Welcome to the home of
The Women’s Chiro
Chelsea is a Webster qualified Chiropractor (and Pilates Instructor) working in Geelong with a simple goal: to educate women to make intentional decisions for their health, lifestyle and family.
She passionately believes that women should be encouraged to make informed decisions regarding how to manage their hormones, understand their body and equip themselves with tools to manage stress, to plan and prepare for pregnancy + postpartum and learn to trust their body to thrive in their environment.
She’s basically your biggest cheerleader in life, in health, in motherhood and beyond.
NOW TAKING CLIENTS
From April 2024, you’ll find The Women’s Chiro offering in-person chiropractic consults from The Sana Co in Geelong.
Online consults available by request. Scroll down for more info.
How can I support you?
I’m taking a hiatus from in-person clinical work in 2025, while I do some travelling with my family.
While we’re on the road, I’d love to work with you online to support your health + hormonal goals.
The Hormonal Health Consult is right for you if you are looking for:
Support with preconception preparation
A review of your blood tests and guidance with supplements (all ordered through an online portal, straight to your door)
Help with tricky/painful/irregular periods
A deeper understanding of your confirmed or suspected endo, pcos or other hormonal condition
1st, 2nd or 3rd trimester pregnancy support; supplements, exercise, birth and postpartum prep and more
The Preconception Life Audit is right for you if:
2025 is the year you start trying for a baby
You want to prep your environment - your home - to support your hormones
You’d like support learning to chart your cycle
You need some direction with the most important things to work on in the lead up to trying for a baby
A debrief is right for you if:
You are a human with a nervous system ;)
You would like to prepare for, or unpack a birthing experience
You’re stuck on a previous health or pregnancy experience, including loss or fertility challenges, or something that seems somewhat un-related.
You need support to understand the why behind an experience on an intellectual level, or exploring how your body might still be stuck in a previous story.
You’d like to try a slow and gentle introduction to somatic and/or inner parts work.
Know that there is no right or wrong consult to book, no right or wrong way to turn up, and certainly no right or wrong way to explore your health concerns. I’m here for it all and here for you - ready to hold space for whatever you need to bring to a session.
Introductory pricing for all sessions are $80 for 45 minutes, or $150 for 90 minutes (recommended for debriefs).
Support packages are available on request.
Get in touch to find out more, or book online
What is Chiropractic?
What if I told you that your body is self-healing; in the right environment and with the right support, your body is beautifully designed not just to survive, but to thrive through matrescence and beyond.
Chiropractors are experts in the nervous system and musculoskeletal system; we look for signs of dysfunction in the body, the cause of that dysfunction, and then work with you to restore function + health to your joints, muscles and, well, your whole body.
You might have heard that chiropractors only treat the back - this is a common assumption. But the truth is that we look at the whole body - top to toe - to work out how to help you feel your best. BUT we do focus on the spine, and for good reason.
Your spine houses the spinal cord and is the highway for communication between your body and your brain; it’s how your brain sends messages to your body and how your body sends messages back to the brain. This highway makes sure that we know how and when to run, jump, move, duck and dodge in response to movements, balance, uneven surfaces, sharp knives, hot stoves and all other sensory + tactile feedback from the external environment. It’s how we communicate, and respond to, musculoskeletal pain. Sometimes, the pain is external and we need to move away from it. Other times, the pain is internal and we need to change our actions or behaviours to address it.
It also plays a role in the modulation of the stress response, keeping us calm when it can and alert when we need to be. When the messages to the brain are altered (like when there is a fixation or loss of movement at a spinal level), the messages about how alert we need to be can be over exaggerated - you probably know this as your fight or flight response. As chiropractors, we remove the interference along the messaging pathways and restore function to your spine and your nervous system, allowing your body to return to it’s natural state of ease and balance.
Chiropractors look for spinal restriction, as well as function movement disorders, postural changes and other reasons why there might be an increased load on certain areas of your body, or increased stress to your nervous system.
This is why chiropractic care isn’t just about the hands-on treatment in the clinic, it’s also about lifestyle, exercise and so much more.
What is the Webster Technique?
The Webster Technique is a specific chiropractic analysis and gentle adjustment of the sacrum that reduces nervous system dysfunction so the brain-body connection can be restored.
In pregnant women, restriction in the pelvis and tension in the uterine ligaments may be restricting baby’s ability to get into the best position for birth. The adjustment balances pelvic bones, muscles and ligaments, and optimises the mother’s pelvic function in pregnancy and birth.
It is a beautiful tool to use during your pregnancy, but it can be used on any weightbearing individual, in any stage of life.
Chiropractic in pregnancy
Most people book a chiro appointment when they start feeling back pain during their pregnancy. For some this can be around the end of the first trimester, when they experience the first surge of the hormone relaxin. For others, it’s around the halfway mark or even later, once the physical changes are more pronounced and their bodies need some help adapting to a shifting centre of gravity.
BUT chiropractic care isn’t just about pain! It’s about optimal function of your nervous system, helping your body adapt to the physical changes that are happening before that bump starts poppin’, and keeping you moving well.
Did you know that by 5 weeks, your baby’s gender differentiation has already occurred? By 6 weeks, the foundations have been laid for what will become a four chambered heart, and by 10 weeks, you have grown an entire organ (the placenta) that will nourish + protect your baby until they are ready to join the world?
There is so much going on under the surface that requires intricate orchestration, and chiropractic care is just one way to nurture your nervous system (while your baby grows an entirely new nervous system!!) and ensure good communication between your brain and your body.
Why The Women’s Chiro?
So much of the established literature and research on health has been conducted on men, because the cycling hormones in women were considered an uncontrollable variable. Nevermind the fact that it’s that uncontrollable variable that is the very essence of being a woman and becoming a mother (and that ~50% of the population are women and ~50% of women in Australia have cycling hormones).
The reality is that we cannot separate any aspect of your health from your physiology as a woman, and doing so would be a disservice to you. So, at The Women’s Chiro, we use your period as a regular report card on your health, not looking to cover up your symptoms but to get to the root cause and restore function. We look at everything through the lens of cycling hormones (if that applies to you) and how we can create alignment in all areas of your life, not just your spine ;)
I’m here to celebrate your womanhood - the perfect, intricate design that allows you to create life, to nourish a child, to mother with ease and grace (and with rage and big feelings too) because you hold it all in your body and it you deserve a space to be held and heard and supported.
Who is Dr Chelsea Swan (Chiropractor)?
Mother. Wife. Chiropractor. Women’s Health advocate. Pilates Instructor. Woman.
Chelsea graduated with distinction from a Bachelor of Health Science/Bachelor of Applied Science (Chiropractic) at RMIT University, and later went on to complete her Masters of Women’s Health Medicine through University of New South Wales.
She has a keen interest in women’s health spanning from early adulthood through preconception, pregnancy and postpartum, employing a range of gentle and effective chiropractic techniques to suit her patients’ needs.
Chelsea trained in Mat + Reformer Pilates to complement her Chiropractic career, and fell in love with the art of teaching people to move. She has gone on to complete further training in Safe Return to Exercise (a qualified MumSafe Trainer through Body Beyond Baby) and is passionate about building (and rebuilding after birth) the mind-body connection with a particular focus on pelvic floor health.
She has a 5-year-old practice baby (Winnie the bordoodle pup) and now an almost-toddler full of chaos and joy. Together with her husband, they enjoy a simple life of contact naps, walks to the cafe, the occasional (but very treasured) beach dip and getaways in the campervan.