Berkeley Chiropractor: Dr. Jay Bunker

I always knew I wanted to help people...

I loved biology when I started college - even scoring almost 100% in my freshman year class - but dropped it as my major after the first year. I thought it was just because I was afraid of taking chemistry, but I later realized that another reason was that biology seemed to be missing any focus on what interested me most - the life force itself. It would take years until I found a field that combined the “life sciences” with an appreciation of what animates life.

So when I discovered structural bodywork (deep tissue massage and movement education) I got certified and began a full time practice in 1983. After several years of seeing the impact of a hands on approach in helping people to heal, I wanted to learn more, but was having a hard time deciding which health profession to study. One day, while doing a back bend in my yoga class, I spotted an (upside down) anatomy chart on the wall behind me illustrating the skeletal system. It dawned on me in that moment that chiropractic was the right choice for me because it combined what I was already doing in improving alignment with a recognition of the life force animating the body that was missing in most health sciences. I went back to school to get the basic science prerequisites for chiropractic school I had not taken earlier - and boy was I was surprised to discover that I actually enjoyed chemistry!

Chiropractic College

I had the good fortune of getting to choose between two chiropractic schools in the bay area. I went to Life Chiropractic College - West because it has a strong emphasis on working with the body's innate intelligence and it offers a good variety of adjusting techniques in the curriculum. It was tough being back in a classroom again at age 36, but courses such as philosophy of chiropractic inspired me, and I knew I had found what was missing in my undergraduate studies. By the time I graduated magna cun laude in 1992, I had fallen in love with chiropractic.

Over my 28 years of working with people on their health and wellness I have discovered a lot. One realization has been that relaxation is a fundamental key to health. From that principle flows a lot of my practice philosophy:

1. The experience of being cared for includes the letting go of stress and tension. I allow plenty of time for patients to relax so that healing can occur. You will feel appreciated and never feel rushed in my office.
2. Releasing tension stored in the central nervous system as a result of physical, emotional, and chemical trauma accumulated over your lifetime is essential to improving your body's functioning.
3. The best methods I have found to release that spinal cord tension are gentle, low force adjustments that do not involve cracking, twisting or any forceful pressure. Gentle adjusting = relaxation.
4. A major source of the physical trauma that causes increased tension in the spines - as well as the muscles - of most people is postural stress. By learning some simple guidelines that I teach, you can greatly increase your body's relaxation and thereby assist your own healing. And you will be surprised at how much these guidelines differ from what you already know about "good posture".
5. Deep tissue bodywork can assist muscles and other soft tissues to lengthen, relax, and realign - and this relaxation from the "outside in" can complement the relaxation from "inside out" of the chiropractic adjustments.

Personally

Some of my favorite "down time" activities include:

Watching baseball games or going to movies with my teenage son Matthew.

Cooking and enjoying organic whole food or hiking in nature with my partner Susan.

Reading a good book or traveling to scenic natural areas.

My community activities include serving at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley and the East Bay Nation of Men.

The way I approach my own health has resulted from a gradual realization that our "health care system" actually has less to do with health than disease, and that health care is something that I do for myself with the assistance and support of people I trust. In addition to regular chiropractic adjustments varying from weekly to monthly, I also utilize support from traditional Chinese medicine, bodywork, and homeopathy. My diet has come to consist mostly of simply prepared, sustainably produced whole food. My exercise program is based around walking with the addition of upper body conditioning and occasional yoga. And most recently (over the past three years) I have realized the amazing health benefits of becoming optimally hydrated and anti-oxidized with ionized alkaline water.

I look forward to meeting you in person and discussing your particular health concerns. Give my office a call or email me with the link below.

Dr. Jay Bunker, 904 Masonic Avenue, Albany, CA | (510) 528-3058