We had the good fortune of connecting with Caroline Long and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Caroline, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I wanted to build a better customer service experience. All too often I visited doctors’ offices that were cold and outdated. Not only that, but you got very little time with the doctor to actually have your questions answered and issues addressed. My desire was to build the type of practice where everyone felt welcome and where we could be a resource for our community. I wanted it to be the type of place where people could feel confident in referring their loved ones to.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
As a young girl, I wanted to be a pediatrician, but when I discovered you had to be on call at night and on the weekends, I realized it wasn’t the right calling for me. I still wanted to help people but was unsure of the path forward. When I was 15 years old I was diagnosed with scoliosis but was told by my pediatrician, by an orthopedic surgeon, and even by a chiropractor that as long as I wasn’t in pain, there wasn’t anything that needed to be done. It wasn’t until I was 21 years old that I met a chiropractor, Dr. Paula Howell, who told me that had I been receiving chiropractic care during my growing years, my spine would be straighter. Like orthodontics, chiropractic is extremely helpful when you are younger and there’s rapid bone growth, but after the age of skeletal maturity it’s hard to see the same results. I was floored – I had been to three highly reputable doctors and no one had told me this. I started learning more about chiropractic even interning for a summer at a chiropractor’s office, and I found that it was a great fit for me.

About two-thirds of the way through the program, I heard someone mention that there was pediatric chiropractic certification going on in Dallas. It was like a lightning bolt hit me. Finally a way to reconcile my two passions. I immediately signed up for classes and was one of the first chiropractors in Houston to earn their chiropractic pediatric certification. However, I was only 25 years old when I graduated from Texas Chiropractic College and hadn’t yet had my own children. Families had a hard time trusting me with their tiny infants, but I had a lot of pregnant women seeking relief for their back pain and pregnancy-related issues. As I started having success with pregnant patients and assisting them in having easier labors, they started to trust me to see their children as well.

West U Wellness now has 5 pregnancy and pediatric certified chiropractors. We rigorously take post-graduate courses to learn the latest techniques and study the research to help us be the best in our field. If patients have been to other chiropractors before, they are usually surprised by how much time we spend with our patients and all the additional services our clinic can provide such as massage therapy, craniosacral treatment, acupuncture, dry needling, cupping, nutritional counseling, and more. We strive to be Houston’s Premiere Clinic for Prenatal and Pediatric Chiropractic care.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Even though I grew up in Houston, I never fully appreciated it until I moved closer into town as an adult. We are definitely a foodie town! If my best friend were here for a day, we would start at one of my favorite places for brunch such as Annabelle’s, Kiran’s, Cafe Leonelli, Betsy’s at Evelyn’s Park, or Dandelion Cafe. We would then head to the Houston Botanical Gardens or to the Japanese Garden by the Houston Zoo. We might have an early dinner downtown before catching a show. Houston has the second largest number of theater seats in the US, and there are always live performances going on every weekend. Afterwards, we would head to one of the many bars in the downtown or midtown area to wind down with a drink. If they were here for a week, I would take my friend down to NASA and also catch a sports game. We have professional baseball, basketball, football, and soccer teams. There are so many excellent restaurants representing a myriad of different cultures. Houston may be known for great Tex-Mex, but we also have award winning barbeque, all types of Asian restaurants and dessert places. My family can be found in Chinatown almost every weekend trying a new restaurant as well as some of our old standards.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I couldn’t have built this practice without the support of my family – specifically my husband, mother, and children! My husband has been with me through thick and thin. When we were just starting out and in the red to the times where we were finally doing well, through the pandemic when we lost 54% of our business, and back again. My mother is a business genius even though she never went to business school. She’s incredibly gifted in her business acumen; our entire family turns to her for business advice! For my children, I tried to be at every performance and every sports competition, but running an active business is like having another child. There were times where I couldn’t pick them up, I couldn’t attend their exhibitions, and they have always been very understanding. Now, after 20 years in business, I have a great team of doctors and support staff behind me to give me encouragement and help our team succeed. I am so grateful to all of these people!

Website: www.westuwellness.com

Instagram: westuwellness

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Image Credits
Kelley Bruso (photographer)

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