is also the director and head coach of the Edmonton Oilers Octane cheerleading team – which she helped found. “I do both jobs,” Mailie says. “Chiropractic works really well because it has flexible hours. A lot of my patients know what I do in the community. The Edmonton Oilers Octane does community work, and because I help lead that it makes me visible in that regard.” They may each have special interests, but one does not make one exclusive of the other. At the clinic, Megan and Mailie will often bounce ideas off each other and discuss cases. The similarities and differences between the sisters do not go unnoticed by their patients, either. “We respect each other’s differences and we embrace them. A lot of our patients will say we’re kind of similar but we’re kind of different – my sister likes to wear her stilettos when she adjusts her patients and I am always in flats. They make direct comparisons about our height, our body weight or our make-up or our clothes. “We don’t take those things personally. I think it’s been part of our brand. It’s been really positive for us to have that sister relationship,” Megan says. The Chiropractic Wellness Studio, which Megan co-owns with another chiropractor (not Mailie) maintains a diverse patient base – men and women, pregnant moms, athletes, children and seniors – and treats a variety of conditions. It’s a four-women team of DCs that offer various techniques and modalities, including Diversified, Graston, Kinesio taping, functional dry needling and acupuncture, Webster for pregnancy, and foot orthotics. Personality differences – and similarities – not withstand-ing, practice continuity is important for the Harris’s. This means providing consistent patient experience and care, regardless of which sister is treating them at a given time, Mailie points out. With a difference of a whole generation, Roy and Bob also have a slightly different approach to practice. Although they both practice applied kinesiology and muscle testing meth-ods, Roy says his son has been exposed to a “lot more new material” and newer techniques like Thompson and Activa-tor. The older Kariatsumari likes to keep his practice more conventionally and “basically kept with hands only.” On the other hand, the younger DC looks to his dad for his experience and wisdom. As chiropractors, Bob and Roy would attend continuing education conferences together. At these events, Bob always notes how committed his dad is to the chiropractic community and how involved he was with the Alberta Chiropractic Association. His dad’s decades of experience made him Bob’s go-to-person for questions about patient care and practice build-ing. “I’m always asking him questions about how to handle patients, especially in the beginning when I was just learning about business administration, and he would always say, ‘Take care of the patient and everything else will take care of itself.’ Your best decision in practice is just what’s best for the patient,” Bob notes. Roy also taught Bob another valuable lesson: the impor-tance of family and work-life balance. Weekends are always www.canadianchiropractor.ca spent with the family, says Bob, who is now a father of three young children ages nine, seven and five. With all his children out of the nest, Roy still enjoys life outside work. He now works four days a week. Hiking and photography are two of his other passions. He takes Wednes-days off to reconnect with nature and go hiking with some friends, his camera always at the ready. Much like his father, Bob also has a secret dream for his children to follow in his chiropractic footprint. Although it’s really early to tell, one daughter might be exhibiting some inclination. “My youngest, her name is Kyra. She thinks because she’s Kyra she’s already a ‘kyra-practor.’ I think she’ll probably be the chiro; whenever I’m taking care of my wife at home she is always trying to help out. If I’m testing one leg, she’ll be holding the other leg. She’s really interested when I tell her about the bones of the body.” Adding another generation to the Kariatsumari chiroprac-tic bloodline may not be farfetched, considering Bob’s fa-ther-in-law, Dr. Sigfried Zierath, is also a chiropractor. For more interesting DC profile stories, visit www. canadianchiropractor.com. Kosim ideal for health Chiropractic, Physiotherapy, Massage Therapy & much more! Toll Free: 1-877-50KOSIM or WWW.KOSIM.CA KOSIM MEDICAL SUPPLIES val! 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