Rita Field, DC- Harmony Holistic Health Center

Before I went to my first Chiropractic visit I remember thinking that I really needed surgery and that it would not work. That visit was at a place in Allston called Advanced Spine Centers (I think … but where «Grasshopper» is now). I used to work in a bar and had tremendous lower back pain. I asked a friend of mine that played minor legue sports what I should do, and he suggested a Chiropractor. The ASC place was a walk in clinic and I think I really got lucky because the guy there named «Mike» fixed me up in 3 visits.
Unfortunately, I waited until I had pain to go back and by then Mike had moved on to his own practice. I looked everywhere, but I could not find him. I spent the next 10 years with — severe — intermittent pain trying different chiropractors looking to find one that could help me. None of them really could. The pain always returned in a day or few days.
I switched careers, got health insurance, and my most recent job has provided me with chiropractic services through Blue Cross and Blue Shield. So … I started looking for a chiropractor in their network and I found Rita.
I read Rita’s website — wich mentions that she uses a «Non-​force» technique — and did not have high expectations for my treatment. But, if it was covered by insurance and I could get a couple of pain free days out of it … then hey, it was worth it to me.
After being treated by Rita the first time I was really amazed to find that my back felt better … much better … as good as when I went to see Mike, and I was able to go weeks without pain. I remember thinking when she was working with on my back that she wasn’t really doing anything, and on my first visit I planned to start looking for other chiropractors in the BCBS system. However, during the next couple of days after the visit I could feel a real improvement. THE PAIN WAS SIMPLY GONE! She claims that the only difference between techniques is whether you snap, or «glide,» the joint back into place. Umm … I don’t get that at all … but, JUST MAKE THE PAIN STOP!!!
A couple of my friends that also see chiropractors have made fun at the work that Rita does. They would suggest that she is hypnotizing me — based on how I describe my visits I guess. Well, to be honest, I don’t know what she is doing with the «Non-​Force» technique, but I know «back pain» and «no back pain» really well, and I know if I go see Rita that I can be pain free … and frankly, I don’t care how she does it (I think I have a $ 30 copay now and I would have gladly paid 10X that amount to be pain free for a few days).
If you are in pain go see her at least once … It can’t hurt!
UPDATE:
It has been about 10 months and my back is completely pain free now. I do get occasional flare ups after some kinds of activity, but Rita gave me some great exercises to do between visits which take care of that.
I wish more Chiros knew these techniques … they are amazing.

Rita Field sells herself as the gentle chiropractor. I fully believe in rehabilitation through pain, but since she was the only blue cross chiropractor that called me back, she got the appointment.
My first visit was an hour long consultation in November of 2008. It was 50 dollars and it was not covered by my insurance.
The doctor felt my neck and spine and gave me some diagrams to take home. She was sure that the pain was on my right side, but no, really, I insisted, the pain on my left side was much more intense.
«Here?» she asked, with her hand on my right side.
I reasoned that maybe I did have something terrible going on with the left side that affected my right. After all, she was the doctor.
She set up a schedule of 10 appointments through 2009 — the maximum number that my insurance would cover — and then began rambling about St. Francis of Assisi. She asked about my activities with the church and was shocked when I said I knew nothing about the saints, especially with an Italian name like mine.
Now, my last name might SOUND Italian, but in fact, it is not Italian, and in fact, I do not go to church.
The visit ended with Rita adding a 20 dollar mandatory buckwheat pillow to my treatment plan.
On the next visit, the good doctor had her 3 poodles at the office. They were certainly cute, but I am allergic to dogs. A patient in the lobby cowered behind a chair. Rita chastised the patient for frightening the dogs, who only wanted to greet patients and get to know them.
Rita eschews modern chiropractic methods and treatments took place on a 20 year old bench of sorts. «Adjustments» were made by lightly pressing on various points on my body and tugging at the seam of my pants on one side — the right side.
A couple visits later, my back felt no better, and I discovered that she had run the original consultation fee of 50 dollars through her credit card machine 3 times. I delicately called this to her attention and asked her to remove the extra charges. She claimed she did not know how use her charge machine for refunds and instead offered to deduct subsequent visits from the overpayment.
Fine.
I submitted a dispute to my bank anyway, and I let her know I was doing so. We agreed I would tell her if the money was refunded.
For the next few visits, her focus was still on my right side. She would often forget things I’d told her relevant to my treatment. Any time the phone rang during our sessions, she would stop what she was doing to answer it.
I write this review in as much back and neck pain as I’d been in on November, but without the headache of Harmony Holistic. That’s pleasing enough.