Techniques
At Cleveland Chiropractic College, you begin by developing your hands-on skills, particularly in spinal palpation and functional assessment. Once you've mastered this foundation, you move into the required core techniques.
The Cleveland Chiropractic College core technique curriculum:
Cleveland Comprehensive Methods
Cleveland Comprehensive Methods (CCM) is a core technique that epitomizes the balance that is so central to our approach to chiropractic. The technique is anchored in our roots as one of the oldest chiropractic colleges in the United States, yet also reflects the best of current approaches to functional assessment and adjustment. The doctors of chiropractic who designed this course drew upon their years of practical and educational experience to choose the methods of evaluation and adjustment that have worked best for them and for other chiropractors. This means that the first technique you learn is packed with skills you can count on to effectively care for patients.
After completing the comprehensive technique courses, students will be enrolled in four additional core techniques, including three that may be chosen from among a diverse list of well respected and popular techniques. These core choices and electives include Full Spine Specific, Gonstead, Diversified, Thompson, Flexion-Distraction, Activator Methods, Graston Soft Tissue and Sacro Occipital Technique.
Extravertebral Adjusting
Doctors of chiropractic view the body as an integrated, functional whole. The spine and extremities are functionally linked, so it's vital that you learn to assess and adjust the extremities to minimize the consequences of dysfunctional joints throughout the body. Many physically active people rely on chiropractors for whole-body care, so you must be skilled in evaluation of shoulders, knees, elbows, wrists, hips, ankles and all other extremity joints to address the needs of anyone from a serious athlete to a weekend warrior.
Integrated Technique
Integrated technique pulls together all the techniques you've learned to formulate an integrated treatment plan for each individual patient. This course also introduces you to a number of other chiropractic methods including the use of specialized tables and equipment. Rehabilitation is incorporated as a means of supporting the chiropractic adjustment.
Soft Tissue Methods
While spinal adjustment is often considered the hallmark of chiropractic care, it's important not to ignore the other ways chiropractors help people out of pain and back into action. The spinal column is surrounded and supported by muscles, tendons and ligaments, so it is essential that doctors of chiropractic can functionally assess, diagnose and care for conditions that affect these structures. In this course, students learn several time-tested, effective approaches to conservatively treat soft tissue conditions.