First Chiropractic

First Chiropractic Gentle, nervous-system based chiropractic in Napier, NZ to support family wellness + resilience
• Headaches • Neck / Back/ Hip Pain • Pregnancy + Kids.

Book Online⬇️ At First Chiropractic, our entire team is focussed on helping you achieve and maintain your health goals. Whether on-going pain or discomfort, injury care or chronic health issues, we are here to help you improve and then maintain your quality of life through chiropractic care. With our central location in Napier, First Chiropractic offers modern, gentle chiropractic care, suitable f

or all ages. Our team of five chiropractors offer a wealth of experience and our state-of-the-art diagnostic technology ensures we are able to provide you with an accurate diagnosis and precise care. Our team of chiropractors are:
• Dr Chris Anderson
• Dr Kate Anderson
• Dr Jeremy Gilbert
• Dr Fegus White



Open from 7.30am – 6pm weekdays as well as Saturday mornings, enjoy the convenience of appointment times to suit your busy schedule. We regularly provide care for those suffering with a range of conditions such as:
• Back Pain
• Neck Pain
• Headaches and Migraines
• Pinched Nerves
• Pregnancy
• Sciatica
• Scoliosis
• Slipped Disc
• Whiplash
• Numbness and Weakness

With a focus on care for all the family, our team also regularly care for Children and Infants, right from birth, ensuring they are thriving at every stage of their development. To discover how chiropractic care may be able to help you, call us to book a complimentary assessment. Phone us in Napier on 06 8433384

10/09/2026

If you still had headaches after cutting caffeine, drinking more water, and downing a handful of Panadol, here's what we'd tell you to do.

We've been supporting people with headaches in Napier for over a decade.

And one thing we see over and over is people doing all the right things and still not getting anywhere.

But if the headaches are still showing up week after week, it's worth asking a different question. Not what am I drinking or not drinking, but what's actually happening in my body that's creating this in the first place.

For a lot of the people we see, the answer is tension building through the neck and upper back, often from posture, stress, or old injuries that never really settled. That tension affects the nerves running up into the head, and no amount of water is going to touch that.

This is where a proper assessment makes the difference. Not another guess at what might help, but an actual look at what's going on in your spine and nervous system, so we can get to what's driving it rather than just managing around it.

If headaches have become part of your normal, we'd love to help you figure out why.

09/09/2026

If your baby screams the second that car seat clicks... you're not imagining it. And it's not just "a car seat phase" for every baby.

Three things we’d check before you buy a new seat:
1. Forward head flexion:�The angle of most car seats tips baby's chin toward their chest. This can place strain through the neck and upper cervical spine... an area that's often already sensitive after the birth process. If there is already restriction in their neck and shoulders, the car seat will exacerbate this and make it extra uncomfortable for them.

2. Restricted movement:�Babies regulate and self soothe through small, natural movements of the head, neck and body. Being strapped in for long periods takes that ability away, which can leave an already stressed nervous system with fewer ways to settle itself.

3. Nervous system overload: Motion, road noise, vibration and restriction all at once is a lot of sensory input for a still developing nervous system to process and filter... especially for a newborn only weeks into adapting to life outside the womb.
�
This is where chiropractic care can make a real difference. A gentle, specific check of baby's neuro-spinal system, particularly through the upper neck and shoulders where a lot of this postural strain concentrates, helps us see whether there's tension or restriction affecting how well baby's nervous system can regulate and adapt.

From there, safe, age appropriate adjustments support that pathway staying clear, so baby's body has an easier time tolerating car seat time, transitions and all the other new sensory experiences of these early months.

�We hear it often... "I wish I'd brought my baby in sooner." DM us to find out how First Chiropractic can help.

09/09/2026

Your body wasn’t designed to sit all day… but most of us do it anyway because it’s 2026 and a big part of the world we live in.

Sitting all day can contribute to tight hips, a stiff neck, lower back pain and headaches.. it slowly but surely starts to impact your physical body more than you may realise.

It’s not just posture, it’s how your whole body is functioning.��A few small shifts and the right chiropractic support can make a big difference.

��

Most people think posture is about looking confident or dodging a stiff neck.In a study of 160 people, balance, coordina...
07/09/2026

Most people think posture is about looking confident or dodging a stiff neck.
In a study of 160 people, balance, coordination, and nervous system regulation were all impacted, even though they had ZERO pain.

All 160 people in this study felt completely fine. No pain, no headaches, no reason to think anything was off.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Then researchers tested them.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The ones with forward head posture showed 30% worse balance, shakier coordination, and a nervous system leaning into fight-or-flight.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Their bodies were having a harder time settling into rest, all tied to where the head was sitting.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The good news is your posture isn't locked in place.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Gentle adjustments and a few simple exercises can work to restore head position over time, and getting checked early helps catch these shifts before they ever turn into symptoms.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Bodies are adaptable, and posture is something we can actually support.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
If your days are spent at a desk or looking down at a phone (so, most of us), our chiropractors at First Chiropractic can check how your posture is affecting more than your neck.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Send this to the desk worker or phone scroller in your life.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Cross-sectional study, Gait Posture, 2020
Research review by | chiropracticneuroscience.com
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

03/09/2026

Hey Dad, yes - you. 👋

If you're reading this, take it as your sign. You've spent so long holding everything together - the early mornings, the pressure, the "all good, don't worry about me" - that it's easy to forget your own body needs looking after too.

Neurologically-focused chiropractic care isn't just for the kids or the mums in the family. Dads carry stress in their nervous system just like everyone else, and getting checked matters just as much. A regulated nervous system changes how you show up - calmer, more present, more like yourself.

This Father's Day, give yourself something real: the chance to actually feel good. 🖤

📲 Ready? Book through the link in our bio.

02/09/2026

Clumsy gets used as a catch all. Bumps into things, trips over nothing, drops what they're holding. Easy to put it down to just being a kid.

What we look at first is a handful of things underneath that.

When the nervous system is firing well, the brain and body communicate as they're meant to.. and your child gets to stop trying so hard to simply hold up against gravity.

Swipe through to see what we check to see what is often underlying "clumsy".

01/09/2026

Hands up 🙋🏼‍♀️ if you've ever wanted an attitude adjustment for your kid... or your partner... or yourself 😂

We joke about attitude adjustments, but underneath the joke there's actually a real principle at play.

A child who's stuck in a stressed, overwhelmed or dysregulated state often finds it harder to access the parts of the brain responsible for emotional regulation, focus, learning and impulse control. When the nervous system is functioning well, kids are generally better able to adapt to what's going on around them... calmer, more settled, more focused, and better able to regulate their emotions and behaviour as things come up through the day.

This is one of the reasons a lot of parents choose chiropractic care for their kids. Not because we're trying to fix behaviour. It's more that healthy nervous system function lays the groundwork for healthy development, learning, emotional regulation and general wellbeing.

And sometimes what looks like an attitude problem is actually a kid whose nervous system is struggling to keep up with everything being asked of it.

And yes! It applies to adults too.. although we have fully developed brains, they still get overloaded 😉

If that sounds like your house at the moment, we’d love to see how we can help.
Link in bio to book.

31/08/2026

A present dad. Not the dad who's got it all figured out. Not the one who never loses his patience or always says the right thing. Not the one working himself into the ground trying to give his kids everything.

A present dad.

One who can sit on the floor and actually be there. Who can look his kid in the eyes without his mind being somewhere else. Who can handle the hard moments without shutting down or losing it.

Presence isn't a personality trait. It's a nervous system state.

When a dad's nervous system has been running on stress, poor sleep and constant tension for too long, presence gets harder to access. The body's stuck in survival mode, and there's not much left over for the calm, patient version of himself his kids need.

This Father's Day, the most useful thing a dad can do for his family isn't push harder. It's regulate.

Get adjusted. Sleep better. Take the pressure off a nervous system that's been running in overdrive. Show up in the body so you can show up for the people who need you.

Presence is the gift.

Tag a dad who needs to hear this.


27/08/2026

Dr Chris and Dr Kate are off on a wee family adventure... but our other four chiropractors are very much still open for business. Dr's Jeremy, Fergus, Pauline and our locum Dr. Rach have got you covered while they're away (face mask optional).

26/08/2026

Did you know we can get a picture of your nervous system function, how switched on your stress response is, and how your body is adapting... all from one non-invasive scan?

Most people think of their spine as separate from everything else going on in their body. Sore neck over here, bad sleep over there, feeling wired but tired for no obvious reason.

But your nervous system doesn't work in isolated pieces. It's the communication line between your brain and every organ, muscle, and system you have, and it's running the show whether you're aware of it or not.

That's what we're actually looking at when we scan. Not just your spine in isolation, but how your nervous system is coping with everything you're carrying. The stress, the poor sleep, old injuries, the mental load of simply keeping up with life.

We take that information and put it together with your history, your posture, and what you're telling us about how you're feeling, to build a full picture of what's actually going on underneath the surface. Not guesswork. Not a generic checklist. An actual read on how your body is functioning and adapting right now.

For a lot of people, seeing it laid out like that is the first time anything's made sense.

If you've been feeling off and can't quite explain why, this is exactly the kind of thing we do to help you connect the dots. Link in bio to book in.

Address

Napier

Opening Hours

Monday 7:45am - 6pm
Tuesday 7:45am - 6:15pm
Wednesday 7:45am - 6pm
Thursday 7:30am - 6:15pm
Friday 7:45am - 6pm
Saturday 8:30am - 12pm

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when First Chiropractic posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category