Step into Holt Chiropractic and Massage and it’s clear that this isn’t your average chiropractic clinic.
That starts with the name, which had been Sinclair, named after the local inlet, since Dr. Tom Holt opened for business across the street in 1995.
“When we moved, we decided to completely remake ourselves,” said Holt, who now is located in the complex at 1800 SE Mile Hill Dr. “We reorganized ourselves as a corporation and became Holt Chiropractic and Massage.”
So how did the original name come to be?
“I thought, well, I’ll name it after the inlet and … well, it’s better now,” he said with a laugh. “Almost the second I did it, I regretted it. This was a chance to fix an old mistake.”
Almost immediately one notices the flat-screen monitor in the waiting room, of which the corresponding software allows patients check in, put into words how they are feeling and what is going on — and it all ends up in their chart note.
“It’s cool,” Holt said. “It rectifies any biases I may have. I want them to get better, so I’ll say things like, ‘Is it better today?’ I try to edit myself, but you’re not perfect.”
The clinic has specially designed furniture that folds up and can be moved out of the way to clear the multipurpose room for guest speakers and classes on everything from general spinal care to the 100-year lifestyle.
“It’s all networked and pretty slick,” Holt said.
Down the hall is the “least impressive, most important room” — the rehab room. It is there that Holt and his staff focus on core training, spinal rehab, fitness and “anything we can do to help reduce the need for chiropractic care.”
Holt said that the better shape people get into, the less care they need. To promote that, he instructs a “three-legged stool” of good diet, good exercise and good spine and nervous system.
The main way Holt said he stands out among competitors is its cutting-edge technology. The X-ray machine in the exam room produces digital images within a couple of seconds, and they also have a sub-inflextion system that consists of five computer scans at once, that, Holt said, was designed by a chiropractor, for a chiropractor.
“Most stuff in our profession, usually a medical doctor invented it, and we can use it, but it never quite fits,” Holt said. “This fits.”
There also is a comfortable room in the 2,000 square feet of space where Holt can sit down with his patients and discuss his findings and what he recommends for care.
The other side of the practice is the massage clinic, which includes three rooms and four massage therapists, all of whom have a wealth of experience. The sound-proof walls and dim lights offer a quiet, calming experience, but still present is the same electronic charting as on the chiropractic side.
“That’s what sets us apart,” Holt said. “We know exactly, me as a chiropractor, how every massage client is doing as well as whether they’re my client or not, or if a massage therapist is out sick and someone is covering for someone.”
He calls it interoffice communication, and that makes it “a really cool place to work.”
Holt, the cousin of former Seattle Mariner Willie Bloomquist and a fourth-generation Kitsap County resident, said he always planned to go into medicine after graduating from South Kitsap High School in 1988, but wasn’t sure if he wanted to become a dentist like his uncle or a veterinarian like his father and grandfather.
He was majoring in biochemistry at Washington State University — “which I hated, but it was pre-everything I wanted to do” — when he met the uncle of his now wife at a holiday gathering.
“On a napkin, he drew the brain, spinal corn and organs, and for some reason, there was a switch, and my brain went ‘wow, that’s really neat.’ ”
Holt got his back adjusted on New Year’s Eve — and never looked back.
After graduating from WSU and going on to chiropractic school in California, he returned home.
“I like this place,” he said. “I think Western Washington is the bomb. I was eager to move back home, start my practice and settle deep roots.”
