Dr. George Bonner, DC, is well-educated man— very well educated. As a chiropractor and expert in the fields of holistic wellness and energy therapy, Bonner has studied various forms of healing. Along with chiropractic therapy, he has learned acupuncture at Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, auricular therapy (also known as ear acupuncture) under Dr. Soliman Nader and Col. Richard Niemtzon, and electro diagnostic medicine at Harvard, The Mayo Clinic, Thomas Jefferson University and Colombia University. Armed to the tooth with the knowledge to help rid people of pain, Bonner has opened up a new business, The River Wards Occupational Medicine and Wellness Center in Port Richmond. Located at 2437 Aramingo Ave., this practice’s main focus is to combine the disciplines of chiropractic therapy, auricular therapy, micro current electrical stimulation and electro diagnostics into one beneficial package for the patient.

“I find that the patients respond much faster and their symptoms are alleviated much quicker like that,” Bonner said. “And there was a great need for a holistic wellness center in the Fishtown and Port Richmond area. I know there are a lot of people in the neighborhood who don’t like seeing a doctor and having drugs prescribed for pain—that’s basically chasing after symptoms without having the structures even being addressed.”

Bonner is confident that he can greatly resolve the problems of 80-85% of his patients’ complaints within one to three visits with his holistic approach, which aims to treat the whole person instead of focusing on a single problem area. In order to accomplish this, Bonner has assembled a team around him to help serve the community—Dave Dellacroce, a certified fitness trainer and exercise therapy specialist, and Jennifer Cesari, a licensed massage therapist. Together, these three health care providers come up with individualized plans to attack the pain and discomfort of athletes, injured workers, seniors and everyone in between.

An example of the Wellness Center’s approach would be a patient coming in with joint discomfort in their neck and shoulder. Bonner takes a multi-modal approach where he finds the area of the spine that needs to be adjusted—he gives patients a short series of palpation and strength assessments before being “surgical precise” and working at the problem area defined in his analysis. After a slight rotation of the joint and a subtle crack, Bonner runs the same analysis to ensure that the problem has been solved by his adjustment.

“One chiropractic adjustment is the equivalence to three weeks of weight training for the cervical spine,” Bonner said. “The restore flow of nerves into the muscle has made her the equivalent of three weeks of weigh training in that shoulder.”

After Bonner adjusts the ailing joint, Dellacroce, who has extensive one-on-one experience working with patients’ muscle imbalances, weakness and flexibility, treats the patient with an exercise routine that stabilizes the targeted area.

“After Dr. Bonner comes up with a course of treatment, he’ll inform me of the issue and we’ll come up with a series of exercises that will work on stabilization and mobility and we work them out here,” Dellacroce said. “You’d be surprised how many people come in with normal range of motion in one arm and limited motion in the other. It’s very important to correct that and prevent any more problems that a lack of symmetry in the body may cause—it can cause a domino effect where one part of the body begins overcompensating for another part. We try to break that cycle of pain, discomfort and injury.”

Next, Cesari comes into the picture. A favorite to many of the Wellness Center’s patients, she offers medical massage therapy, deep tissue massages and myofascial release. The massage is more than just pleasurable—it’s practical. After the joint and bone aspect of treatment is taken care of, a patient’s muscles and soft tissues must be also addressed in order to receive full benefit of an adjustment.

“After you get adjusted you want all of your muscles to relax, because when everything is pulled one way, the muscles tend to stretch that way and go into spasms. My job is to make everything relaxed so it holds [Dr. Bonner’s] adjustment,” Cesari said. “It’s great when you can alleviate someone’s pain with just your hands and no pills are involved. Massages increase circulation, and if you are having issues with your body, blood heals everything. If you’re increasing circulation and pushing the blood through, you’re healing those bones and soft tissues and pushing toxins out of the body.”

Lastly, Bonner adds in the auricular component, where conditions affecting the physical, mental or emotional health of the patient are treated by the stimulation of the surface of the ear.

According to Bonner, patients are often in and out of the office after only 45 minutes. One patient, Port Richmond’s Jennifer Burns, came in to receive an adjustment from Dr. Bonner after experiencing a series of headaches.

“I’m very out of whack and I have a very stressful life— it got to the point where I had a three-day migraine last week,” Burns said. “One visit with George and I am usually better. I don’t always take care of myself like I should, but George is not a quack that will tell you that he needs you to come in five times a week. He treats you from a whole body perspective and that holistic approach is why I come here.”

“That’s what we are looking to do, have a holistic, multi-disciplinary health center where we can address a majority of patients’ complaints all at one time,” Bonner added. “Bottom line: it’s better for the patient—health care costs go down and their symptoms improve. It’s not a cookie cutter approach—everyone gets individualized treatment.”

Individualized treatments include but aren’t limited to any of the tools you can find in the Wellness Center’s large exercise room, which features a decompression table, a treadmill, an elliptical machine, recumbent bikes, a traction table and stretching tables to go along with standard medicine balls, foam rollers and balance balls. Each is state-of-the-art and serves a unique purpose in every patient’s treatment.

“People are like snowflakes and should be treated as such,” Dellacroce said. “It’s quite often an imbalance from one side of the body to the other. That’s why it’s important to evaluate everybody individually and come up with an individual program.”

Moving forward, The River Wards Occupational Medicine and Wellness Center is planning on offering workshops that will offer free education to community members. Each workshop will carry a theme that will be discussed like flexibility, mobility or repetitive motion injuries. These workshops can help prevent issues from ever coming up in the first place.

“A lot of what we do is preventive,” Dellacroce said. “People don’t know how to properly pick something up off the ground without putting themselves at risk of injury. Often times, it’s as simple as showing someone a movement, an exercise or a stretch that will prevent recurrence going forward.”

Through the educational, preventive and rehabilitative services that The River Wards Occupational Medicine and Wellness Center provides, Bonner hopes to improve the quality of life for his patients and his community.

“I get a lot of fulfillment out of my career and as a community member by being able to provide health care services that aren’t duplicated anywhere else in the area,” Bonner said. “I know we can accomplish that with this team I have assembled and I’m proud of that. I look forward to helping the community, improving the quality of life and just reducing pain and needless suffering—we can take care of all of that right here.”

The River Wards Occupational Medicine and Wellness Center is open Mon./Wed./Fri. from 9am-6pm, Tues./Thurs. from 11am-7pm, and Sat. from 9am-1pm. You can make an appointment by calling 267-519-8788. You can also ‘Like’ the office on Facebook.