I had known about Dr. Jeff but had resisted seeing him, feeling somewhat skeptical about his approach which required daily attendance, at least initially. I overcame my reluctance and started with Jeff in this year. Within a month, I experienced greatly increased mobility, and within another month I became, for the first time in years, pain free. For the first time in a long time I was actually able to run and I began to delight in my growing freedom of movement.

I have continued to become stronger and stronger and am now able to lift heavy things without instantly becoming convulsed with spasm. There is no doubt that I have improved beyond anything I could have imagined, and it just gets better and better. In addition, I have always suffered from migraine headaches with bouts occurring almost monthly. I have had no migraine symptoms for at least 5 months. I am so full of appreciation to have encountered chiropractic as practiced by the irrepressible and ebullient Dr Jeff."

~ Ariel L.

During my every-other day check-ups I would wear a certain amount of weights, get adjusted, do proprioceptive balancing exercises and use my home rehab kit daily. Over a period of time I excelled in these exercises. I went from wearing 1 weight at one pound on my head to wearing 8 weights and know I have gone from the small fulcrum exercises to the large ones.

Just by going to Ptak Chiropractic and following Dr. Ptak's program I can feel and see the change in my body. First of all my body has become stronger and more relaxed because of the adjustments and the weights. When I first heard that I had Scoliosis I thought that I would never get better and would have to have a very painful surgery. But now I say " Never Say Never." I am so grateful to have my parents take me to Dr. Ptak. We live in Long Beach and it truly has been a family effort."

~ Abimbola D.

After hearing my story and seeing his temperature was higher than normal, she ran off to ask the in house doctor's opinion. No doctor actually examined him. She returned and gave me the news. "Rush him to the local ER-- he might have meningitis!" The workup, she explained, would include blood samples and a spinal tap. Shocked, I responded. "WHAT?!" NO WAY was I subjecting my son to that. It all sounded completely wrong.

I packed him up, drove home, and called my daughter's pediatrician for a second opinion. In the meantime my son was nursing a little better and had few of the meningitis symptoms. My husband and I took his temperature again. It was normal. So, we gathered the kids and headed to you. As soon as you reached down to adjust our newborn son, and without knowing anything of the past 24 hours, you asked if he was having trouble breastfeeding. Of course, he was. I nodded. Amazing, how you knew. You adjusted his neck and the rest of his spine and I'm happy to report he's nursing great and has returned to his normal self.

Thanks again for reminding me how western medicine can often lead us to the wrong conclusions when we don't listen to our own intuition."

~ Patti L.

This is a true gift for his clients, and is the most healing thing one can offer in my opinion. He is also known to offer up large doses of healing hugs! Dr. Ptak is completely loyal to the Chiropractic philosophy and knows that the Spirit does the work. It is without reservation that I highly recommend this gifted healer.

Blessings,
Jo-Ellen F. M.A.

The wobble chair had the most immediate beneficial effects and still to this day, nine months later, provides me with excellent relief from minor daily stiffness and creates a tangible sense of fluidity in my whole body. At first, the cervical traction unit seemed to not have any effect at all. But then, about two months into doing the neck stretches correctly twice a day, I experienced a surprise; startling at first. My cervical spine released and audibly decompressed. I was shocked and even a little grossed out at first. But it felt great. It took at least 50 repetitions of the recommended 60 for my neck to release each and every time I used the traction unit.

Little by little, the decompression would occur at an earlier number in my repetitions. And slowly, the decompression was not just limited to the cervical spine area, but extended all the way down through the middle thoracic, and even down into the lower lumbar section. Today, the decompression "self-adjustment" occurs on the first repetition and extends down into the lumbar by only the fifth repetition. It immediately relieves any tension or mild headache I may be experiencing at the time. The head weights took some getting used to. I remember in the beginning after only a few minutes of a mere one pound weight, it would make me feel nauseous. But like almost anything, one can adapt and get used to this very important strengthening and spine/muscle re-educational tool.

Visits to your office were always pleasant and informative. I must commend both Jeff and Patty's motivation to help people feel better. You've got a great thing going on and I hope you continue for many years to come.

Special note goes to Patty for every single time I spoke with her, even though I perceive myself to be a balanced person with good health habits, I felt like I was inspired to take even better care of myself. Without being pushy, condescending or interfering, she always seemed to enlighten me in the most encouraging and caring way; that there was room for improvement, evolution and change, and simple ways to make it happen.

Too many clumsy falls over the years caused a fair amount of compression in various parts of my spine. Falling on a door hinge on my face at age one, tripping over a speed bump and falling on concrete on my face at age 8, going over my bicycle's handlebars at age 14 landing on my face and shoulder, falling down and breaking my collarbone snowboarding at age 26, falling down a flight of stairs upside-down and backwards at age 31, (landing on the top of my head), and finally, the accident that was the straw that almost literally "broke this camel's back" was landing an unsuccessful back flip on a trampoline on the top of my head at age 34.

I'm lucky I didn't paralyze or kill myself that last time. (And by looking at this extensive accident laundry list, you'd think I was just a big klutz! Not true, not true, just occasionally not as careful as I should have been doing risky and adventurous endeavors.) After the final accident, I thought I'd simply get better over time like always. Not so. After three months I still did not have full range of motion of my neck turning left, right and especially looking up.

Today, thanks to your office, the Pettibon method and my own due diligence, my head and spine have a greater range of motion than I've had probably since before I was a teenager. This added flexibility shows itself especially in yoga class where I can now reach, twist and turn to greater lengths than before I started visiting your office and doing the home exercises.

Another apparent improvement is the strength of my neck during certain yoga poses where I can hold my neck sideways, parallel to the floor with ease, whereas in the past, the weight of my head would cause fatigue in my neck muscles fairly quickly. I attribute this greater neck strength directly to the isometric exercises I still do on an almost daily basis. Also, I used to grow very weary in my lower back after only an hour of walking around a store, museum or other standing event. Now, I have much greater tolerance for those types of usually fatiguing activities.

Release of my lower back created more space between my lowest rib and pelvis than I'd had in a very many years. The cervical traction, daily exercises and nightly spinal molding caused this new space. My husband and I did not have any fertility issues to my knowledge. However, I do believe that this increased space in my pelvic region contributed to the ease in which our baby was conceived. It was just after I started to notice how much more space and mobility my lower back and sacrum had gained, that we conceived. We are currently four months pregnant and keeping up with the home exercises has been beneficial in feeling good during this time for me.

Moving to New York two months ago was difficult and stressful. I miss being under your office's care and I hope I can find a comparable setting and practice here in NYC.

Thanks very much for all your help, care and generosity of your knowledge, and healing practices.

~ Michelle Cavanagh

"For me, whether you're a professional athlete or not, my parents aren't professional athletes and they've been to chiropractors for as long as I can remember, at least for the last 30 years and it helps them in their everyday life, it helps them in their mobility and in just feeling feeling happy when you feel like you've got a healthy body, you're going to move more comfortably. It's going to affect your relationships and it's going to affect the work that you do, no matter what work you do, whether you're sitting at a computer or playing outside or whatever you may be doing. I strongly recommend chiropractic care for everyone; however, each person is different and requires different needs to live a healthy life.

"I'm grateful there's chiropractic care out there and that people are willing to take a different approach to avoid invasive treatment. I'm happy there is a nonsurgical treatment out there for a number of ailments or aches and pains. I guess I'm just happy that there is chiropractic care, because I do believe that's what enables me to enjoy a life of performing and a life of competing."

Sarah's confidence in chiropractic goes beyond what her parents taught her.

Her own experiences convinced her of chiropractic's importance in helping her live a healthy life:

"The biggest impact it had for me was when I was a competitive gymnast at a very young age I was dealing with a fair amount of aches and pains when I was young. I remember being 12 years old and I kind of went to the chiropractor because my parents made me, almost like going to the doctor or going to the dentist, something like your parents saying, 'Oh, you're going,' so you say 'OK, I'm going,' but you didn't necessarily understand the benefits of it.

"I was 11 or 12 years old when I started to have pain in my wrist and it got to the point where it really frightened me because I didn't know what was going on with my body. I think that's very common for people to get scared when they realize their body isn't functioning normally. It's not functioning the way it's supposed to or the way it used to. When you deal with pain, it's a lot more than a physical response; there's a lot of emotional response that goes along with it. So, as a young kid or a young adolescent, I started to get really scared and I thought, what if I can't continue gymnastics? What if? I've got this huge gymnastics meet approaching in the next week and a half. What if I can't go?

"I was supposed to travel to the mainland from Hawaii and there was a big meet in California and we went first to an orthopedic doctor, who basically prescribed rest and some anti-inflammatory. And I thought, OK, I'll do that, but it doesn't seem to be helping much. It doesn't seem to be helping as quickly as I need. Then I went to my chiropractor and he was not only doing adjustments, he was doing a lot of ice. I would soak my hand in ice for a little while just to reduce the swelling, because there was a lot of swelling going on.

"In 10 days, he was able to get my wrist mobile again, feeling healthy, and I actually was able to make it to the gymnastics meet. And I won the meet. And it was the first time I ever won a mainland meet. It was a big competition for me and it suddenly put things in perspective. I actually wanted to go to the chiropractor after that because I thought, Wow! I really felt like he could work miracles and part of it was because I began to believe in what he was doing and see the benefits. It became a personal choice for me; it was no longer my parent's decision, it was my own."

As Sarah says:

"I think it's important for chiropractors to team together and recognize that it's important for the health of the general population to recognize the benefits of chiropractic care. And I think the best way to do it is for chiropractors to team together and say, 'Hey, look. We do all sorts of different things, [so] come check out chiropractic care in your local area and find out what it can do for you.' "

I was giving up. Then my dear friend Michelle Roh brought me to Los Angeles to see her healer. I crawled in with Michelle's help to Dr. Ptak's office. Dr. Ptak took me right in and spent several hours with me to find out what was wrong. I was crying, I could not breathe and I was in so much pain that I don't remember much of what went on that visit. But what I do know is that by my third visit my voice was back and I was able to walk into his office on my own power. I could slowly feel myself breathing again. To me it felt like I was taking only 2 breathes each day.

By my third visit I could feel my breathing improve. I stayed in Los Angeles for 3 weeks before heading back to Reno to resume my life for the first time in 2 1/2 years. I was able to work part-time. I returned several weeks later for another 10 days and saw Dr. Ptak each day before returning to Reno. As I write this testimonial this is my fourth trip to Los Angeles since I met Dr. Ptak not even 6 months ago. This trip I will be here for an additional 3 weeks before I take my first vacation trip to visit my son who lives in NY State. I now have hope and I improve each and every day. Ok...it has not been Disney, they have worked me hard both in the office and at home but I know I will make it If I do what I need to do and follow the program Dr. Ptak has created for me.

Dr. Ptak and his wife Patricia are the most loving and caring professionals around and they won't let you not make it.

Thank you Dr. Ptak and Pattie. Thank you Dr. Shalese and your tremendous healing team. I love you!

~ Nancy S.
June 12, 2008

We had never tried Chiropractic having heard so many different stories from doctors none all that encouraging. You explained the various differences in Chiropractic and you explained exactly how a Pettibon adjustment works. I become so excited I wanted you to take care of us right there. Well you were so gracious to discuss our situation with the YMCA staff getting them to allows us to use a private room so you could evaluate us both. Well nothing short of a miracle occurred. Lilly's headache stopped immediately. I felt so much relief I could not stop crying I felt such joy. Well its now been 12 days since Lilly's last headache. You showed us her x-rays how unstable her neck was and how her skull had shifted because of this ligament instability. We are all so excited and encouraged by the Pettibon work and the marvelous way you are with her.

We cannot thank you enough. You truly are our greatest gift.

~ April S.

It is said that any journey is 99% complete before one has "evidence" of its completion. We have faith that I-5 will take us to LA if we follow it south from Sacramento for long enough. In that case, of course, we also have a map that says it will be so, even though the signs along the road only "promise" it. In healing, we must have faith every step of the journey because there is no map, only faith and a knowing (or not) of our own innate well-being! It is in the knowing that we re-connect with our well-being. The healer is just a coach, a professional guide, an expert in the journey, and we are the patient ones.

So, anyway, thanks for letting me share my joy! And thanks, Jeff, for coaching and guiding me along the way...and encouraging my best patience!

Respectfully, Paul M.

My friend Sharon kept encouraging me to come and see her Chiropractor who had helped her and her kids out of some very difficult behavioral and health issues. My friend Debra, whose family has been under care with you for some time talked about you frequently, begging me most days to please let her bring me to you. For some reason I just kept telling them both I am seeing the best doctors in the best hospital anywhere, what more could be done then what they were already doing?

I guess it wasn't until I had 7 doctors, myself and my husband sitting in a room together at UCLA one day and one by one each doctor and therapist told me they had done all they could and it was now time to prepare for surgery. Well that day something must of clicked in my brain. That Saturday I meet Dr. Grant and that Monday I was in your office. Well with both of your encouragements and the support of your entire team I signed on for one year of care. I was determined to get my life back. The new seated stress x-rays you took clearly demonstrated why my spine was unstable and why all the therapies that were being done to me were not working. You and Patricia took so much time explaining my condition to my family and me. Dr. Shalese took so much time going over and over all of my rehab protocols.

After my first visit, seeing and listening to your rehab protocols and knowing first hand how uniquely different your spinal program was from everything I had been doing, I was ready. The warmth and caring coming from you, Patricia, Dr. Shalese and the ladies at the front desk made me realize that I was in the right place. So I started seeing you twice a day, every day. For that I am eternally grateful. And now here we are one year later and I cannot thank you all enough for what you have meant to myself and my family. I am pain free. You got me back to work 6 months before my disability was to run out WITHOUT SURGERY. My kids have their mom and my husband has his wife back.

My family and I are forever grateful for your dedication and commitment to us and to all of your patients. I have never met a doctor or a staff who somehow only sees the good that lives inside each one of us. Thanks for reconnecting our family to the dormant greatness we have within. Yes we have signed on for year number 2 as we now look forward to living our true health potential.

Forever grateful,
Aida T.

I answered her in the following way. Well, some kids have a lifetime of recurrent illnesses, much like you and your kids were experiencing prior to coming in for care. But most of them they are just average kids. She looked at me with wonder on her face as I said this, and she followed up with another question, I don't understand! Are you saying that most kids don't need chiropractic care?

NO! I replied, Not at all! Here is what I mean by that. There is nothing wrong with a child being average if that is her potential! But, what if that's NOT her potential? What if she was meant to be something much more than average? Even if she is meant to be what we call average, she will not even reach that level if her brain and body can't communicate effectively with each other.

The only way for your children to reach their potential in life is to have nerve systems that are free from interference so that they can adapt to all of the physical, chemical and mental stresses they encounter each day. That way, their energy can be used to access higher levels of creative thought instead of just trying to get through the day. In other words, they have the best possible chance of reaching their full potential in life!

She looked at me and began to get tears in her eyes as she realized fully for the first time, just how important their chiropractic care had been, especially to Angelina.

Too often, we back down from telling our friends and families the importance of having the whole family adjusted regularly. I know it can seem hard to bring this up, especially when the kids are asymptomatic, but we cannot make this mistake! Everyone needs to be adjusted, EVERYONE! It is the only way for society as a whole to grow and move forward into the next phase of our evolution.

Tell your family, friends and co-workers the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Tell them about the miracle of perfection that exists in each and every one of us. Then, introduce them to our office so that they can begin getting adjusted and the awesome Power that made us can resume expressing Itself maximally in them and in the world! That way, even when people are average, it will be a totally different experience than what being average is today.

Wishing You And Yours A Miraculous Life,
Dr. Jeff

Through your care I have been able to reduce my Lupus drugs in half and I no longer need my pain pills, cholesterol pills, my anti-inflammatory pills and the stomach pills (that I had to take because of the rest). I am completely off my steroids. My kidney and liver function tests have improved. And if this was not enough you have also helped me avoid ankle fusion surgery from my accident that tore my ankle 13 months ago. I was told that ankle fusion surgery was my only hope by my foot orthopedist, several podiatrists and my physical therapist. But again through your unique rehabilitation program my ankle is no longer in a cast, boot, ankle brace or splint and I am back to 90% function.

My medical doctors are all amazed at what we have accomplished. I know my Lupus Support Group members that you just spoke to his past Wednesday will be coming to see you and begin care soon. You are all my guardian angels and I am so blessed to have been guided to your office.

In Gratitude,
Sidney C.

Through chiropractic care and a recommended dietary and exercise regimen, Dr. Ptak and his staff have helped me alleviate these psychological troubles which appear to have stemmed from spinal alignments that were out of sync and an improper diet. Because of this, I highly recommend Ptak chiropractic that goes beyond just cracking your back; they provide you with a holistic health care system.

~ James B. Jr.

During my initial evaluation Patricia and then Dr. Jeff spent quite a bit of time educating me on what chiropractic was all about. By the time Pattie went thru her initial consultation with me I had a pretty good idea what chiropractic was about and what might be the cause for my pain. After Dr. Jeff evaluated me he asked me a question that I did not expect. "What else is going on with you that you did not write down on your intake form?" I asked him what he meant and he stated that he knew I had another issue that brought me here but he was not certain what that was.

Well I thought that was a bit over the top but I shared with him my infertility story. Well then he really went over the top and discussed how chiropractic has assisted couples in getting pregnant where others options had failed. He said that he believed that I was a good candidate based on the medical history I shared.

Dr. Jeff recommended that for best results my husband should also be under care but I shared with Dr. Jeff that my husband sees another chiropractor, has been seeing him for about 10 years but goes only when he has pain. Dr. Jeff left it at that but was very enthusiastic that he could assist me with my back pain and had a good feeling about my becoming pregnant. I signed on for a 6 month program.

Well all I can say is I am now 3 weeks away from my due date. I am only now beginning to become aware that I am truly pregnant I am still in a state of shock. I still cannot believe that my pregnancy came as a result of my chiropractic care. No doubt had I gone to my husband's chiropractor for my back pain some 13 months ago I would not be about to experience the most magical moment of my life. To add to my amazement and why I am motivated to share this testimonial with all of you now is this.

At 32 weeks my birth doctor told me that my son was in a breech position. She explained to me what procedure she would like to attempt and if that did not work I was looking a a C-section. Well part of me was excited about a C-section as I was not at all looking forward to having labor. I shared with Dr. Jeff what my medical doctor had recommended and he then shared with me a technique that he uses in situations like this called The Webster Technique. This is a technique developed by a Pediatric chiropractor that is successful 80 - 90% of the time in turning breech kids around. Dr. Jeff said he is successful about 85 % of the time and he asked me to commit to 10 - 12 visits over the next 4 weeks. I had been going every 7 - 10 days through my pregnancy so I knew this would be a stretch for me.

Well I said lets do it. Day 1 my baby moved to a transverse lie position. I was getting excited. Day 2 no change. I made an appointment with an acupuncturist who another friend said I should go see. They would burn Moxa on the toe of my unborn child and that can have the effect of having a baby turn as they move away from the heat. First I went back for Day 3. Both Dr. Jeff and I could feel my pelvic ligaments loosen and we both had a good feeling. Within a few hours my baby turned.

I am so grateful for Dr Jeff and his team of extraordinarily wonderful women who have supported me thru my process. I urge everyone to seek out Dr. Jeff and his wife' Patricia's health wisdom. I am so looking forward to my natural, drug-free birth. I will be having my baby in a hospital, sorry Dr. Jeff but 2 out of three just isn't bad and naturally you are welcome to be at our birth . I cannot wait to have you check my son's spine and empower him the way you have empowered my family and me and the countless people I have met in your office. Thank you for making the impossible possible for me and my family. I am about to live my dream. God Bless you , your family and your great chiropractic team.

~ Gennie G.