Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexandria (Alex) Pankoke, DC.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Alexandria. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I am originally from Offutt Air Force Base just outside of Omaha, Nebraska where both my mother and father served and retired as US Airmen. From a young age, my parents always encouraged me to pursue things that challenged me. When I was little, I imagined my adult self as a businesswoman or an Airforce officer, but that later changed. When I was in high school, a chiropractor spoke to my class about the importance of a healthy nervous system. His passion for helping others inspired me to want to do something that involved helping the body heal and function at its top capacity.
Fast forward a few years, I graduated from the University of Nebraska Omaha with a Bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science where I met my now-husband, Paul, who later also became a chiropractor. Fast forward another couple of years, I completed my Master’s degree in Exercise Science from The University of South Florida with the intention of growing a career in corporate wellness programming. In the next few years, Paul and I both worked in various fitness roles, but I still felt I was not yet doing what I was “meant” to be doing. After much consideration and prayer, we moved to Dallas so that I could go to chiropractic school at Parker University. A few months later, Paul joined me in chiropractic school.
Now, almost five years later, we have opened a practice together and are the parents to an adorable life-full toddler; who occasionally can be found helping out with adjustments and/or “running the office.” Today, I spend my days supporting the bodies of pregnant people and parents so that they can “do all the things” and still enjoy life. I also see quite a few little ones as well.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Yes and no. I’ve had small bumps and bruises throughout my life, but I would say up until a few years ago, it’s been smooth sailing.
My biggest trial thus far began when I was about to graduate from chiropractic school. I was pregnant with my son and planning the “Insta-perfect” all-natural super granola home birth. I was going to “show” everyone that home birth is the way to go. I was ALL EGO.
Then, unexpectedly after a short, but intense home labor, I found myself in the hospital for an emergency c-section. Less than an hour later, I had a beautiful healthy baby boy delivered safely into my arms. While I accomplished my goal in “showing the world” that home birth with proper transport and back-up plans in place is safe; this experience rocked me to my core. For the first time in life, I felt like a failed and my body failed me. Additionally, while I was in the hospital, I almost fell and my surgical wound re-opened. After weeks, it neither healed or changed the way my doctor was expecting. I started to question my chosen profession, and if I was really meant to serve people as a prenatal chiropractor.
I was angry and in extreme levels of physical pain. This created tension and stress in my marriage and while also heaping on loads of guilt from feeling like a “momster.” A month after my surgery, I still had an open wound, and I finally decided to go back to what I knew, –that the nervous system controls everything and that supporting that system is crucial to the body’s ability to heal itself. So, I asked my husband to adjust me. The next day when I woke up, my wound which had remained unchanged for four weeks had closed 50%. It was unbelievable, but we had pictures and measurements that we could not argue with. After that, a colleague of mine (also a mother and prenatal chiropractor), began taking care of me and the changes that I experienced in not just physical pain levels but overall mood and connection with my baby began to drastically 180.
As I began to process my birth trauma over the next year to come, I realized how blessed I was for the experience and the support that I had. I also realized that my story is often not the story for everyone. During my brief time at the VA hospital, time and time again women would come in stating that they have had some type of back or neck pain since they gave birth, which in some cases were over 30 years ago. I couldn’t believe it, but then, I remembered my own mother struggling with no little to no support but always putting on her best foot forward every day when I was a kid. It was God’s way of focusing my mission and helping me to define who I was created to serve. I now knew even more clearly my role in this world was to serve other parents the way my friend served me so that they can actually feel like the heroes they are to their kids.
Please tell us about enKindle Chiropractic – what should we know?
My husband and I own enKindle Chiropractic, a family practice located at The Health Collective in Dallas, TX. Our purpose is to educate, empower, and support families in their journeys to “kindle” their God-given potential to heal from the inside out, inspire those around them, and flourish.
I am a Webster certified prenatal/postpartum chiropractor with additional training in Spinning Babies and Fascial Distortion Model.
I specialize in helping mothers to prepare for birth, but even more so, recover from the process of growing and birthing a human (which is a HUGE DEAL to your body–like running an iron man then having a kidney cut out, followed by the added responsibility of feeding and taking care of said human with no breaks HUGE DEAL).
All jokes aside, my hope is to reach mothers who may have had unexpected or traumatic birth experience whether they had prenatal chiropractic care or not; and support them through this beautiful and natural yet serious process of healing.
With serving parents, comes serving babies and kiddos which I love and have additional training in through The International Chiropractic Pediatric Association.
Prior to delving into perinatal work, I had aspired to be a sports chiropractor. With my background as a strength and conditioning coach, I often blend the two worlds in how I look at the body and work with my practice members. Many of my practice members have had a c-section or “sunroof birth”, and they really want to do more than just heal from the surgery– they want to get back into the jobs or activities they love most like nursing, running or even Crossfit without pain or dysfunction. For this reason, I often partner with other professionals like lymphatic and pelvic floor physical therapists to wrap them in solutions that look that the whole person.
My better half, Paul, specializes in The Gonstead System of chiropractic care and is passionate about working with all ages but especially youth athletes.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Persistence and Perspective
I would say that throughout my life being persistent has not always been fun; but with a different perspective, (His perspective) that moment where you know “you were made for this” always comes around. It may not be big, it not be when you expect it, it may not even how you expect it, but those moments make up life.
It is so easy to get caught up in our own story and not see what beauty lies ahead. I can site so many instances in my life (from learning to perform chiropractic adjustments to my marriage, as a parent, and even in my walk with God) were just when I felt like giving up, I chose to continue on anyways and that breakthrough was just on the other side.
Pricing:
- New Member Visit- $150
- Standard Visit (20 mins)- $55
- Perinatal/Advanced Visit (30 mins)- $75
- I also have package rates and discounts for LEOs, Military, Teachers, ext.
Contact Info:
- Address: 10830 N Central Expy, Suite 400
Dallas, TX 75231 - Website: www.enkindlechiro.com
- Phone: 214-775-0804
- Email: info@enkinlechiro.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/enkindle.chiropractic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/enkindlechiro/
- Twitter: https://www.instagram.com/dr.mama.bird/
Image Credit:
Alex Stone, Rianne Roylance Photography
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
