Today we’d like to introduce you to Carolyn Longacre.
Hi Carolyn , so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
At age nine, I wanted to be a veterinarian. I grew up on a 10-acre homesteader farm in Crystal River, Florida. We had cats, chickens, pigs, rabbits, a dog, and a big garden. I loved animals from birth.
My father was a structural designer and contractor, so my childhood home was a labor of love, and lots of building projects. My father was a visionary type of person. When I was 16 years old, we sold our house in 5 weeks after deciding to move to the North Carolina Mountains after reminiscing about my father’s Catskill Mountain childhood.
We switched high schools and jobs, and after several years, my dad opened his own contracting company. I finished high school and majored in Biology and Chemistry at Western Carolina University, thinking I would work toward my dream to becoming a veterinarian. I spent 3 years at a small and large animal veterinary clinic while in undergraduate, and realized toward the end of my junior year this wasn’t my path. That summer, my father lifted a couch to help a friend move and hurt his back.
Being a contractor and entrepreneur, if you aren’t working, you are losing money. The injury he sustained ended up being so intense down the right leg, he couldn’t even drive let alone work. He couldn’t function. After a couple of days, one of his colleagues recommended his chiropractor in town.
My mother, a paralegal to a medical malpractice attorney at the time, was very nervous. Despite the nervousness, my father tried everything in my childhood to alleviate low back pain from rest to steroids, and it kept coming back and never resolved.
He tried chiropractic and went for his first exam.
He couldn’t drive for a while, and since I was on my summer break from school and worked the evenings, I took him every morning at 8 am to get adjusted. I would sit in the waiting room, sometimes in the car. I noticed how different this office was from any medical office. In a medical office, the energy is typically low and darker; isolating to your own family, and most people aren’t really smiling.
In a chiropractic office, it was so different.
It was light and airy. The sunlight was shining through the waiting room. The energy was so warming. Patients were interacting with the staff and laughing. People were happy to be there, and to come back! I just knew that this experience I wasn’t going to forget.
My senior year started and I was back at Western Carolina, but I kept thinking about that office. After a few weeks, I called my father and asked if I could come to his appointment that week. He agreed. I drove 45 minutes from Cullowhee to Waynesville to meet him. I met Dr. Craig Gibson, and I got to watch a chiropractic adjustment and I was so intrigued. I asked him if I could shadow him, and he agreed.
I drove to Waynesville a couple of times a week after classes to spend time in his office that Fall. I fell in love with the success stories, the patients, and the hope I felt through all of them. By the end of 2004, which was only a couple of months, I applied to chiropractic school at Life University.
I went to Life University and graduated. I took a few associateships and my last one landed in Florence, SC. By this time, I was ready to own my practice, and around that same time, I met my now husband Aaron in Greenville, SC and bought my practice in 2017.
Over the 8 years I have owned Evergreen Chiropractic and Wellness, I got married, had two daughters, adopted several dogs and cats. I achieved the wellness center I dreamed of in chiropractic school.
But that wasn’t it, yet.
Over the years, I couldn’t help but think of the animals I loved. In school, I had a veterinarian friend and roommate that went to chiropractic school with me that adjusted animals. I looked at doing that several times over the years and always felt like it wouldn’t happen. Until 2023, when I talked to a friend of mine that just went to animal chiropractic school and convinced me I could do it too.
In 2024, I finished animal chiropractic school, got certified, and now adjust pets, horses, and also food animals. In 2025, I became the President of the new Animal Chiropractic Council of the ICA (International Chiropractors Association).
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I have had a ton of challenges on this journey.
While I was in chiropractic school, I had a housefire when asleep during finals, and lost time and items. It was the hardest thing I went through as a 24 year old. I took several months off to regain my purpose. I was a CNA for Haywood Regional Hospital for several months where I met a sweet lady with an extensive lung infection, and I took care of her for a few weeks. I spent a lot of time with her and her mother. Caring for her gave me the purpose even stronger than before. I knew this road was hard, but God wanted me to do it.
I am also a domestic violence survivor. I married a soldier in the Army while in school, and divorced him two years after I graduated. That experience was so tough. Military life in itself is a struggle with a lot of loneliness and stress on top of school obligations. 1 out of 4 women get out of an abusive relationship, and it took me 3 times to officially leave. That was probably the lowest chapter of my life. I felt very broken and unwanted. I didn’t receive a lot of support when I left, and I had to want to grow to get out of that cycle. It is vicious, and you have to face a lot of your demons and your insecurities that put you there in the first place. I thought that I’d never get remarried or have children, which were things I desperately wanted. I am thankful I got a chance to have a family.
It has been 10 years now and I am still healing. No one ever talks about what that type of stress will do to your body and health long term. This is why I dedicate time to support other men and women in this situation to get the resources they need and also support their health during and afterwards. I offer functional nutrition and brain healing therapies to alleviate stress and rewrite their inner monologue.
Right after my divorce, my father died in a construction accident 8 months later. Due to the suddenness, and the publicity (as he was the Mayor of Maggie Valley at the time), it was hard and I found bravery in achieving my dreams. Chiropractic gave my father 11 years more, and he was able to achieve a lot of things, even support me through my abusive marriage’s end. I am thankful to God who put me on this path.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Evergreen Chiropractic and Wellness / Evergreen Animal Chiropractic?
Evergreen Chiropractic and Wellness was a dream I had in chiropractic school. I wanted a center that featured chiropractic, but also gave patients other choices in terms of empowering their health. As a patient, I suffered from PTSD and often was gaslit in terms of what was actually wrong with me. I was told nothing was wrong with me. I had 2 very rough pregnancies and health conditions emerged from that. When I sought out a functional nutrition provider, all the concerns about my health were validated and I started to heal when my root causes were addressed. I offer chiropractic, massage therapy, laser therapy, functional nutrition and supplementation, full spectrum sauna, ion foot cleanse, and PEMF.
Evergreen Animal Chiropractic is fulfilling my 9 year old veterinary dream. I see dogs predominately in the office, but I adjust cats, dogs, horses, poultry, goats, alpacas, pigs, and cows. Pets aren’t just animals; they are members of people’s families. 60-70% of millennials and generation z are having pets as children, so this is a huge deal for the future. I also adjust farm animals and food production animals because I want to influence our food system in a positive and healthy way. I have done some studies on what chiropractically adjusted food products can do for our food supply, where chiropractically adjusted food products are always number one when compared to other sources. Imagine what that can do on a large scale? Imagine how many lives are positively impacted by optimally functioning animals giving us meat, dairy and eggs? The possibilities are endless!
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Any future starts on a dream, and any dream is possible! Map it out, and figure out a way to get there, no matter how long it takes. Get help for the things you don’t know. No one gets to the top by doing it all by yourself. Have a team that supports you. Thank God for the journey, the lessons, and blessings He gives you. That goes a long way.
When I was starting out, I wish I had the confidence to get it done. I was still fearful at the time and I had to heal in order to grow.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.evergreenchiroandwellness.com
- Instagram: efchiro2017 and evergreenanimalchiro
- Facebook: Evergreen Chiropractic and Wellness and Evergreen Animal Chiropractic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@evergreenchirogvl
