Blazing his own trail
By Michael Linnell
University Communications Director
michael.linnell@minotstateu.edu
MINOT, N.D. — Kirk Mason ’12 had a change of heart about midway through his undergraduate experience at Minot State.
“I started in physical education and was about two and a half years into that and had to teach in one of Terry Eckmann’s classes,” he said. “I came home and told my wife (Jacinta), yeah, I don’t think I want to do that. Chiropractic was always in the back of my mind, but I wasn’t super dedicated to school at that point.
“I went home and looked into physical therapy and chiropractic schools — I had a great chiro back in Canada who was, and still is, very influential to me — and decided to change to pre-chiropractic.”
While it might not be the most traditional path to chiropractic school, Mason, who graduated from Northwestern Health Sciences University, has been anything but traditional.
“Your first year of chiropractic, you are sitting in class and learning, but you are also going to seminars,” Mason said. “I was having pain in my upper traps and neck and was getting adjusted, but it wasn’t helping. I was frustrated with constantly getting adjusted, adjusted, adjusted. I went to a seminar from the Motion Palpation Institute and it completely opened my eyes to what’s possible in chiropractic. I probably went to two seminars a month outside of school, going to different ones on rehab based, kinesio tape, acupuncture, dry needling, and other soft tissue techniques.
It was a little bit of a leap of faith to do that with my personal practice because most chiropractors don’t offer a lot of exercise with their treatment, but I believe heavily that the soft tissue and rehabilitation work is going to get the best results for my patients.”
It didn’t take him long to find the right fit for his practice either. After working for a short time with local doctors in Minot, he was looking to get started on his own. Realtor Jeff Stremick mentioned a fellow chiropractor who was about to open her own practice.
“I met my now business partner, Becky Domres, that meeting went really good and we decided to open together,” Mason said. “She had a space built out and was just about to open and I bought out half of the build out.”
Premier Chiropractic opened in 2016 and has recently expanded to offer exercise classes at Premier Movement.
“We really believe in movement,” Mason said. “Our model is a little different than most chiropractic clinics, but pretty much every patient that comes to see me gets movement at the time of their treatment. The research is telling us that exercise is probably the best tool we have for musculoskeletal pain, so why not incorporate it?”
Now as a small business owner, Mason, a native of Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, relies on reading as much as he can and a work ethic that comes from being a former student-athlete to move his business forward.
“Time management is a big piece that I was pretty terrible at my first year of school, but being a student-athlete definitely helps you get better in that regard. My football coach, Paul Rudolph, instilled in me that hard work is the only way you accomplish things in life,” he said. “I knew early on in chiropractic school that I was going to go into practice and love the entrepreneurial side of things.
“The gym side is an adventure all its own that has been a ton of work, but also so rewarding to see some of the results our clients get in the gym.”
About Minot State University
Minot State University is a public university dedicated to excellence in education, scholarship, and community engagement achieved through
rigorous academic experiences, active learning environments, commitment to public service, and a vibrant campus life.
| Published: 12/09/19 |
