Green joins Sisters chiropractic practice

Changing professions is a big step for anyone. Moving to a new area is also a huge stretch. Doing both is a challenging leap, a leap that Sisters newest chiropractic physician Anthony Green felt compelled to take.

Green has taken his leap in slow motion over a period of some four years. It all started when he decided to go back to school to become a chiropractor after a career as a chemical technician in the semi-conductor field.

"It was all inside work. I was working night shift and graveyard, always in a clean room. It just wasn't fun," Green said.

At the time Green, plagued with back pain and having friends who were studying to become chiropractors, tried chiropractic treatment.

"It just did so much for me that I decided this would be a much better line of work," he said.

Green went back to school at Western States Chiropractic College in Portland, graduating four years later with a Doctorate in Chiropractic.

Earlier this month he opened his practice in Sisters as an associate with Sisters long-time chiropractic physician Bonnie Malone.

More than a year ago when Green was still in school, he and his wife Monica and their children came to Sisters to visit friends Nyle and Emily Head. While Green and his family were in Sisters, Green met Malone. During their visit with the Heads, the Greens fell in love with Sisters and decided to move here.

"It's just seemed like such a neat place. The community is what we moved here for," Green said.

Going back to Portland, it only took a few months for the family to make the move. However, when they arrived, Green had missed the cutoff date to take the chiropractic board exams.

"They only offer the boards every six months," he said.

Realizing that he had no option but to wait to take his boards and with his family in Sisters, Green started looking for work. Having grown up around horses, Green quickly obtained a job as a ranch hand at Hinterland Ranch.

"I spent about a year working there," he said.

He then was able to take and pass the exams that allowed him to open his practice as a chiropractor.

Green described his chiropractic work.

"It's a lot like Bonnie's," he said. "It's a lot more manual manipulation, very hands-on. I believe in treating the whole person. I like to get people better and send them home and have them come back the next time they're feeling bad.

"The most important thing about chiropractic is that it's noninvasive. It's incredibly safe," he said. "It's so much safer than any of the medications that most people take for anything. We can do a lot of the same types of things for you that the medical doctors do but do it safely without causing any harm to any other parts of the body.

"Chiropractors in general are there to really help to see you for the things that we can. We're musculoskeletal experts, and the majority of us feel very strongly about referring out the things that are beyond our control to treat. That's something that I feel strongly about. If it's not something that I can treat here, then I'm going to send you to somebody who can," he said.

Green also reeducates people about posture and the way they use their bodies.

"We can teach you a lot that will alleviate daily aches and pains," he said. He also works to cure sinusitis, chronic headaches and other disorders.

Malone could not be happier having Green work with her as an associate.

"For me personally, it will be wonderful to have someone to fill in so I can start visiting my family, my 89-year-old mother and start to gain more personal time, although I have a lot of work here left. I love my work. I don't want to stop working, but it will be nice to have someone to fill in," she said.