By Ty Walker, The Mountain Times
Dr. Melanie Brown is co-owner and CEO of two expanding natural healthcare businesses, Mountain Life Clinic in Welches and Pure Life Clinic in Portland. Her husband, Dr. Jason Brown, is co-owner and CEO of the enterprise.
Although they work together in business and patient care, she has focused primarily on operations, business-building, and networking. “Jason is the visionary, and I work on the details to make it happen,” says Melanie. “We realized early on that the best way to work together is to focus on our strengths. Jason has always had a steady and loyal patient following, and I have had times on and off doing patient care with several maternity leaves.” The Browns and their five children – all boys – make their home in the small Mount Hood community. “When we lived in the Portland area, we spent time in Brightwood regularly,” Melanie said. “We had a cabin up here, and we liked it so much that we wanted to live here full-time.”
Melanie Brown met her future husband and business partner while they were students at the University of Western States in Portland. They both graduated in 2006 with doctor of chiropractic degrees. That same year, the couple started their practice, Balance Chiropractic Center, and acquired another small practice, Pure Life Clinic, a year later. They adopted that name, moved from the Hawthorne District to North Portland, and grew to 16 employees and 10,000 patient visits annually.
“In 2019, we did a big remodel to our space in North Portland where we have a 3,600-square-foot clinic offering chiropractic, acupuncture, and massage,” said Melanie. “Then COVID hit, and we went from 16 employees down to one. Chiropractic, acupuncture, and massage were considered nonessential health care, so we had to donate our PPE (personal protective equipment), like masks, gloves, and gowns, to the hospitals, and we had to close our clinic for three months.” The Portland clinic has slowly returned to its pre-pandemic staffing levels and is accepting new patients.
Since moving to Welches full-time in 2019, the Browns have expanded their business. They found an excellent location with great space for their new Mountain Life Clinic in a building next to the Rendezvous Restaurant. Modeled after the same philosophy, Mountain Life Clinic and Pure Life Clinic are viewed as sister clinics. “Our philosophy is low-patient volume,” Melanie said. “We don’t typically offer adjusting only. We like to do a lot more than that. Adjusting is our most powerful tool, but a lot of times, people need more.”
Along with adjusting, their clinic offers cupping, Kinesio-taping, exercise therapy, mechanical traction, cranial therapy, jaw therapy, lifestyle and ergonomic advice, and nutritional counseling. New patient visits take about an hour, with follow-up appointments going a half hour or more, depending on what other treatments are needed. “If we add exercise therapy, it might be 45 minutes. We get to the root of the problem rather than just being a band-aid. People we see are getting customized care.”
Mountain Life Clinic has doubled its size since it opened in 2021 at 67195 US-26 Unit A-1 in Welches. There are three chiropractic suites, a rehab area for 1-on-1 exercise therapy, a massage room, and ample space for expansion that could become acupuncture rooms. Robin Fritsch recently joined the team offering massage therapy. With the addition of a new chiropractor, Dr. Darion Dunlap, trained by the clinic, Mountain Life will expand its hours to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, five days a week. The clinic hopes to add acupuncture to its services and is also accepting applications for a full-time clinic assistant.
Melanie and her husband are involved in the Mount Hood community and schools. She is an active member of the Hoodland Women’s Club. He is coaching the middle school basketball team. Both are members of the Lions Club. “We wanted our kids to grow up in the country and to be healthy,” Melanie said. “We grew up in the Midwest in rural areas. We’re delighted to be part of the community and enjoy that small-town family feel. We really like the people.”