Meet Ryan Marchman of The Adjustatorium

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Marchman.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the work, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
When I was five years old I nearly died. I was very sick and none of the doctors or nurses could figure out why. I spent seven days in the pediatric intensive care unit at the regional hospital in Gainesville, Georgia. They told my parents that I was going to die and that there was nothing they could do.

And then I lived. I woke up one morning and I was no longer in the ICU. I slid out of the hospital bed and pulled my little IV cart out of my room and down the hall where I could see out of the window. There were trees and grass, blue skies, and everything seemed to be bursting with color. Everything seemed so alive. At that moment, I felt closer to the source of life than I ever had before or ever had since. I call this my “near life experience.”

For the next two decades, I was insatiable in my quest to learn. I had tasted the heart of life itself and from that point forward I became Life’s student. I started with my dad’s encyclopedic dictionary, then the next year I moved on to an electronic version of the Encyclopedia Brittanica (before we had internet). As I grew I learned more and more. I was attracted to every subject that could get me closer to the core of the human experience. I was dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of illness and wellness, and of human behavior and potential.

I studied subjects ranging from the far left-brained sciences of molecular biology, biochemistry, to the far right-brained subjects of metaphysics, and human spirituality, and everything in between. Throughout the course of my search I was drawn always towards life, health, healing, wellness, and wellbeing. I learned qigong, martial arts, energy work, reiki, Chinese medicine, acupressure, sports massage, nutrition, traditional herbalism, and more as I traveled along my journey of discovering the essence of healing. It was along this journey that I also discovered my great love for teaching others what I’d learned.

Then, 20 years after my “near-life” experience I was attending chiropractic school at LIFE University when I heard a talk by Dr. Arno Burnier, who has since become my great friend and mentor. Arno uttered these words that his mentor had told to him, “You cannot fight darkness. You can only turn on the light. You cannot fight sickness and disease. You can only turn on Life.” That statement summed up so beautifully everything I had learned in my search.

I knew then Vitalistic Chiropractic was not just another therapy to add to my already full bag of tricks, but that it contained the very essence of the philosophy of healing: healing comes from the process of life itself, and it’s my job to help that healing process function smoothly. Since that fateful day, I have seen chiropractic change the lives of people around the world. I bring all of my love, knowledge, and experience to bear with every adjustment I give.

I grew up on a ten-acre farm in Northeast Georgia. We always had five or six farm dogs running around, and I’ve probably had around 30 dogs in my lifetime. I was an animal person for as long as I could remember, and people always said I had a gift. For the biggest part of my healing journey, I focused on talking about people, but at home I was always working on my dogs as well.

The farm across the creek from us had horses, and I would go over there as a kid and play with them. It probably wasn’t the safest thing for me to do, but kids will be kids. I learned how to earn their trust, to listen deeply to them, and to work with them without frightening them.

So, it was only natural that when I became a chiropractor for peope that I also became an animal chiropractor. When I moved from Georgia to Colorado I met a man named Dr. Jay who taught me his animal adjusting technique, particularly with the horses. He taught me the difference between doing something “to” an animal and doing something “with” an animal.

Now, I spend about half of my time working in the office, adjusting people, dogs, and cats, and the other part of my time traveling up and down the front range adjusting horses. I love both aspects of my job, and I think it’s amazing how my life came full circle from the farm days to now.

Has it been a smooth road?
The road wasn’t always smooth. I had a tumultuous childhood. Things were difficult in a lot of ways. We had a lot of strife in our family back in those days. My father was an alcoholic and a brutal man who drove everyone out of his life until it was just the two of us alone on the farm.

We didn’t get along, as I was headstrong and he didn’t like be challenged. We fought a lot. Knockdown, drag-out kind of fighting. It was the main thing that led me to the study of martial arts. Once I got good at fighting back, that sort of fighting basically stopped.

Growing up, I lived with my dad on the farm. I wasn’t allowed to see the rest of my family most of the time. Seeing as it was just the two of us, he was simultaneously my worst enemy and my only close relationship. This has made it difficult for me to form close relationships ever since I was a kid, but I do my best to love people and let them in.

He died when I was 18 after a long, difficult battle with liver damage caused by his drinking. He first got sick when I was five, then again at age 12, and that’s when I started taking care of myself. Often he wouldn’t be lucid enough to complete daily tasks or do things like paying the bills, so I learned to write checks and forge his signature so that we could keep the power on. In my senior year of high school, his illness got the better of him, and he went to the hospital again. They told us to prepare his affairs, that he only had about 30 days. He struggled for 13 months, during which time I and a few caregivers took care of him at home. He died shortly after I’d moved to Atlanta to go to Georgia Tech, then I dropped out and moved back home to take care of things.

Even though we lived on the family farm, we weren’t farmers. Other farmers came in to tend the hay and corn, but our business was cable television. My grandfather started the local cable service in our town years ago, so that’s the business I grew up in. Fixing the cable meant early mornings before school and often late nights afterward. It was hard work, and I didn’t like it, but it taught me some valuable lessons.

Learning to forgive and let go of my history has been one of the most difficult and most rewarding tasks in my life. It has led to more personal growth than would have been possible any other way, I think. So in a way, I’m grateful for the way my father was. It took me many years to come around to that, but the fact remains that I wouldn’t be who I am without him. Because of him, I picked up the path of martial arts, which led me down the road to many amazing experiences and to the learning of many esoteric healing arts.

We’d love to hear more about your work.
The Adjustatorium is a chiropractic office in Boulder, Colorado. I specialize in Vitalistic chiropractic, which is concerned with the quality and expression of life, rather than just ameliorating symptoms like back pain and neck pain. My approach to adjusting is very honoring to the body and is based on listening deeply and adjusting with the natural rhythms and angles of the spinal system.

I work with people and animals, and a good deal of my time goes to helping horses.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I feel like I’ve done well here, but I often caution chiropractic students who are thinking about coming to Boulder. Cost of living here is high, and it’s one of the most competitive chiropractic markets in the country. For someone just starting out, that can be a lot to bear. Part of what I want to do with The Adjustatorium is hold it up as a model to show people that even in a saturated market with high cost of living, its possible a simple, low overhead, very effective chiropractic practice.

Contact Info:

• Address: 1727 15th Street Suite 100B
• Website: www.theadjustatorium.com
• Phone: 720.778.6929
• Email: drryan@theadjustatorium.com
• Instagram: docmarchman

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