Meet Susan Fries
Sometimes, our alumni find their careers taking them down paths that they would never have expected. Dr. Susan Fries' journey steered her toward animal chiropractic. Fries graduated summa cum laude from Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey, with a BA in anthropology as the class valedictorian. She subsequently attended New York Chiropractic College due to its stellar board scores and highly regarded reputation among chiropractic schools. While at NYCC, she pursued certifications in Active Release Technique, activator technique, and cold laser therapy. She also made it a point to shadow as many doctors as possible, volunteering in their offices and soaking up as much knowledge as she could from paperwork, intake sheets, tables, and equipment that she could later utilize for her own future practice. Post-graduation, she worked for a while with her father (an orthopedic spine and hand surgeon) and then opened up her own private practice in Vero Beach, Florida, where she still practices today employing drop tables, activators, manual therapies, and ART. She also uses ultrasound, electric muscle stimulation, and cold laser as adjunctive therapies.
From day one, her practice included some very special helpers: her own dogs. All three being rescue dogs, service trained and certified, they would accompany her to work every day. "My animals truly soothed nervous patients, and really added to my practice environment." This is where her path of chiropractic began to take an interesting turn. "I have always had a huge love for animals, and have also had a special connection with them." The vet to whom she brought her own animals, would occasionally contact her with orthopedic and chiropractic questions relating to symptoms he was seeing in some of his patients. It was his encouragement that motivated her to train as a "veterinarian chiropractitioner." After acquiring veterinary orthopedic manipulation (VOM) board certification, Fries added canines, felines, and rabbits to her chiropractic repertoire, and set up shop in the same space with the veterinarian who originally inspired her to become certified.
Dr. Fries credits a number of influences that have helped fuel her career as a chiropractor. Her father directly shaped her life as a doctor, and Louis Catapano, DC, taught her most of her acquired clinical experience during her externship in Rochester. However, she feels her most important influence was one of her first clinic patients in Rochester. They became close, and he even affectionately nicknamed her "Quiet Tiger." Through him, she learned her most important lesson of patient care, "Always give more than you can, and it will come back 100-fold." To this day, a picture of a tiger with that inscription hangs in her office's waiting room; a graduation gift from that patient. Dr. Fries leaves us with this advice, "Everyone has a story. Everyone has something I believe that they were meant to share with you - illness or non-illness related -- that will shape your life, will teach, and will mentor you."
