Meet Dr. Joel + Shannon
Welcome to your health freedom.
Meet Dr. Joel
After completing his undergraduate course studies at the University of Wisconsin and Pre-med Core studies at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Joel Taatjes went on to pursue his chiropractic education. He obtained his Doctor of Chiropractic degree at Northwestern College of Chiropractic followed by certification as a Schofield Master Chiropractor and Industrial Disability Evaluator.
Quality chiropractic care in a comfortable and friendly environment was the goal of Dr. Joel Taatjes when he opened Redwood Chiropractic back in 1989, and it remains his mission today. In order to achieve that goal, he actively serves his community at local and international levels. He is a Certified Intern Training Supervisor with Life College of Chiropractic and a Certified Field Doctor Training Supervisor for Palmer College of Chiropractic. Dr. Taatjes is also a member of the World Chiropractic Alliance and annually participates in additional seminars.
Dr. Taatjes uses a 'whole person approach'. This approach to wellness means looking for underlying causes of any disturbance or disruption (which may or may not be causing symptoms at the time) and make whatever interventions and lifestyle adjustments that would optimize the conditions for normal function. Using this unique approach, Dr. Taatjes is able to help you to accelerate and maintain your journey to good health.
Joel practices what he preaches. As an Enneagram 3, he’s a true “Achiever”. He reads constantly and never settles for mediocrity. When he’s not serving patients, there’s not many places he’d rather be than riding fresh powder down a mountain somewhere like in this photo. His motto: If something is true, it’s always true.
Meet Shannon
It all starts with an idea. After working in the Veterinary field for 17+ years and leaving that career to help raise her two amazing stepsons, Shannon finally found herself an empty nester with a passion for nutrition and wellness.
She created the healthy lifestyle blog Happy WifeStyle in 2014 at the age of 42 and never looked back. This creative outlet lit her fire and helped this introvert learn she too could be a leader with a voice.
Craving knowledge to better help others, Shannon got Nutritious Life Certified and became Board Certified as a Holistic Health Practitioner by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners.
Shannon loves inspiring and empowering others when it comes to aging gracefully. Self love and self care is a non negotiable for her and a positive mindset is her “superpower”. She’s been studying the Law of Attraction for many years after it completely turned her life around years ago. Learning to take responsibility for her life was a game-changer.
Educating her online and local community to become their own health advocates is rewarding and she couldn’t be more excited to team up with her husband on this new endeavor. She has a calming, empathetic energy as an Enneagram 9 “peacemaker”. She believes healing the body through proper nutrition is a powerful but underutilized tool.
After learning that what we put on our bodies is just as important as what we put in our bodies, she joined the mission-based clean beauty company based in Santa Monica, California called Beautycounter. Adding this piece helps to bring educating others to become their own health advocates full circle. People don’t know what they don’t know and when they know better they can do better. That’s the goal.
As a California girl all her life, Shannon loves NorCal most of all. As an avid reader, she always has two books going at once, one for personal growth and one for pure entertainment. Her loves are movies, music, great food, sipping wine with friends and family, cooking healthy recipes, shopping NYC, and hiking with her husband and French Bulldog “Brut Rosé”.
At 48 years young, Shannon hopes to fill a void and be an inspiring voice for women over 40 and beyond. Her motto: It’s never too late to start living your best life.
Better Together
How’d you two meet?
We were fixed up by friends who knew us well. We were both busy at the time so it was months before we finally ended up in the same room at the same time, but once we met we both knew. Our early years didn’t come without struggles, to say the least, but we didn’t give up. We knew that even though we didn’t have it all together at the time…if we stood by one another, one day together we would have it all.
What is your age difference and is it ever an issue?
We are about 10 years apart and it’s never been an issue. It works perfectly for us and I don’t think we’d change it if we could.
How long have you been together?
We’ll have our 10 year wedding anniversary in July of 2020 and have been together about 17 years.
Why did you decide to collaborate and create Your Health Advocates?
This definitely wasn’t started on a whim. We’ve known on some level we wanted to do something like this for years We have a lot to share. Others have told us we have a certain dynamic together that people admire. We’ve never tried to change each other. We love the differences we have while knowing we are stronger together. We’ve never understood couples who need to do the same things all the time and have the exact same interests. Sometimes we’ve watched other couples morph into one person, each potentially losing sight of who they were. That’s just not who we are. We love our individuality and respect it. We each bring different knowledge and skillsets to this project, while having a similar mindset, set of values and philosophy.. Because of all these things, we think we can be good examples and inspire others to want more from their life, health and relationships.