From Federal Agent to Spinal Health Champion

What happens when a career in federal law enforcement comes to an abrupt end? For Dr. Stacy Neal, a workplace injury that left her dependent on a walker transformed into an unexpected gateway to a fulfilling second career in chiropractic care.

As the newest member of Activator Methods International's Speakers Bureau, Dr. Neal shares her extraordinary journey from senior special agent with Homeland Security Investigations—where she tackled human trafficking, narcotics, and financial crimes—to becoming a passionate chiropractor. After sustaining a severe injury during training that led to eleven surgeries and an implanted spinal cord stimulator, it was a workers' compensation chiropractor who convinced her she could walk unassisted again. That life-changing experience inspired her complete career transformation at age 41.

Dr. Neal brings a unique investigative mindset to patient care, applying her background in criminology and forensics to clinical diagnosis. This approach has proven invaluable, as she recounts a powerful story of helping a patient who had been dismissed by both emergency room and urgent care providers. Her persistence in ordering appropriate imaging revealed the true source of the patient's debilitating pain, bringing not just physical relief but profound emotional peace.

Now serving as an adjunct professor at Northwestern University, Dr. Neal has come full circle from student to practitioner to educator. Her story embodies resilience and purpose—demonstrating how personal adversity can reveal unexpected calling. Through Activator Methods' new Speakers Bureau launching in 2025, associations and organizations can request Dr. Neal and other speakers at no cost to share their expertise and inspire others in the chiropractic community.

Have you considered how life's unexpected turns might be directing you toward your true purpose? Share your thoughts or reach out to learn more about Activator Methods' speakers for your next event.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello, I'm Dr Arlen Ford, the Chairman and Founder
of Activator MethodsInternational.
We want to welcome you today toour podcast, activate your
Practice.
And Activator is startingsomething new After the first of
the year, in 2025, we're goingto have a group of speakers and
we'll have a Speakers Bureau foranybody that needs a speaker

(00:25):
for a state association, somekind of a meeting.
They can call our headquartersand we'll put it on our website,
and so the good thing about itis Activator is going to sponsor
this, so it costs the stateassociations nothing, and we are
very happy to do this becausewe know things are changing day
by day and we want to keepeverybody up to date on what's

(00:47):
going on in the world ofchiropractic.
Now, today I'm very happy tointroduce to you one of our new
people that's on our speakerbureau, dr Stacey Neal.
I got to know Stacey when shewas a student at Northwestern
and then she went in with DrKathy Bloom, who was a clinical

(01:09):
advisory member of Activator,and so Stacey's got a variety of
things we'll talk about heretoday, but she is really into
Activator for sure, and alsohelping students.
That's one of her big things.
She's just a really greatinstructor.
So how are you doing today,stacey?

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Thank you for that introduction, sir.
I'm doing great.
Thank you for asking.
How are you?

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Well, let's start a little bit.
I happen to know you, so I knowall this about you, but I want
everybody to know how you gotinto chiropractic.
And so you had another career,didn't you before chiropractic?

Speaker 2 (01:48):
I did, yes, I did.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
And what was it Tell us about that?

Speaker 2 (01:55):
So I'm actually a retired senior special agent
with the United StatesDepartment of Homeland Security
Homeland Security Investigations, so I used to conduct criminal
investigations of crimes thatwere committed against the
United States, primarily humantrafficking, narcotics
investigations, financialinvestigations and child

(02:16):
pornography.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
And tell me, how did you get from that kind of a
background into chiropractic?

Speaker 2 (02:28):
background into chiropractic.
Well, I decided to become achiropractor after sustaining a
work-related injury.
Actually, I was injured whileat the Federal Law Enforcement
Training Facility, which is inGlencoe, georgia, during a
training exercise actually, andthe injury led to 11 surgeries
in four years and includedfusions, an implanted spinal

(02:49):
cord stimulator, years ofrecovery and then, ultimately,
disability retirement.
I was 41 years old at the timeand had served my entire life in
some form of public service,but it was my workers'
compensation chiropractor,actually, who had convinced me
that I could walk again withoutthe aid of a walker or a cane,

(03:10):
and he would say things like oh,hey, go leave your cane at the
door.
Go leave your cane at the door.
And before you knew it, I leftthat darn cane at the door and
they called me and said hey,come pick up your cane.
No-transcript.

(03:55):
Now are you applying some of theskills you learned in your
other job-related industry tochiropractic oh my gosh, I am.
Um, I think the biggest thingis being an investigator.
So for me, my entire life hasbeen in some form of
investigations.
So I have my Bachelor ofScience in Criminal Justice and

(04:16):
Criminology, my Master ofScience in Criminal Justice with
an emphasis in forensics.
I was a medical legal deathinvestigator, a firefighter, so
my past life was all ininvestigations.
So to be able to be able totake that investigations and
build upon it and use it to helppatients, I think is is that's

(04:37):
my true passion.
I am a diatognition at heart,so that's what I love.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
A dia, what?
I didn't get that word,diatognition.
So that's what I love A diet,what Diet I?

Speaker 2 (04:49):
didn't get that word Diet technician.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
A diet technician.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
Okay, let me ask you this If you were to describe
yourself in four words, whatwould they be and why?
If I could describe myself infour words, it would be
Christian, wife, nurturer andchiropractor.
Christian defines me, I believeit is having a heart that is

(05:19):
willing to accept God's gift ofgrace and salvation through
faith.
Being a wife means that I'mliving my life where I'm woven,
together with my husband, so wehave shared dreams, goals and
aspirations.
But a nurturer that offers food, shelter, praise, training, and
that's really my bread andbutter.
I love my children, mygrandchildren, my nieces and

(05:39):
nephews and all of my bonus kidstoo.
I love to feed them, dote onthem whenever I get a chance.
But last but not least, I'm achiropractor.
I'm a clinician who focuses onthe body's ability to help heal
itself.
I take my Hippocratic oathseriously and dutifully serve my
patients to the best of myability, always.

(06:01):
What aspect?

Speaker 1 (06:02):
in chiropractic do you find the most challenging?

Speaker 2 (06:06):
ways.
What aspect in chiropractic doyou find the most challenging?
The aspect I think the one thatI find most challenging is
insurance.
For sure, Working withinsurance companies is difficult
, but primarily with the centersof Medicare and Medicaid
services.
I think I'm thankful for ourstaff who help keep us informed

(06:27):
on the latest requirements, butI would like to see
chiropractors treated the same,or with the same amount of
respect at least, as otherprofessionals in the healthcare
industry.
I know our goals are the same,or at least they should be First
, do no harm and serve withrigor.
So I think if all of our goalsare the same, then there should
be some similance across theboard.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
Tell me about a time that you disagreed with another
clinician.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
Never disagreed specifically with a clinician,
but I do find it challengingwhen another health care
provider does not agree withchiropractic and I put that in
quotations but or when they tella patient to avoid chiropractic
when they're in their care.
I did have a case where, justrecently actually, where a

(07:14):
patient came into the clinic, hewas like flexed forward all the
way at 90 degrees, could notstand, and I was able to treat
him, get him to at least standup a little bit, get him to to
be able to walk around theclinic a little bit more with a
little more ease.
But I did tell him if he were asense he needed to go to the ER
and my recommendation was thathe get an MRI so that we can see
what was going on.

(07:34):
He had laid on a foam roller onhis back on the floor and tried
to give himself some cavitationand couldn't get up off the
floor.
After that, when he left myclinic, he went home and then he
felt like, oh my gosh, I'mworsening.
I literally I cannot sleep.
So he drove himself to the ER.
When he got to the ER, theyrefused to do an MRI and they

(07:59):
told him well, we don't need anMRI to see a hot disc.
So they gave, put him on painmedication and some muscle
relaxants.
He didn't get better.
The next morning he went tourgent care and he was like well
, I'm just going to go to adifferent place because the ER
didn't give me an MRI.
He tells urgent care I, I needan MRI, I need to find out

(08:21):
what's going on with my back.
And urgent care says, well, youhave medical assistance and so
we're not going to order an MRIfor you.
Go home and continue to takeyour pain medicine and maybe
don't go to the chiropractor.
Well, he came back in to see methe following day.
I ordered him an MRI and it cometo find out he had, you know,
multi-level discs, were, youknow, bulging, and he had

(08:44):
osteoarthritis and some spurring.
You can tell that he had somenerve impingement.
But the calm that washed overthat man's face when he learned
that there wasn't anything thatwas killing him, he wasn't dying
, he could get better, it wasamazing to see that happen.
And so, no, nothing grim, nodiagnosis was grim in this case,

(09:06):
but it helped guide thepatient's care.
So I feel like we still need todo better with interpersonal
relationships.
In this case it wasn't bad, buthelping him made a difference.
There was another time withblood clots.
I mean it's just absolutelyabsurd to see that there's not a

(09:28):
lot of love for chiropractors,it seems sometimes.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Well, you know, you have to be around like me for
over 50 years to see that forsure, and it has changed
dramatically from when I firststarted.
But most of that, somebodyasked me one day why is that
that we're accepted more today?
Well, the answer to that isreally quite simple we have data
, and when you have data and youhave papers, like Activator has

(09:55):
really been fortunate.
In the last four papers thatwe've published.
They've been published inScientific Report, which is a
branch of Nature, and so whenyou get to the Nature level,
that's about as high as you canget.
But we had a call from OhioState University the other day
that they wanted us toparticipate in a research
program because they saw that wehad been published in nature,

(10:19):
and so I think that's what'shelped us gain credibility is
being published in thescientific journals.
How did you get involved withActivator?

Speaker 2 (10:32):
Oh well, how I got involved.
Actually I did my first withthe trimesters.
There are 10 with NorthwesternI'm not sure if it's the same
across the board, but with T1,originally starting chiropractic
school, I met up with a coupleof the professors who said that,
knowing I had an injury, that Imight be interested in

(10:54):
activator.
I didn't know what it was atall, I had never heard of it, I
had never been adjusted byactivator, and then I came and
seen Dr Kathy Bloom's clinic andI fell in love.
I was like what is this tool?
How is this working?
I just couldn't even fathomthat this could work, and so I
really started to investigate itand I kind of became a little

(11:17):
thorn in Dr Kathy's side.
I would follow her around likea puppy.
I came T1, T3.
I probably came T4.
I came back at T6.
And then I wanted to work forher and become an intern, and
that was really helpful becauseI stuck around.
I was able to be here for T8, 9, and 10.
And then she asked me if Iwanted to work with her.

(11:38):
I said yes, of course I do.
So that's how I came toActivator.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
And you started from that with Kathy to teaching a
class at Northwestern today.
Is that correct?

Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yes, that's correct.
I currently am an adjunctprofessor with Northwestern and
I'm loving it, absolutely lovingit.
Tomorrow's our final, so it'sgoing to be exciting.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
Well, that's quite a journey, and I think you're also
slated to teach for the I guessyou call it the homecoming,
northwestern's homecoming inFebruary, is that correct?

Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yes, that's correct.
Yeah, yeah, they asked if Icould put something together
that would kind of highlightwhat an activator clinic looks
like.
So it'll be nice to show themthat we are the same in, you
know, in our diatognition.
You know, to kind of diagnose apatient is the same, it's just

(12:33):
the protocol is different.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
Exactly.
So, it'll be nice to be able tohighlight that and you know, I
just want to say again, here's astory of somebody that came up
through a different professioncompletely and then was unable
to continue, switchedprofessions and became very
successful and, by the way, herstudents love her at

(12:56):
Northwestern.
I've talked to a couple of themand they're so excited to have
her teaching now and we'rereally looking forward to it
teaching now and we're reallylooking forward to it.
So just remember, activatorMethods has a new speaking
bureau and one of theinstructors that you can tap is
Dr Stacey Neal from Minnesota.
So, stacey, thank you for yourtime today and we're looking

(13:18):
forward to the future.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
Thank you.
Thank you for having me, sir.