Inspiring Conversations with Dr. Shelby Gillespie of Higher Ground Healing Sanctuary

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Shelby Gillespie.

Hi Dr. Shelby, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My story started with the innate knowing of my purpose to be a guide, sage, and coach for others to connect to their soul’s highest potential and calling in this earthly plane. I didn’t know how this would happen, nor the ways in which I would facilitate the work, but I had conviction that the path would present itself to me. This pattern is common in my own human experience- The ability to see the bigger picture, and funneling that energy backwards to make it happen. As it goes, the steps and opportunities presented themselves in more ways than one. These overarching ‘steps and opportunities’ include my experiences as a student athlete up and through undergrad, my family’s own health and wellness journey, and the ultimate opportunity to attend chiropractic school. I’m sure you’re wondering what a chiropractor has to do with helping connect people to their soul’s truest essence. While it’s not as widely known as it should be, the answer is simple- Chiropractic is all about full life expression. After chiropractic school, I moved out to Arizona and opened Higher Ground Healing Sanctuary in the fall of 2023. In my practice, I utilize NetworkSpinal. NetworkSpinal is a gentle, light touch technique that awakens the spine as a gateway to consciousness, freeing bound energy and inviting you into greater harmony with your innate intelligence and life’s intelligence. This leads us to today! We’ve built a family and community at Higher Ground not only connecting people to themselves, but also connecting like-minded souls all around the valley.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I love this question- I think it’s easy to look at entrepreneurial success without considering the journey that has led to the present. With that being said, I think an important aspect to know about business, like healing, is it indeed is a journey! It’s very rarely a linear one. Of course there were trials and set-backs- from being told in undergrad by a guidance counselor that I should consider a different path because becoming a doctor “wouldn’t be plausible for me” as a student athlete, moving through the trials and tribulations associated with a doctorate program, graduating from chiropractic school and people looking at you like you’re crazy for asking for funding when in plenty of educational debt and nothing to your name but your degree, struggling to find the right office space and getting kicked out of said space a week after your grand opening due to an unexpected property sale, thinking I found the next best space for a landlord to turn me away due to his mistrust in my ability to be fruitful in business, to deciding to very unexpectedly purchase another practice to step into our current practice space and expand Higher Ground even further- I wouldn’t change a single thing. This is another reason I personally love this question. On the outside, a lot of these things look like struggles, but really, nothing actually ever went “wrong” because somehow, I always ended up exactly where I was meant to be. There can be no growth without discomfort and instability- Life is a dance between stability and instability. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned so far is the more you can trust and surrender to the higher calling, and the more you can be of aligned service to the collective, you will always be rewarded and provided for in kind. With that, the state of your business is a direct reflection of the state of you! More coherence in you and your nervous system will reflect as more overall coherence in your business.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Chiropractic, in its truest form, unleashes human potential to invite souls to experience the totality of their existence. With that being said, Higher Ground is all about MORE LIFE. We all have a human operating system, namely the nervous system, that not only controls all bodily functions, but also interprets and responds to the world around us. We experience life in direct reflection to the state of our nervous system. With the nervous system being the orchestrator and conductor of our life, it remembers every life experience. In a specific moment in time, a certain energy, tone/posture, muscular pattern, and nervous system pattern presents in order to move you through that experience. Over time, those patterns that once served us, or those experiences that never had the opportunity to fully release, start to cause dis-ease in the system. This is when we start to experience overwhelm or breakdown. At Higher Ground, nervous system healing and reorganization is our jam. This leads me to another way in which we’re unique- The traditional chiropractic model invites for restorative healing, while NetworkSpinal specifically calls for reorganizational healing. This means as opposed to bringing your system back to its normal baseline, we increase your overall bandwidth for more life! With a reorganizational piece, over time, we are reaching whole new baselines we didn’t feel to be possible before. There are several hundred to over a thousand chiropractors around the valley, but there are only a few who practice NetworkSpinal like we do in our practice. We utilize gentle, light touch to unwind tension to the human operating system and reorganize the energy flowing through the system to eradicate anything inauthentic to your true nature. This creates more connection and allows for more profound impact in and for the world! A new practice member visit to our office is the best way to feel into all that Higher Ground and NetworkSpinal has to offer- It would be our honor to be a part of your healing journey.

How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
We love community and collaboration! We’re always willing to chat to and connect with other people and other small businesses to see where we are aligned. This is a space that can be really fun- I love creating events with other businesses and providers for the community to experience and be a part of. As humans, we are communal people, and it’s always special when we can all come together in intentional spaces. I’d love to tap into more of the event and collaboration space in 2026 with Higher Ground! Outside of that, if you, friends, and/or loved ones in your life feel called to nervous system healing and reorganization, we would love to be a part of you and yours healing journey! Sharing Higher Ground with others is huge for our small business.

Pricing:

• Initial Visit- $250. Includes full case history, postural analysis, CLA insight neurological assessment scans, and your first entrainment! (table session). A really great feel into what care looks like moving forward at Higher Ground.
• Free 20-minute consultations available to ask us questions and see if we’re the right fit.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://highergroundchiro.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/highergroundchiro/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089689436054

Image Credits
Kelsey Ann Photography