Dr. James Osei on a Personal Mission, Building Align Family Chiropractic, and Why He Sees Three Generations in the Same Family

My mother had chronic lower back pain for most of my childhood. I watched her manage it with over-the-counter medication and, eventually, prescription pain relievers that came with their own set of problems. It was just accepted in our house as something she was going to deal with forever.

When I was in undergrad, a friend took me to a chiropractor for a sports injury and I was genuinely shocked at what I saw and learned. I went home and started researching. I called my mother and told her what I had found. She went to see a chiropractor and within six weeks her pain was manageable in a way it had never been with medication.

That was it for me. I knew what I was going to do. I enrolled in chiropractic school the following fall.

Because spinal health affects every stage of life differently, and I wanted to be part of my patients' entire journey — not just the injury chapter.

I see kids whose backpacks are destroying their posture. I see teenagers who are sleeping wrong and developing early tension patterns. I see adults at 35 who come in with the same condition my mother had, and we catch it 20 years earlier than she did. I see retirees managing degeneration and staying mobile.

When a practice is family-focused, the referral network is extraordinary. A mom who trusts me with her back is going to bring in her husband and her kids. That continuity is how I have been able to grow entirely by word of mouth with no advertising.

Two things. First, that it is only for back pain. Chiropractic addresses the nervous system via the spine, and the nervous system runs everything. We treat headaches, digestive issues, sleep problems, and a range of conditions that people do not initially connect to spinal alignment.

Second, that it is a one-time fix. The spine is a living structure that responds to your posture, your stress, your movement patterns, your sleep. Chiropractic care works best as a maintenance practice, not just a crisis intervention. The patients who get the most lasting benefit are the ones who treat it like going to the gym — consistent, ongoing, preventive.

The three-generation patients, without question. I have families where I have treated the grandparent, helped the adult child through a pregnancy, and now I am seeing their teenager for sports-related adjustments. That continuity of trust is something I do not take lightly.

There is also something deeply satisfying about being the person who changes someone's relationship with pain. A lot of my patients come in having been told they just have to live with it. When that changes — when someone who has not slept well in years starts sleeping through the night, or someone who could not sit at their desk for more than an hour starts working full days again — that is why I do this.