NOT RUSHED you’ll feel. This is your time and no one else’s. We would love it if we could just sit over a beer or coffee and just hash all of life’s problems with you. Maybe on casual Fridays. We will spend as much as time as you feel like you need talking over your history, current problems and issues, the intensity along with common provocations that irritate the issue more and abatements that lessen the issue’s intensity, how the issue affects your daily activity, what you’ve been throwing at it and how that has affected the issue, your goals out of all of this, and anything else we feel is pertinent to getting you better fast!
- We’ve been told on a number of occasions that “you listen and hear what I’m saying compared to what I’ve experienced in the past”. We take pride in that and that’s why we operate how we do.
The examination covers all of the below and more:
- Palpation - applying touch at or around the area of the issue allows us to check for tender points, swelling, inflammation and many other things. We get a lot “the Doctor never even looked at the area”, rest assured that won’t happen here.
- Range of Motion - assessing how joints move and interact during an action is essential into seeing how Functional Assessments play out the way they do. We do this actively where YOU move and sometimes passively where WE move you. This can tell us a few different things.
- Muscle Testing - checking for strength can give us a lot of clues, especially when the pain is on one side. This sometimes goes with Neurological testing or simply can provide us a framework of where we need to start with rehabilitation exercise.
- Functional Assessments - movement tells us the real story. Rest assured when you come in, you will be moving. These tests are specific in nature to determine function of the specific and surrounding areas.
- Neurological Screening - sometimes nerves can play a part in your pain. We have screening measures to see where we need to work from to help change the symptoms produced by the nerves.
- Special Tests - these consist of orthopedic based tests to do our best to rule out the scary and sinister things.
- Sport Specific - we know not everyone is built the same so we have the space to see some of the actions you perform in sport in real time. No better assessments than the actual ‘thing’ right?
Types of Sessions
Whether you are in pain or not in pain and doing strictly training. We do this simply to know how you work, how we work, and how we go about working together to meet your specific needs. Follow ups we’ve tried to make pretty clear cut. We will explain them below:
Our most popular session – this is for the individual who has just one complaint to work on. You get a good mix of both active and passive therapy. We may need to do a bit of passive therapy initially to help open up more opportunities for improvement. We then work on locking this all in with some active therapy and moving around. This gives you plenty of time to get everything you need all in one session, and with the membership, a very affordable offer for the time during the session and after with emailed exercise plans and keeping in touch.
The one we call “the crowd favorite”- at Modern Movement Clinic, we are rehab, we are performance, and we are the bridge that separates the gap between rehab and performance. Do you want to strength train in your off season or even IN season? We can do that. Do you not have any pain but you simply wanna change your lifestyle and learn a bit about picking up weight? Who better to come talk to and work with one on one than a medically trained Doctor with an athletic training background? This strength and conditioning program is specifically designed for you, your needs, and how your body moves. No pulling programs from Muscle Magazine or Runner’s World, you’ve got your own program right here. For a monthly fee, we can even program 2 other workouts using our TrainHeroic app. Who doesn’t wanna get in on something that says “Rewrite”?!
With our knowledge of biomechanics and training, we’ve worked a lot with endurance athletes and people coming back from injury to integrate into strength training. If you work with us at the clinic, we work one on one with you and start where your knowledge of lifting comes from. If you work with us online, we use an easy to use training app called Train Heroic. Each workout usually lasts close to an hour and we work with you on frequency and schedule.
We have a 24 hour cancellation policy for our sessions. We understand that things happen so provide us with sufficient notice and we can rectify the situation. You do get email and text reminders should you opt in to that, which we highly suggest you do just so you don’t miss anything. Should you be anything past 5 minutes late, please call us to let us know. Please note that if you are 15 minutes or more late or no show, we do charge the full amount simply because that time was your scheduled appointment.
Wrapping Up the First Visit and Moving Forward
After wrapping up the examination portion of the first visit, we do what most don’t. Ask you what you want to know. That’s what matters most right? From here we have a discussion on putting together a plan that works for you, how often we suggest hanging out for the time being, what visit type might work best, and any other lingering questions to help settle your mind to know you’re in the right spot. And if you’re not, we will tell you where to go. We work together to build a program that has self-care and exercises you can do at home, advice for pitfalls in the current state of where you’re at in your pain journey, any modifications that might need to be made, and how things can be progressed as time progresses.
We understand we hand you A LOT of information on that first visit and that can seem like A LOT to remember. Don’t sweat it! You’ll get a follow-up email that has all the information right there for you to refer back to and show your friends and family because they’re your biggest cheer squad!
Should you decide to join our membership program, you’ll get additional perks like your exercises sent to you with not just your first exam but follow-up exams as well. You’ll also inevitably save quite a bit of moolah along the way too.
Quality connection with your Movement Specialist, invaluable time spent ENTIRELY with your Movement Specialist, zero rushing as you get ALL your questions and concerns answered, clear and distinct measures of measuring progress to keep your plan progressive, an individualized plan that fits you and your lifestyle to meet your goals, and it’s all digital instead of being handed a piece of paper you’re gonna likely lose. If that wasn’t enough, we ALWAYS end our sessions with “what questions can I answer?”. We ask it this way because we leave our door open for you despite having the front door to the clinic closed.
Booking Your First Live Consult
Recommended for People In Denver Area
- Thorough 1.5 Hour Consultation & History To Check Off Every Box
- Extensive Testing & Analysis Covering Movement Specific Testing So Your Questions Are Answered & Understood
- Detailed Plan w/ Email Summary to Leave No Stone Unturned & Leaving You Feeling Confident About Tackling Your Problem
Booking Your First Online Consult
Recommended for People Outside Denver Area
- (2) 45 Minute Meetings to Cover History & Analysis
- Complete Examination Featuring a Movement Portion to Put It All Together
- All-Inclusive Plan w/ Follow Up Email (After 2nd 45 Min Visit) to Start Your Comeback
Can’t find the time you’re looking for? No sweat. Send an email with your name & preferred time of the week and day to:
Commonly Asked Questions
We’re so glad you asked this question! If it is your first time, we suggest leaving 10 minutes earlier than what your GPS might say to ensure you don’t get lost, hit traffic, or just feel anxious. We want to remove any barriers of resistance to make sure you feel like you KNOW you are in the right place. If you’ve been here a few times then this clearly is not your first rodeo.
More than likely you are going to move when you get here. That won’t ever change if you’re at Modern Movement Clinic. We highly suggest you either bring athletic clothing to change into or come already changed into athletic clothing. WE CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH! Don’t say we didn’t warn you! Let’s avoid a denim rash if we can, mmkay? If you’re a runner, bring those shoes you’ve been training in and possibly your last pair as well. If it is an area that is harder to get to (shoulder, mid back, low back), we would highly appreciate a tank top or loose enough tops that allow us to get to the area easily.
Plan to be here for 1.5 hours your initial visit. We’re thorough and we hang our hat on that. To be thorough, we need time. Follow ups do vary on time but we highly suggest booking a time that doesn’t leave you (or us) rushed for time. This is your time you are paying for and we want to ensure you get your money’s worth. Follow ups vary between 15 minutes to an hour, and like we mentioned if you are a member and would like to stay a bit longer to use some of the rehab equipment, feel free!
Should you have imaging done for this already, go ahead and bring in the report for us to read over. Anything else you feel might be pertinent to look over in regards to reports or perhaps your current or last pair of running or athletic shoes is more than fine. If you wear orthotics or have changed anything you might feel needs addressed, bring it on in.
We operate mostly digitally. That means when you book, your card is on file to make payments easy. We do take FSA/HSA cards, credit/debit cards, and can provide super bills so long as you notify the office you need these. Any transactions that are made outside of scheduling can be done at the office with a point of sale system (Square).
A fantastic first question. After all, I’m a chiropractor. How am I supposed to “crack” or “pop” you any ways? Well this is where the Modern portion comes in. You can read more about my principles of how we operate at Modern Movement Clinic is here but the shorter answer is this. Prior to our first online appointment, I will have your initial intake and questionnaires based on area(s) of complaint. From there I will analyze all this information, again, prior to our first engagement. During our initial scheduling, I will re-cover your history and may ask other questions. As we finish our initial conversation, I will send you videos of movement based tests I’d like you to record for me (using your cell phone or any digital recording device that can upload to a computer). This requires a good bit of moving around so it is encouraged to wear something you can move freely in. You’ll be provided an online sheet with links to all of the tests described in detail along with a secure Dropbox link that is only for you to put these in. This is when I sit down and do my analysis trying to put together a rational explanation of how this might have came about and what to do. Once I feel we have covered that portion and all tests are done, I will sit down with you during a follow up appointment (second 45 minute appointment) to answer all of your questions, clear any confusion, and get you started on a few things to better your current state. The goal of the first initial appointments are all about empowering, enlightening, and educating! The process is much easier than even reading this. 
We see people who are in acute pain all the way to post-op. If we feel you might be a better fit somewhere else, we won’t string you along, we will get you to the right person and discuss that with you and your thoughts about it all along the way. Believe us when we say that we’ve seen it all.
First off, we have to work on that mentality my friend! In this day and age, we have amazing tools and leaders in all fields of medicine. One of my main personal principles is I’m not here to bullshit. I got into the passion of helping people better themselves, not my ego. With that being said, if we are not a good fit together, be it because I cannot personally help you OR we simply just do not mesh well personality wise, I will exhaust every effort to find you someone(s) who will. I work well with others despite being an only child.
Do you want to make an effort at feeling better and reaching your goals? Then you’re our people. We don’t work well with people who are looking for a quick fix or have us do their homework for them.
The answer is clearly multi factorial as nothing is black and white. I know this isn’t the definitive (aka black and white) answer you are looking for but we can blame the current process of the medical community (and for that matter the modern age) for that. We always want the “fix” or “quick solution”. As we’ve seen the quick fix is opioids and here we are sitting in an opioid epidemic. Band aids work well for the short term but learning from the experience of why we needed the band aid and what to do in the future is an invaluable lesson. This is the part where I quote the “fish for a man…teach a man to fish…”. I’m fully transparent during our meetings with taking what I see on video along with our interaction to give you an estimate for a timeline. Either way, this is a process and should be approached as such! Success doesn’t happen over night and if it did, it wouldn’t last very long. If you want a quicker fix or success quickly, I understand that completely however we are not the right fit for one another if that is the case. What we’ve found with working with people at Modern Movement Clinic is if you come to learn, you’ll find success because we come to teach. This ensures that although you might face injuries in the future, you’ll have a much higher success rate and recovery is faster and you’ll tell everyone about us.
We ARE NOT a high volume clinic. This means we work off of creating a higher quality experience for the people who work with us and don’t need them to come in or be seen multiple times a week.
We’ll answer this in two pieces: one from your perspective and one from our perspective.
From your perspective, we take a patient-centered approach to your care. What this means is that what may work for one person, quite frequently does not work for another person. Your pain is not cookie cutter and neither should be your care you receive. To be able to have a Doctor that treats this way, you must constantly be educating yourself on not just modern developments of your field but soft skills like human interaction and critical thinking need to be on par as well.
From our perspective, Dr. Riley has a great story:
“I’ll tell you about my first day of school and my answer to why I chose what I do today. Everyone in my class of 200+ had some miraculous story of tragedy to triumph with a chiropractic adjustment. I admire these stories but I noticed once I told mine how much air I let out of the room. I was torn between PT and Chiro school and chose Chiro school because we were at the time portal of entry and didn’t need a script from a Medical Doctor to be seen. (I don’t like people telling me what to do 
). So with everyone’s passionate answer I sat there thinking “wow I’m a loser”. It’s all a matter of perception! My passion that I didn’t know I had was simple and direct. I just wanted to help people in any capacity with meeting goals and being the best version of themselves they wanted to be”.
Your best question yet because we never like to show up unprepared. For both live and online consults, it is suggested that you wear something you can move around in easily so we can truly see how you move and not be restricted or inhibited. For runners or specific athletes, there may be some assessment of shoes and insoles so have them handy. For online clients, having something to stabilize your laptop or phone as well to do testing and consults would be ideal as to not have to exhaust our time with fiddling too much with keeping things in frame. In terms of equipment for exercise, this will be covered plenty during the examination and summary email. We’d love you to have access to a gym or gym equipment as well, especially if we are working online.