Seasoned Chiropractor Dr. Joseph P. Cheff Shares his Secrets to Success
FEATURE
INTERVIEW
With over four decades in chiropractic, Dr. Cheff, owner of Cheff Chiropractic Care, offers a glimpse into his successful trajectory in chiropractic.
Dr. Joseph Cheff | Profile
PERSONAL
• Souse: Stephanie. Married for 42 years. Children: Three adult children. One son-in-law and one grandson and one on the way.
• Recreation: Being outside. Cross-country skiing. Hiking. Baseball. Basketball. Taking care of our 30acre farm.
• Professional affiliations: United Virginia Chiropractic Association. Zone School of Healing.
• Vacations: Montana, Berkeley, California, Portugal, Sedona, Arizona.
PRACTICE PARTICULARS
• Clinic name: Cheff Chiropractic Care. Office Hours: “Retired in practice.” Work less hours. (Eight hours one day, four hours two days per week.)
GRADUATING FROM LIFE CHIROPRACTIC College in 1981, Dr. Cheff has been in continual practice for 42 years — three years serving in Atlanta and 39 years in Virginia, where he now runs Cheff Chiropractic Care and has left an indelible mark on Woodstock, Virginia, for over two decades. Specializing in an array of health issues — from acute and chronic low back and neck problems to athletic injuries, pediatrics, geriatrics, and beyond — he earned the community’s trust as the goto chiropractor. Dr. Cheff’s expertise extends seamlessly to shoulder, knee, and wrist concerns, while he places a strong emphasis on posture correction, corporate wellness, and personalized lifestyle coaching.
In an interview with THE AMERICAN CHIROPRACTOR (TAG), Dr. Joseph Cheff (JC) shares a glimpse into the practice of a seasoned chiropractor. With nearly half a century in practice, read along to discover how he has found continued and consistent success in patient outcomes.
TAC: What inspired you to become a chiropractor?
JC: My inspiration to become a chiropractor came from several things along the way. I have two uncles who were chiropractors. I remember I had difficulty hearing and speaking and lots of ear infections as a very young child. Being taken to my uncles seemed natural.
When I was in sixth grade, I started as a quarterback on the sixth, seventh, and eighth-grade football team. Trying to keep up with the eighth graders, I would ram my head into defenders. I started getting really bad headaches. I was taken to my uncle, he adjusted me, and the headaches were gone. That was significant to me, and I started seriously considering being a chiropractor. Being able to be independent, live where I wanted to live, and develop skills to help people and keep my own health up made it a no-brainer for me to become a chiropractor.
TAC: What techniques do you use in your practice?
JC: Ha-ha. “Cheff technique” is an amalgamation of many techniques I’ve learned over 46 years of study. Lots of trial and error. I’ve melded Diversified with Cox with Pettibon with Toggle with SOT with Spinal Touch with MC2 with A-K with Torque Release and now Zone technique. The only modality I use is cold or ice for acute presentations. Otherwise, it’s hands-on stretching and trigger-point adjusting by hand and handheld Activator or Integrator instruments.
Plus, I do a reflex muscle technique shown to me by an older chiropractor mentor. When I added it to my practice, I found my adjustments were holding better, that I could test a weak muscle, and then touch the magic button, as patients say, and that muscle would strengthen. I would have patients move up and down, jump around, and retest them. It would stay strong. Their posture would improve, their balance improved, and their muscle coordination would improve. The majority of the time, it would stay strong through the next visit. If it showed up two or three times in a row, it would warrant further evaluation of what their activities and life environment were like — what their mental and emotional state had been dominating. I can’t explain how the muscle technique works, but I think I tap into the subconscious (innate) and direct it to balance the muscle system of the body.
After 40 years in practice, I started Zone School. To me, Zone School is my next step in learning about how healing works and how to be more effective. I like its focus on results. Results trump everything. Zone technique addresses the spiritual, mental, and physical person.
Dr. D. D. Palmer stated that the purpose of chiropractic was to connect “man the spiritual” with “man the physical.” Dr. Thurman Fleet, founder of Zone Therapy and precursor to Zone School, recognized that the subconscious mind can hold concepts that manifest physically in the body, and that concepts can be changed to manifest harmony in the body for health and wellness.
Zone School holds the promise of balancing all the systems and cells of the body. I now look forward to addressing more challenging cases. I have greater confidence that I can improve almost everyone. Already, I’ve helped people with anxiety, vertigo, digestive issues, and even a 42-year-old woman get pregnant after two years of trying to conceive.
TAC: Do you have any mentors in chiropractic?
JC:I ve had many influences over the years in chiropractic. The most impactful to me were Dr. Guy Reikman, Dr. Steve Hoffman, and Dr. Pete Goldman. They all have given a wide berth to individual expression and application of chiropractic, and they help me stay connected to the essence of chiropractic. Zone School technique definitely gives me a brain conscious-subconscious recognition of the metaphysical aspect of healing and health. Zone technique is grounded in our philosophical underpinnings of chiropractic and can be applied in the multidimensions of our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual beingness.
TAC: What conditions do you specialize in treating?
JC: I take care of multigenerational families and teach lifestyle wellness. We provide individualized chiropractic care for two-week-olds to 96-year-olds.
TAC: Any final words for our readers?
JC: See and enjoy each patient as a whole, dynamic being with all the possibilities that life can express. The challenge, like in life, is to continually be aware of our robotic biases that we default to. The ultimate metric is the patient’s health and healing. Remember, you are an infinite thread in the fabric of life. Keep doing the best you can each day because it’s the right thing to do, for you and everyone. Be a lifelong learner. Enjoy being in the process. Be entertained by discoveries and surprises. Create a lifestyle that positions you to live a whole life. Listen to your own innate. As my uncle, whom I mentioned following into chiropractic, used to say, “The body has all the answers.” You just have to ask the right questions.
Dr. Joseph Cheff | Toolkit
To give you a clear idea or what an amazing chiropractor uses to run his practice, we’ve asked Dr. Cheff to share with us some specific products & equipment that you can use to reach your practice’s goals of bringing health into your community.
Tables:
• Hill Laboratories Air Flex tables
• Eurotech flexion/distraction tables
Diagnostic Equipment:
• Head, hands, eyes, and heart
Rehabilitation Equipment:
• I use stretching, posture, and isometric range of motion (I-ROM). I teach patients first to be aware of their bodies, be aware of their posture, and then be aware as they move. As they move a particular joint through its range of motion, do so slowly and smoothly with pauses to hold-tighten-release, all the while listening and paying attention to that joint and its adjacent joints. I call it “find it, feel it, know it, be it” — the BE plan (balance and energize).
Nutritional Supplements:
• Whole-food advice
Computer Software:
• ChiroTouch
X-Ray Equipment:
• UX Universal 325 with 20/20 digital imaging
Companies I Love:
• Chirol Source
• Ajuvia Back Vitalizer
