About Foresight Wellness Center

Who we are

Foresight Wellness Center is a nervous system–first practice on the Mesa/Gilbert border, founded by Dr. I. Keith Lavender, D.C. We're focused on a specific clinical question: how does the structural state of the upper cervical spine affect nervous system regulation, and what becomes possible when that input is precise?

We're not a general chiropractic practice. We don't do same-day adjustments, walk-in visits, or volume care. Every new patient goes through a consultation, full assessment, and upper cervical imaging on the first visit. The doctor reviews everything between visits. The corrective plan and the first adjustment happen at visit two.

What we do

The practice's primary modality is Atlas Orthogonal, a precision technique that uses upright cervical imaging to calculate a specific corrective force vector, then delivers it through a percussion instrument without rotation, thrust, or audible cavitation. The technique is mechanically distinct from general chiropractic adjustment and appropriate for populations who can't tolerate or aren't candidates for rotational manipulation.

We back the structural work with an assessment infrastructure most chiropractic practices don't run: thermography for sympathetic mapping, surface EMG for muscle activation patterns, heart rate variability for autonomic baseline, and upright cervical imaging for structural geometry. We use the data to decide what to treat, how to treat it, and when to stop.

Who we serve

Our patients fall into a few clusters. Athletes from college and professional programs in the Phoenix area. Working caregivers managing persistent symptoms that haven't responded to primary care. Patients with longstanding cases of migraine, vertigo, post-concussion symptoms, TMJ dysfunction, or autonomic dysregulation. Referrals from neurologists, ENTs, vestibular PTs, and other practitioners when the case has an upper cervical component they don't address themselves.

We frame chiropractic care within the Human Operating System model. Structural input is the hardware layer. Autonomic state is the regulation layer. Health expression is the output layer. The upper cervical spine sits at the input layer of the system. When that input is precise, everything downstream has more capacity to work.

Where we are

The practice is located at 2915 E Baseline Rd, Suite 126, on the Mesa/Gilbert border in Arizona. We serve Gilbert, Mesa, Chandler, Tempe, Scottsdale, Queen Creek, and the broader East Valley, with patients traveling in from across Arizona and out of state for the initial assessment series.

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My Journey

My journey into becoming a chiropractor began when I was 14. I began experiencing a wide range of symptoms with seemingly no reasoning behind them. I went to various doctor’s appointments and had many medical tests to try to figure out what could be the cause. All of my tests came back normal but my symptoms kept getting worse. I began to believe this would be my new normal. That was until one of my teachers in high school asked if she could send my parents an email with the information to her chiropractor. She recognized a few of the symptoms I was experiencing and believed her chiropractor could help me find a solution. We ended up making an appointment in hopes of finding an answer. At the age of 14, I became a patient of Foresight Chiropractic and finally began experiencing a relief of my symptoms.

First Steps

After many years under care, I became a chiropractic assistant and massage therapist at Foresight Chiropractic. While working closely under Dr. Lavender and with patients, I saw that relieving pressure from the nervous system aided with more than just pain relief. Shortly thereafter I decided I wanted to become a chiropractor. I applied for school, packed up, and moved to South Carolina where I attended Sherman College of Chiropractic.

Chiropractic Education

I graduated in 2022 and headed back home to Arizona to begin my career as a Chiropractor working at Foresight Chiropractic; the very same office that helped me to regain my life at 14. Through this journey I knew my biggest goal with my patients was to restore hope through removing nervous system interference, allowing the body to heal itself.

Why I Started My Own Practice

For years I suffered from debilitating asthma, headaches, neck and leg pain. The only answers I was receiving were “let’s try this medicine.” At 22 years old, all I saw was more medicine in my future and less quality of life. The drugs that I was taking to hide the symptoms only created serious side effects that would not let me function in a way that I could feel ‘normal.’ Indeed, my quality of life was spinning out of control at such an early age!

Shortly after marrying my wife, Lori, she began encouraging me to go see her Chiropractor to see if my suffering could be caused by irritated or pinched nerves. After much persuasion (I did not want to go!) and feeling like I had nothing to lose, she scheduled my appointment. After examining and x-raying my spine, Dr. Lord reported that many of my problems and the fact that my body was not healing itself could indeed be caused by tiny misalignments in my spine. I learned that these misalignments (subluxations) were distorting the vital nerve signals that control the life-sustaining functions of my entire body!

My Chiropractic Path

Treatment began within a couple days and immediately I noticed nothing. No change in my headache, or my leg pain, or asthma symptoms as I was expecting. I thought I had just wasted my money and more importantly, my time. However, I soon began noticing that everything looked brighter and clearer than it did before I received my first adjustment. I also noticed how light my skull felt on top of my neck, and that now, when I turned my head, it felt like a smooth, fluid motion whereas before it was labored and painful to turn. I began to appreciate the magic that time plays in the healing process as my nervous system was basically ‘re-booted’ or ‘reset’. Eventually, my body began healing again from the inside-out and I was able to eliminate the outside-in treatments that I was using to just cover my symptoms.

As I sat in Dr. Lord’s waiting room many times over many months, I thought, “if I could live my life serving humanity and helping people regain their health and wellness naturally, without side-effecting drugs or irreversible surgery, then my work life would be purposeful.” I love seeing people live and love their life again by following very simple scientific truths found in the philosophy, science, and art of Chiropractic.

Chiropractic Education

I eventually changed my educational course from biomechanical engineering to Chiropractic and moved to Davenport, Iowa, to attend Palmer College of Chiropractic. While there, I learned a new way to look at the body – as a perfectly organized, miraculous being, greater than the sum of all it’s anatomical parts. The body has a built-in ability to heal and to be healthy. The body rarely needs any help to heal and grow to it’s full potential, it just needs no interference! Patients regain and maximize their health when they respect the body’s built-in healing processes. I furthered my education by becoming Board Certified in the Atlas Orthogonal work in Atlanta, Georgia from Dr.'s Roy and Matt Sweat after graduating from Palmer College of Chiropractic. Continuing my own research into maximizing our human potential, naturally, I also became certified in Advanced Muscle Integration Technique (A.M.I.T.) from Dr. Craig Buhler, Torque Release Technique (T.R.T.) from Dr. Jay Holder, and became a Certified Chiropractic Wellness and Lifestyle Practitioner (C.C.W.P.) I am currently studying nutrigenomics and Wholistic Kinesiology from Dr. J. Dunn. My practice members benefit as I continue my education on current healing techniques, research, and scientific discoveries into optimizing our body’s expression of life.