THE DOCTORS

The people who teach the world how to treat chronic pain. And who treat patients here.

Dr. Mark T. Wade and Dr. Krista Burns hold a combined four doctorates and over 50 advanced certifications in posture, neurology, chronic pain, and human function. Their clinical system has been delivered to thousands of practitioners in 20 countries through the American Posture Institute. The Posture Clinic in Pinellas Park is the flagship clinical home of that work, and the place where the two of them still see patients personally.

THE FOUNDING STORY

We spent twenty years training other clinicians to treat chronic pain. Then we built the clinic we would send our own family to.

Dr. Mark T. Wade · DC, DrPH 

Lead Clinician  ·  The Posture Clinic  ·  Founder and CEO  ·  American Posture Institute

THE CLINICIAN

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Dr. Mark T. Wade is widely regarded as one of the most credentialed posture and chronic pain specialists in the world. He holds a Doctorate of Chiropractic and a Doctorate of Public Health, and is a Certified Posture Expert, Certified Postural Neurologist, Certified Ergonomist, and Integrated Pain Specialist · with more than 50 advanced certifications across structural correction, neurology, ergonomics, and pain neuroscience.

THE CHRONIC PAIN SPECIALTY

In chronic pain, Dr. Wade's dedication is unmatched. He has more than 500 registered hours of formal study in pain, including two Post Graduate Pain Certificates from major universities, an Interprofessional Pain Fellowship, and more than 100 hours in a Neurology of Pain program. He has exhausted every online chronic pain certification available and worked through more than 10 comprehensive pain textbooks across chiropractic, physical therapy, integrative medical, functional, and pharmaceutical perspectives.

THE EDUCATOR

As founder and CEO of the American Posture Institute, Dr. Mark has certified over 10,000 doctors across 20 countries through four flagship programs and 20+ advanced courses, building the largest community of posture-focused clinicians in the world. He is the creator of internationally recognized programs including 12 Weeks To Better Posture, FITPosture, and the Complete Posture Correction (CPC) Protocol. He also invented the Spinal Push Test, a globally adopted tool for detecting postural instability.

THE VETERAN AND THE HUMAN

Dr. Mark is a combat veteran who served an extended tour in Iraq and was honorably discharged with a service-connected disability. They lived and worked in Parma, Italy for over a decade, where Mark served as the official Posture Expert for the four-time national champion Parma Panthers and worked with more than 150 professional athletes across rugby, football, volleyball, basketball, MMA, baseball, and more. He has held leadership roles including President of the Council on Human Function and executive board member of the International Posture Association.

WHAT DR. MARK SEES AT THE POSTURE CLINIC

Dr. Krista Burns · DC, DHA, DACNB

Head of Neurology  ·  The Posture Clinic Founder  ·  American Posture Institute TEDx Speaker  ·  Author of The Posture Principles

THE NEUROLOGIST

Dr. Krista Burns holds a Doctor of Chiropractic and a Doctor of Health Administration, and is a Diplomate of the American Chiropractic Neurology Board (DACNB) · the highest functional neurology credential in the chiropractic profession. She is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurology for doctoral students at National University of Health Sciences. Her clinical specialty is the brain-based half of the Posture Clinic system · qEEG-guided brain training, WAVI cognitive and autonomic assessment, vestibular and oculomotor rehabilitation, and the central sensitization protocols that turn chronic pain off at the source.

THE AUTHOR AND EDUCATOR

Dr. Krista is the author of the seminal textbook The Posture Principles · Posture by Design, Not by Circumstance, a foundational text used in postgraduate posture education worldwide. She is a TEDx speaker, host of the International Posture Symposium, and creator of multiple high-impact virtual summits including the Pain Summits, Virtual Neurology Summit, Ergonomic Summit, and PEDS Week. Her international keynote and workshop roster includes the World Congress of Neurology and Neurological Disorders, the World Congress on Falls and Postural Stability in Malaysia, the International Rehabilitation and Wellbeing Congress in Egypt, and dozens of national associations across the US, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand, Bahamas, South Africa, and Italy.

THE RECOGNIZED EXPERT

Dr. Krista has been featured on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News Radio, and Global Woman Magazine (cover feature · "Posture is Power"). She has been recognized as a Top 20 Most Influential Chiropractor, a Top 100 Doctor by the Global Summits Institute, a Woman to KNOW in Tampa, and a Top 100 Female Entrepreneur by Global Woman Magazine. She serves as President of the Women's Professional Network Foundation.

THE ATHLETE

Outside the clinic, Dr. Krista is a former member of the United States Development Ski Team and qualified for the USSA Freestyle Skiing Junior National Championships and the USSA Freestyle Skiing National Championships. She qualified for the IFBB Bikini National Championships, took third place at the IBFA Bikini World Championships, and has run three marathons including a sub-four-hour finish.

WHAT DR. KRISTA SEES AT THE POSTURE CLINIC

FOUR PRINCIPLES

The four principles we will not negotiate.

Every protocol we run, every case we accept, every patient we send to a different provider · the decision is filtered through these four. We say them out loud so a prospective patient knows what they are signing up for, and so the team knows what we are accountable to.

PRINCIPLE 1

Pain is neurologic. Treat the system, not the symptom.

Pain rarely lives where it hurts. We refuse to treat a chief complaint without finding the driver. The Integrated Pain Score and the Driver Map exist for this reason. If the system is locked in defense, we calm the system first. Everything else fails until we do.

PRINCIPLE 2 

Measure or do not call it medicine.

Every patient is measured five ways at intake, at mid-program, and at finish. If a score does not move, the protocol changes. We will not run a patient through a plan blind because the plan is what we sell. The outcome is what we sell.

PRINCIPLE 3

Posture by design, not by circumstance.

 Calming a nervous system is not enough. If the structure that produced the strain is unchanged, the pain comes back. We rebuild posture deliberately, with measurement, over 12 weeks. We refuse to declare a patient finished while the architecture is still set against them.

PRINCIPLE 4

Teach the patient enough to run their own body.

The pain neuroscience education, the home protocol, the daily 8-15 minute work, the supplement and sleep protocol · they are all designed to make the patient self-sufficient. The end of the program is not the end of the work. It is the moment the patient takes the work over.

WHO ELSE YOU WILL SEE

A small team. Long tenured. Every member trained inside the system.

The clinic is intentionally small. We accept only a few new program patients each month so that every patient gets time with the doctors who designed the system. The wider team supports the measurement, the protocols, and the day-to-day rhythm of the program.

ROLES YOU WILL ENCOUNTER

• Patient Concierge · your single point of contact from interview through program. Handles scheduling, deposits, paperwork, and program coordination. 
• Clinical Therapist · runs the calming pillar visits (Erchonia laser, Neubie, vagal protocols) under the doctor's prescription. 
• Movement Coach · runs the structural pillar visits (Motion Guidance, multifidus retraining, joint by joint mobility). 
• Neurology Tech · runs qEEG, WAVI, and brain training sessions under Dr. Krista's direction. 
• Intake Specialist · runs the 30 minute Patient Interview and walks every applicant through the program before approval.

THE API CONNECTION

This clinic is the flagship of a global movement.

The Posture Clinic is the clinical home of the American Posture Institute (API), the largest postgraduate posture and chronic pain education provider in the world. The systems used here are the same systems API teaches to chiropractors, physical therapists, medical doctors, and rehab professionals in 20 countries.

THE API STACK

• Certified Posture Expert (CPX) · the structural correction credential 
• Certified Postural Neurologist (CPN) · the brain-based correction credential 
• Certified Ergonomist (CErg) · the environmental correction credential 

• Integrated Pain Specialist (IPS) · the chronic pain credential, central to The Posture Clinic system

   

Patients of The Posture Clinic are treated by the people who designed the credentials, using the protocols those credentials are built around. There is no game of telephone. The system arrives unfiltered.

BOOKS, PODCASTS, AND PLATFORMS

• The Posture Principles · Posture by Design, Not by Circumstance · Dr. Krista Burns 
• The International Posture Symposium · annual global gathering 
• The Council On Human Function podcast · Top 10 health podcast 
• Virtual Summit Podcast · Top 10 business podcast 
• TEDx · Dr. Krista Burns · "Posture is Power"

READY TO WORK WITH THE DOCTORS

You have read the bios. Now apply for the interview.

Dr. Mark and Dr. Krista personally consult on every program patient. The first step is a 30 minute Patient Interview with our intake team. There is no commitment beyond a refundable deposit, and you get our decision on the call · not two business days later. By the end of the thirty minutes you know where you stand.

▶  Read the program first