Practitioners / USA
California, El Cerrito
Jan Dederick
Dr Jan Dederick
Therapist and Instructor/Mentor
Hi. Yes, Jan is my full first name. Family stories have me asking the Big Questions very early on. "Mommy, if you were my Mommy but I had a different Daddy, then who would I be?" (age 3) Not surprisingly, I majored in Philosophy as an undergraduate, with concentrations in Biology and Psychology.I became certified in Montessori Education, and worked as a Montessori teacher for 10 years, because Montessori supported my innate optimism in its belief that children are natural learners - - our job as adults is to just get out of the way.
I then found myself laid up with an acute low back, got told by my MD to 'stay in bed for 3 weeks and call me if it still hurts." I didn't feel I had 3 weeks to stay in bed, so I opened to the idea of chiropractic. A friend carried me into the chiropractor's office and I was able to walk out. That was remarkable, and radicalizing, and the end of blind faith in the medical model, So I went on to study, graduated Magna Cum Lauda from Life Chiropractic College West in 1983, and practiced straight chiropractic for several years.
Before too long, I began experiencing impatience with the slowness of some of my cases to really 'get well'. I kept having the sense that something was 'under' the chronic subluxations, something which needed addressing for the musculoskeletal problems to resolve. But I didn't know what it was or how to relate to 'it'.
In 1989 I was slogging through a painful divorce, and became ill with a diarrhea which had 'no apparent cause' - - all diagnostic tests were negative. A friend was studying this Kairos Therapy (called by a different name at the time) and offered to work on me. I'd lost 30 pounds, was clearly in malnutrition, and was clearly in a life crisis. When my friend began to work on me, I drifted into a very pleasant floaty place, neither awake nor asleep. Some time later, when she was working on the area where self-esteem 'lives', I felt a storm of agitation well up inside me, an indignant inner voice said "He hurt me right in my womanhood!!!" and a flood of pent-up tears the likes of which I'd never cried before, gushed out. Then calm descended. Intriguing! The next day, after 3 months of diarrhea, my bowel function was normal. MORE than intriguing! So I became my own first testimonial.
As I studied the work and gradually added it into my chiropractic practice, I saw that I had found what I had been looking for - - something that would go to the root of the chronic problems. But even better than that, I found that much more healed than musculoskeletal aches and pains. So many conditions which had plagued people for years, and which had proved unresponsive to 'regular' treatment, resolved.
So now this is mostly what I do. I love the work because it is so incredibly elegant! So simple, so gentle, so profound. It appeals to my frugal Dutch heritage, and my Sag-Scorp nature. It just cuts to the chase painlessly, gets the job done', and sends you on your way to building a better life for yourself and for those around you. I live in the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area of California, with my divinely wild garden, my beloved 1922 Chickering baby grand piano, in a lovely sunny home/office with spare rooms for visitors wanting Personal Intensives. Might that be you?".
I work in the HudsonValley of NY as well, doing private practice and teaching workshops.
Tel: 510 225 1147
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