Our Center

Dr. RJ Burr

• 2,000+ hours of post-graduate coursework
• Credentialed in Mechanical Diagnosis & Therapy (McKenzie Method)
• Independent Medical Examiner & Expert Witness
• Active Release Techniques (ART), Full Body Certified
• Titleist Performance Institute (TPI), Medical Level 3 Certified
• Certified Strength & Conditioning Coach (CSCS)
• Integrative Dry Needling (IDN)
• 500 hours in functional movement and rehabilitation

Ahh, where to begin. No, seriously, where do I begin?
I’m RJ Burr, a chiropractor here in Plymouth, and I’ve never been much of a wordsmith, so I’ve always found writing these bios to be a little tricky. But hey, if I were a wiz at writing biographies, I probably wouldn’t have been able to focus on my true passion in life: guiding people down the pathway of health independence.
My approach evolved from my personal experience.

I’ll save you the details. But I have suffered from debilitating back pain – I’ve been there. Not to mention, I endured bouts of neck and shoulder pain.

I had injuries playing sports in high school and college. I knew how they occurred, and I let my body heal – I had always recovered.

It was not until Chiropractic school I developed continuously varying back pain for no apparent reason – go figure! I got chiropractic adjustments multiple times per day. Sometimes it felt good afterward, other times, I felt no change at all.
As you could imagine, I was frustrated as all get-up. I’m in my twenties, in chiropractic school, where I had been begrudgingly dealing with back pain for the first time in my life. AND chiropractic wasn’t helping me at all! I had moments where I was ready to drop out of school.

I stuck with it. I’m glad I did because, with the help of my colleagues, I discovered the missing piece: ME.

Whether I liked it or not, my behaviors were contributing to my back pain roller coaster ride.

Ironically, I sat A LOT in chiropractic school. And in crappy chairs at times. It wasn’t that I had “bad posture,” but it was the amount of time I was forced to sit in class and study afterward. I wondered why I felt great when exercising but crappy the rest of the day. Now it made sense.

What did I do? I changed my behavior. I sat with a lumbar roll. I got up every 30 minutes for a micro-break. I would take a knee at my desk rather than sit. I made it a point to walk a bit extra in between classes. I would do my spinal “brushing & flossing” exercise I learned that helped me without needing anyone else to “fix” me.
All of this came from what I learned taking my first McKenzie Method course. Since chiropractic school, I have had a handful of low back pain episodes (most for silly reasons like deadlifting too much), and I have successfully self-assessed and self-treated using the McKenzie Method. It’s not always magic because some injuries take time, but it’s guided me down the right path every time.

Kristin Szlinis

• 2,000+ hours of training in manual therapy, biomechanics, pain science, and mindfulness.
• Rolfing Structural Integration Certified
• Licensed Massage Therapist (15 years experience)
• Clinical Somatic Pilates Instructor
• Expert Witness in Malpractice Cases
• Currently pursuing a Bachelors of Science in Kinesiology

Dr. Mitch Israel

• 500+ hours of post-graduate coursework
• Credentialed in Mechanical Diagnosis & Therapy (McKenzie Method)
• Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA) Certified
• Trigger Point Dry Needling Certified
• Motion Palpation Institute and Diversified Technique 
• 200 hours training functional movement and rehabilitation

I do what I do based on my personal experience. Here’s why.

My journey to becoming a chiropractor started when I fractured my femur in a high school football preseason scrimmage. I ended up in a bent knee cast for 6 weeks and never received any physical therapy after my cast was removed. I didn’t trust the strength in my leg. And I never ended up playing organized sports again. 

I believed you shouldn’t give up on your athletic aspirations because of injury. But I was under the impression once you had a major injury you were done for good.

This experience led me down the path to wanting to become a physical therapist. 

I attended Central Michigan University, where I pursued my Bachelor’s in Exercise Science. I was dead set on becoming a physical therapist until I discovered a friend in my major was going to school to become a chiropractor. 

I didn’t know what a chiropractor actually did. 

I learned chiros and PTs were quite similar. For various reasons and within a matter of weeks, I  changed career paths to pursue chiropractic.

I received my Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Logan University, near St. Louis, MO. I was the first recipient of the Founder’s Scholarship: a full-tuition paid scholarship for my academic success through my first year at Logan. I made the President’s List every term, earning valedictorian of my class. For that alone you should choose me as your Chiropractor, right?!

Although I had academic success in school, I quickly learned that I didn’t have the tools needed to become the skilled clinician I aspired to be. 

To advance my skills, I accumulated 600+ hours of post-graduate courses while in school. The skillsets I earned through the Mechanical Diagnosis & Therapy (McKenzie Method), Motion Palpation Institute (MPI), Rehab2Performance (R2P), and the Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA) guided me to become a great chiropractor with the additional skillset of a physical therapist. 

I am a native of Marysville, MI, but my aspirations to becoming a sports chiropractor led me to  REACH Rehab + Chiropractic Performance Center. Now, I’ve planted my roots in Plymouth with my beautiful fiancé Brooke!