Palmer, Alaska
The symptom you came in for is usually the outer layer. One-on-one sessions working through structure, homeopathy, acupressure, and emotion, to find out what is actually underneath it.
How it works
Every visit follows the same shape. Most of it is evaluation. The working part is short, gentle, and specific to what the evaluation turned up.
History, symptoms, what has already been tried, and what has not worked. This comes first and it is not rushed.
Manual muscle testing, used to narrow down where the body is under stress and which system to look at next.
Whichever of the four areas the findings point to, addressed in the order the body offers them rather than a fixed protocol.
The same tests are run again to see whether anything actually moved. If nothing moved, that is useful information too.
What was found, what it suggests, and whether another visit makes sense. No package is sold and no schedule is committed to.
The two sections below explain the thinking behind step 02 and step 03: why the obvious symptom is often the wrong thing to chase, and what manual muscle testing actually is.
The onion
The body has layers, like an onion. Somewhere near the center sits the root of the problem. What a person actually feels, and what sends them looking for help, is usually one of the outer layers.
Those outer layers are real and worth taking seriously. But the loudest symptom is frequently nowhere near the root, and chasing it can keep someone busy for years without much changing.
So the work goes layer by layer, in the order the body offers them up rather than the order anyone would guess at. That slow peeling back is what natural care is genuinely good at.
Muscle testing
The practitioner applies steady pressure to a muscle and looks for strength or weakness. The muscle either stays locked against that pressure or it gives way. That difference is the finding.
It is an old tool and a mainstream one. Manual muscle testing has been in clinical use since around 1915. Physical therapists use it, neurologists use it, and intensive care units use it to track whether a patient is getting stronger or weaker.
The research on whether two examiners get the same answer is reasonably good. A 2018 systematic review found substantial to almost perfect agreement across most muscle actions, both between examiners and on repeat testing. A 2025 review looking specifically at muscle testing as it is used within applied kinesiology found that reliability varies by which muscle is being tested.
What the test gives is direction, not a diagnosis. It does not name a disease and it is not used to. It narrows down where to look next, so the work that follows is specific instead of general. Then the same tests are run again to see whether anything moved.
Most people have felt a version of this without ever calling it anything.
You walk into a room and something feels off. Nobody said a word. Nothing happened. You simply know you do not want to be in there. Or you walk into a wedding, see people you have not seen in years, and it feels good in a way that would be hard to put into words. Something in you responded to that room before any thinking about it took place.
That responsiveness is what the testing works with. The framing used here is not energy. It is frequency: everything carries one, a rock included, and when something is brought against the body the body reacts to it, favorably or not. Muscle testing is how that reaction gets read while it is happening.
From there, acupressure points allow a signal to be sent along the spine toward the organ or system being asked to pay attention again. The aim throughout is to help the body harmonize, so its parts are communicating rather than working around each other.
Reliability research referenced above: Bohannon RW, Reliability of manual muscle testing: a systematic review, Isokinetics and Exercise Science, 2018. And a 2025 systematic review of intra- and inter-examiner reliability of manual muscle testing within applied kinesiology, Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics.
The method
Four areas, not four steps. Clint Whitney trained in the SHAPE method under Kirsten Lewis.
How the body is physically holding itself, and where that holding has started to cost something.
Gentle remedies chosen for the individual, supporting what the body is already attempting on its own.
Hands-on contact at specific points, sending signals along the spine toward the systems being addressed.
What a person is still carrying. Something never set down has a way of showing up in the body eventually.
These are not a sequence. The body decides what gets attention and in what order, and that is the part of the method that makes it work.
What to expect
It takes about three or four visits to understand where your body actually is.
Not to be finished. To know what we are working with, and to have an honest idea of what the road ahead might look like.
Nobody can tell you on day one how long this takes. It depends on you, on your history, and on how tangled the situation is. Anyone who promises you one visit and a new life is not being straight with you. Neither is anyone who tells you you'll be coming back forever.
The goal is not to keep you coming indefinitely.
You will be able to tell whether this is helping, and so will the practitioner. Most people feel a general difference after a couple of visits. If it is not helping, that gets said plainly and a different path gets discussed.
Once your body is somewhere you're glad to be, plenty of people come in every month or two to stay there. Others come when they've caught something and would rather try this before reaching for antibiotics. Both are fine. Neither is required.
Your first visit
You fill out an intake form before you come. The conversation comes first, and it is a full one before anything becomes hands-on.
The evaluation is hands-on and gentle. You stay clothed. Nothing gets cracked, twisted, or forced. Findings get explained as they come up, because you should understand what happened in that room before you walk out of it.
First visits run long. Real space is left between appointments, so you get a minute to sit with it and the practitioner gets a minute to reset before the next person. Nobody here is being processed.
Who tends to come in
About
I trained in this work in 2009 and then quietly did it on people for years without advertising it anywhere.
When I retired from the Air Force in 2021, I asked my wife Sandra not to tell anyone I did this. That wasn't modesty. This work takes real energy out of a person, I didn't have much left, and what I did have I wanted to spend on my kids while they were still at home to spend it on.
So I built a marketing company instead. I got good at it. I helped a lot of businesses make a lot of money, and I can show you the numbers, and none of it ever once felt like it mattered.
Nobody ever teared up in my office because I fixed their ad account.
My kids are older now. I have room I didn't have then. I've spent these past months back in training under Kirsten Lewis, who has put more into me than I know how to pay back, and I've decided to stop keeping this quiet.
I think this is something I was given to do. I'd rather spend the back half of my working life doing it here, in Palmer, than optimizing somebody else's ad spend.
Resources
These are the papers handed out in the office. They will be free to download here, with no email required, once the practice opens.
Some of these come at things from a faith perspective. Take what is useful and leave the rest.
Pricing
Intake, full evaluation, and the first session. It runs longer than the visits that follow, because there is more to work through.
Same care, shorter. How many are needed is a conversation that happens as things go, not a number anyone can quote up front.
Payment is due at the time of care. Cash or card, both fine. No billing you later, no running a tab, same as a chiropractor's office or a grocery store.
Insurance is not billed here. Paying directly keeps things simple, keeps your records out of a claims system, and removes any reason to recommend a visit you do not need.
Booking
Pick a time that works. You'll get a confirmation and the intake form by email.
Palmer, Alaska. New patient visits will be booked longer than follow-ups. Cancellations will need 24 hours notice.
Keep taking your medications. Keep your appointments with your doctor. Do not cancel a procedure without talking to your physician first. If you have a known severe allergy, never test it.
If you think you're having a medical emergency, call 911.