20 Years of Washington Park Chiropractic: One Patient, One Family at a Time

On the first day I was legally allowed to be a chiropractor, I opened a chiropractic practice. And then I got T-boned on my lunch break.

Seriously.

It was 2006. I had just received my chiropractic license, and Washington Park Chiropractic was officially open for business at 421 E. Alameda Avenue in Denver. On my way home for lunch that very first day, I was involved in a T-bone accident at Logan and Center.

I didn't actually have any patients on my schedule that day. First day and all. But one of the witnesses to my accident became one of my very first patients. Twenty years later, she is still a patient. So is her son.

If that doesn't perfectly encapsulate the story of Washington Park Chiropractic, I'm not sure what does.

I Had a Plan. A Very Specific Plan.

I graduated from Palmer College of Chiropractic West in San Jose, California, but in typical overachiever fashion, I had moved to Colorado six months before graduation to complete two internships while simultaneously preparing to open my own practice. By the time my license arrived, the office was furnished and ready to go.

And when I say I had a vision for WPC, I mean I had a vision. I wrote everything down, from the paint colors to the kind of patient base I wanted to build. I envisioned a practice filled with active individuals and families. I wanted to start small and grow one patient at a time, so that every single person who walked through the door felt like they were part of something. Like family.

I also knew from the beginning that I wanted WPC to eventually become bigger than one chiropractor. From a business standpoint, it made perfect sense to me. Why pay the overhead on a beautiful office that one person could use for 30 hours a week when a team could collectively use that same space for 100 hours a week and serve exponentially more people?

That was the vision in 2006. Twenty years later, remarkably, it is pretty much exactly what we built.

The Craigslist Era

The original Washington Park Chiropractic was humble. We had one treatment room, a waiting room and a small retail area. Almost every piece of furniture came from Craigslist. My big splurges were a new computer and a set of Graston instruments.

There was no giant marketing budget, no social media strategy and definitely no Google Ads campaign. I walked the neighborhood. I introduced myself to business owners and other healthcare professionals. I collected people's contact information in my PalmPilot, which is a sentence that really makes a 20-year anniversary hit differently. About six months in, I hired my first part-time receptionist, who also helped with marketing and our newsletter.

The only traditional advertising I remember paying for was a coupon in a Wash Park coupon book. I also helped found the West Wash Park Merchants Association because I believed deeply in being part of the community where I practiced.

But I never built WPC through formal networking groups or massive advertising campaigns. I believed I could build the practice inside our own four walls. Take incredible care of one person. That person tells another person. Take incredible care of them. Repeat.

Twenty years later, that's still essentially our business model.

Building a Practice While Building a Family

A year after I opened WPC, my dad passed away, just two months before my first son, Tommy, was born in November 2007. My dad had always told me that one of my first priorities should be owning the real estate where I operated my business, and I didn't forget that advice.

After Tommy was born, I took three weeks of maternity leave and then brought him to work with me for the next six months. Yes, three weeks. Apparently maternity-leave Lisa needed some work.

In 2009, my insurance agent and friend told me about a commercial property in Wash Park that one of her clients was preparing to sell. It hadn't even been listed yet. Commercial real estate in Wash Park is extraordinarily difficult to find. Owning it is like owning a unicorn.

In January 2010, Washington Park Chiropractic moved into the home many of you know today at 1313 S. Clarkson Street, Suite 1. I know my dad would have approved.

Later that same year, my second son, Nate, was born. This time I took five whole weeks off. Look at that personal growth. Then he, too, came to work with me for his first six months.

Today, Tommy is about to turn 19 and Nate is about to turn 16. And now Dr. Kelsi Belz brings baby Conway to WPC, just as I once brought my babies. There is something wonderfully full-circle about watching another doctor build her career and raise her family inside the practice where I did the same thing nearly two decades ago.

Somewhere Along the Way, “My Practice” Became “Our Practice”

Within the first couple of years at Clarkson, we expanded. We added another chiropractor, then massage therapy, then acupuncture. Over the years, the people and positions changed and evolved. I've had somewhere around a dozen chiropractic associates, countless interns and many other practitioners come through our doors.

Some were learning experiences for me as a leader, and some were absolute blessings. One of the greatest privileges of my career has been mentoring young chiropractors and watching several of them eventually leave WPC to build successful practices of their own.

Meanwhile, Washington Park Chiropractic kept evolving. Today, our team includes two full-time chiropractors in addition to my own patient schedule, three massage therapists, an acupuncturist and an incredible support team. We've also continued adding services based on what our patients actually need, from spinal decompression and infrared laser to shockwave therapy and NormaTec recovery.

The goal has never been to add something simply because it's shiny and new. The question has always been: Will this help us take better care of our people?

Our People Have Grown Up With Us

This may be my favorite part of 20 years. There are patients in old WPC marketing materials who were babies and toddlers at the time. They're in middle school now.

There are kids I first “met” when their moms were pregnant with them. I adjusted their moms throughout pregnancy, cared for them as babies and children, and now some of those kids are competitive athletes. Sometimes I'm treating their teammates too.

We have patients who proudly announce, “I've been here since Alameda,” or “I've been coming here since you moved to Clarkson.” And, incredibly, there are still people who can say, “I've been here all 20 years.”

One of my absolute favorite things still happens regularly in our waiting room. Two patients look at each other and say, “YOU come here too?!” Sometimes they're friends. Sometimes they're coworkers. Sometimes, somehow, they're even related and didn't know the other person was a patient.

After 20 years, that still blows my mind because that is the brand I wanted to build. Not a logo or an advertisement, but a community.

Sometimes Listening Is the Most Important Thing We Do

There is another part of this work that I am profoundly proud of. Over the past 20 years, I have been the first healthcare provider to recognize signs of cancer in more than two dozen patients, including four pediatric patients.

Those stories have not all had happy endings, but they have profoundly shaped me as a doctor.

In each case, something didn't add up. A symptom didn't fit. The story wasn't quite right. So I listened. I asked another question. I looked a little deeper. I referred when something was outside my lane.

Being a great chiropractor isn't just about knowing when and how to adjust someone. It's knowing when not to. It's listening carefully enough to recognize when someone's body may be telling us something bigger. That responsibility is something I have never taken lightly.

Twenty Years Also Teaches You to Relax

If I could tell 2006 Lisa one thing about running a practice, it might simply be: Relax.

Provide exceptional care. Be authentic. Tell people what you genuinely believe they need. Ask them to tell their friends. Serve more people. Then relax.

I believed from the beginning that abundance begets abundance. The difference is that now I have 20 years of evidence.

That doesn't mean every year was easy. COVID was an extraordinary gut check. It showed me exactly how lean and resilient our business was and who I could count on. Motherhood required balance, although at the time I didn't spend much time wondering whether I could do it. I just did it.

Eventually, I also had to recognize my own limits. Providing hands-on patient care requires an enormous amount of physical and emotional energy. At some point, I realized that if I wanted to continue providing elite care, I had to pivot. I moved my own patient-care schedule to two days per week.

At first glance, working fewer days with patients might sound like slowing down.

It wasn't.

It gave me the opportunity to lean harder into another part of WPC that I absolutely love: building the business, developing people and creating the vision for what comes next.

From Treating Patients to Teaching a Profession

Eventually, I realized that if I wanted to continue providing elite care, I had to pivot. I moved my own patient-care schedule to two days per week.

At first glance, working fewer days with patients might sound like slowing down. It wasn't. It gave me the opportunity to lean harder into another part of WPC that I absolutely love: building the business, developing people and creating the vision for what comes next.

And it gave me the time and space to discover just how far a career that started in one little treatment room could take me.

Beyond the Walls of WPC

I knew exactly what I wanted WPC to become. What I couldn't have known was where building it would take me.

Over the years, the career that began in one treatment room on Alameda has taken me far beyond those original four walls. I've had the privilege of completing rotations at the United States Olympic Training Center, treating athletes at the World Sport Games in Spain, and working at 12 USGA championships, including the U.S. Open, U.S. Women's Open, U.S. Senior Open and U.S. Amateur. As an athlete and golfer myself, getting to care for athletes and caddies on some of the biggest stages in sport has been one of the great honors of my clinical career. 

WPC also gave me a platform to serve in other ways. In 2015, I founded The Kingsbury Open, a golf tournament supporting pancreatic cancer research and treatment. Over 12 years we have donated nearly $600,000 to Wings of Hope for Pancreatic Cancer Research. I've taught chiropractic students and doctors, served as a mentor and educator within the profession, delivered my alma mater's commencement address, and spoken across the country and internationally. In 2025, I was honored as the World Congress of Women Chiropractors' Women in Leadership Chiropractor of the Year. 

Eventually, 18 years of building WPC became a book. In 2024, The Manual for the Chiropractic Entrepreneur was published by Parker University. That led to even more opportunities to teach, speak and mentor early-career chiropractors build practices of their own.

None of those things were on the goal sheet in 2006.

I knew what I wanted Washington Park Chiropractic to become. I just didn't know who building it would allow me to become.

What Comes Next

When I think about the next 20 years, my dream is bigger than having a successful chiropractic office. I want Washington Park Chiropractic to become a Denver institution.

Maybe someday a regional one. Maybe even something bigger. A place that people seek out because the name itself represents a standard of care. I want people to come to WPC because our providers are special, our care is special and our hospitality is unparalleled.

I want them to come because we pay attention. Because we know your name. Because we remember your kids. Because we listen when something doesn't add up. Because when you walk through our doors, you know someone genuinely cares about what happens to you.

WPC doesn't need to depend on me personally being in every treatment room anymore. That was never really the dream. The dream was to create something that could serve far more people than I ever could alone.

And maybe that's one of the things I'm most proud of after 20 years. WPC gave me the opportunity to build a career I love, raise my boys, become a better doctor, mentor other chiropractors, write a book, become an educator and speaker, and now help shape the next generation of our profession.

But none of those things required leaving WPC behind.

They grew from it.

The Mission Hasn't Changed

Twenty years ago, I wanted to change the way people thought about chiropractic.

I still do.

Yes, if you're in serious pain, come see us. We can help you with that. But getting you out of pain isn't the finish line.

We want to help you live better.

We want you to move well, recover well, stay active, pick up your kids, compete, travel, work, golf, run, lift, sleep and age well. We want to take care of your spouse and your parents, your babies and teenagers, your teammates and friends.

Your body isn't something you should only pay attention to when it starts screaming at you.

For 20 years, our mission has been to change the perspective of the world about chiropractic care, one person, one family at a time.

We estimate that our team has provided more than 250,000 treatments over the past two decades. But when I think about what 20 years of WPC means, that isn't really the number that matters to me.

It's the generations.

It's the pregnant patient whose baby became our patient, who became an athlete, who brought us a teammate. It's the husband who came because his wife sent him. It's the person who walked into the waiting room and discovered that three people they know already come here.

It's the thousands of individual relationships that, one at a time, became Washington Park Chiropractic.

So to every patient who walked through the doors at Alameda, everyone who followed us to Clarkson, every person who told a friend, brought in a spouse, trusted us with a baby, referred a teammate or sent us a coworker, and every intern, practitioner and team member who helped build WPC, thank you.

And especially to those of you who can proudly say, “I've been here all 20 years.”

You didn't just support my practice.

You built Washington Park Chiropractic with me.

Here's to the next 20.

Dr. Lisa GoodmanFounder, Washington Park Chiropractic