We both grew up in families that instilled a strong work ethic and where community involvement was important.

Judy comes from a small rural town in the heart of Australia’s dairy farming country, Bega, in New South Wales.  John grew up in Australia’s largest and best- known city – Sydney.

John had a very challenging childhood as he had a major orthopaedic problem with his legs, and a specialist told his parents he would be disabled and never be able to play sport. He was also a bad stutterer and very dyslexic and was prevented from going to a regular high school as the educational experts said he couldn’t be taught.

On becoming School Captain and Head Prefect at 15, he instantly stopped stuttering, and also that year became Australian Open Junior Judo Champion.

As Henry Ford said, "If you think you can; if you think you can’t, you’re probably right."

We met while studying physical education in 1964 at Sydney Teachers’ College and married in 1967.

It was on our honeymoon in 1967 that we were introduced to chiropractic when Judy became paralysed from the waist down while we were camping at the beach. Several medical specialists had told her that she would be in a wheelchair soon, and others said her problems were all ‘in her head’ (why are we still hearing the latter in the chiropractic profession?).

John carried Judy in to see her first chiropractor and she gingerly hobbled out on her own two feet. Don’t tell us that chiropractic is not a miracle!

We spent the next two years teaching in rural Australia then went to Singapore in 1969 on an old cargo boat and travelled overland throughout Asia and the Middle East before arriving in Europe in 1970. Here we spent the next eighteen months teaching and travelling by Landrover in the U.K., Western and Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in the days of the ‘Cold War’. Two working spells in Denmark and England gave us enough money to move on.

In late 1971 we set out from England and drove through Africa from north to south in our Landrover. After being lost in the Sahara Desert (a compass and maps finally helped out), being hijacked and held up at gun point in the Congo, climbing and being lost near the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro in a blizzard, enjoying weeks of remote game parks, and just avoiding being caught by one of Idi Amin’s Ugandian genocide squads on the Albert Nile, we made it to South Africa in 1972 at the height of apartheid. This whole experience was all truly fabulous to experience first hand.

After some more teaching, and travelling in South Africa and across the Kalahari Desert in Botswana to Namibia and up to Angola, it was time to move on to South America. As John had been accepted as a freshman student at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC), we had seven months to backpack throughout South America, to arrive in Toronto in the fall of 1973. We left Cape Town, South Africa by ship in early February 1973 and arrived in Rio de Janeiro two weeks later. Travelling by bus, train, truck, barge, foot and two very scary short aircraft flights, we made it to Port of Spain, Trinidad, where we emigrated to Canada.

En route in Latin America, John developed what appeared to be a good dose of malaria after our travel down a stretch of the Amazon River. The American Hospital in Rio Bamba, Equador diagnosed the condition as advanced tuberculosis and said we would need to stay there indefinitely, in fact, till he died. Fortunately for him (not for the poor fellow told to return to his remote village), his x-rays had been incorrectly labelled, and after a week’s recuperation, we headed for Colombia.

Judy moved to teaching Special Education in a Junior High School in Toronto to support John through Chiropractic College, but with the enthusiasm that chiropractic college instantly generated, Judy decided that the fall of 1974 would see the start of her journey as a chiropractor also.

Life as chiropractic students was fun, hectic, impoverished, difficult and provided some wonderful opportunities in the Toronto area to meet and learn from some committed chiropractors.

John became President of the Students’ Administrative Council at CMCC and received the Award of Merit for School Civic Service, a Sports Award and was Valedictorian and the President’s Graduate of the Year in his Graduating Class of 1977. Graduating, holding those red roses and certificate is a pivotal memory for Judy.

During 1977-1978 while Judy completed her final year at CMCC, John practiced in Toronto. Three nights a week he worked from 8pm until 1am when chiropractors said nobody would come at that time. The Jewish business community in Toronto enjoyed those special extended hours and John was rewarded with a busy practice.

Every month during 1977 and 1978, we would travel across the border to the U.S. to attend Parker Seminars, Living Principles Seminars, Reggie Gold Programs, Pierce-Stillwagon Seminars and many other chiropractic technique and philosophy feasts. A fabulous year of learning, fun and expansion.

From June to September 1978, we travelled down through middle America on our way from Toronto to Key West in Florida, up the eastern seaboard of the U.S., to the Maritimes of Canada and then zig-zagged our way across the U.S. and Canada before heading down the West Coast from Vancouver to L.A. We were treated to overwhelming doses of North American chiropractic hospitality as we visited many clinics and some of the busiest practices on the continent. What gems we collected on our chiropractic treasure hunt!

In October 1978, we arrived back in Australia after being away for ten years. We bought a car, were given a Labrador dog and Siamese cat, and travelled 3,500kms throughout three States before we found Forster, an idyllic town of 7,000 people, 350kms north of Sydney on a spectacular lake and surfing beach. We soon opened a second practice in the small rural cattle town of Gloucester, 100kms west of Forster. It was during this time that we were invited to join the Post-Graduate Faculty of the Phillip Institute of Technology, School of Chiropractic to teach Pierce-Stillwagon Technique (PST) throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Many weekends away meant we needed to move to a large city with good airline connections. In December 1980 we moved to Brisbane, the Sunshine Capital in Australia’s north and we quickly developed a high volume suburban practice in an area that was crying out for chiropractic care.

Judy became the editor of the Journal of the Australian Chiropractors’ Association from 1980-1982 and she, together with John, were the authors of a number of research papers on the spine and related spinal bio-mechanics. John has written many practice management topics. 

In 1983 Judy developed uterine cancer and had to leave practice. She set about finding out why she had let her health reach such a low ebb, and then went on a self-healing path. With only natural non-allopathic intervention, she returned to normal health. It was a very useful learning experience for her and has enabled Judy to reach many people who have been searching for a natural route to reclaiming health and well-being, both one-on-one, and in groups.

In the late 1980s, we moved into a purpose built clinic, which won numerous community awards for its outstanding lush tropical gardens.

John has been very active in the profession and was Vice President of both Federal and Queensland State Associations 1983/84, and between 1988 and 1996, he was President of the Australian Spinal Research Foundation (ASRF), and in 1988, with Judy, founded the highly successful Dynamic Growth Congress and Workshops to raise funds for the ASRF. In 1996 we were named as the Founding Patrons of the Dynamic Growth Congress, which is the largest annual Chiropractic seminar held in the Southern Hemisphere. John now acts as the Honorary Consultant to the ASRF.

Also in 1988, John launched the Bridge to the Future Campaign for the ASRF and raised $1.25 million in an eight month campaign for spinal research in Australia. In February 2000, he was Launch Chairman for the Bright Future Campaign to raise a further $800,000 for the ASRF.

In 1992, Springwood Chiropractic Centre, under John’s direction, was awarded the Business Achiever of the Year Award in the highly competitive small business section of Queensland’s second largest  Chamber of Commerce, Logan City.

In August 1994, John and Judy left clinical practice to become full-time chiropractic presenters and consultants with Powerful Practices , the company they founded. They worked with practices throughout Australia and New Zealand providing seminars and Total Support Service to the members’ practices.

John and Judy have been speakers at chiropractic State and National Conventions in Australia and New Zealand over the past fifteen years.

During the late 1990's Drs John and Judy Hinwood developed and taught a program called 'Starting Out', which included 3 modules, for the graduating class at the Macquarie University Master of Chiropractic program.

In 1995 John was a speaker at the Chiropractic Grand Celebration in Washington D.C. and John and Judy have been speakers at the Living Principles Program in Pittsburgh, as well as CMCC Homecoming in Toronto. John has spoken at Markson Management Services Programs in New York and Orlando and he has also spoken in Japan and the United Kingdom.

In 1999, John and Judy developed Powerful Practices Personal Strategic Coaching and now spend their time working one-on-one with chiropractors all over Australia, New Zealand, Europe and North America as their practice and life coaches.

The chiropractic profession in Australia has been kind over the last 20 years in bestowing service awards on John .

In October 2000 John received an Outstanding Service Award from the National President of the Chiropractors' Association of Australia, Dr Lawrence Tassell. The award was in acknowledgement and appreciation of his service to the association and the chiropractic community in facilitating chiropractic research as chairman of the 'Bridge to the Future' campaign for the Australian Spinal Research Foundation, and for his work as Founding Convenor and Patron of the Dynamic Growth Congress.

In September, 2002, John Hinwood was named as a Fellow of the International College of Chiropractors (FICC) for his work toward the advancement of the profession.

On September 21, 2001, Drs John and Judy Hinwood were given a Silver Jubilee Award by the Australian Spinal Research Foundation for their generous support of Chiropractic research in a myriad of ways.

On October 11, 2001 Dr John Hinwood received the Medal of Recognition from the Australian Institute of Management for his work in Volunteer Management. This was a special medal struck by the Australian Institute of Management to recognise outstanding management performance in the International Year of the Volunteer.

In July 2005, the Australian Spinal Research Foundation awarded Dr John Hinwood an Outstanding Service Award for Unswerving Commitment to Fundraising for the Foundation through the Parker Seminars 2003 and 2005.

In July 2005, the Australian Spinal Research Foundation awarded Drs John and Judy Hinwood Chiropractic Visionary Awards for Selfless Commitment to the Advancement of Chiropractic.

On January 16, 2004 Dr Judy Hinwood was the first non-North American to receive the prestigious award of 'Woman Chiropractor of the Year' at the Parker Seminar in Las Vegas for 'outstanding contributions and in recognition of the special attributes as a woman Doctor of Chiropractic. As well as her ongoing contributions to the chiropractic profession'.

In November 2005, Judy was inducted as an Associate Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management.

In October 2006, John was inducted as a Fellow and Judy was inducted as a Member of the Australasian College of Chiropractors.

In February 2008, at The Parker Seminar  at Las Vegas in the US, John and Judy received the prestigious  world wide Humanitarian Award for 2008 for Unselfishly Helping Others.

Drs John and Judy Hinwood have been coaching chiropractors since 1991 and are also Certified Life Coaches.

In 1985, After being married for 18 years, we adopted three marvellous and challenging older children – Maria Isobel (Shavela) 10½, Ignacio (Nat) 8½ and Rodrigo (Rod) 7, whom we found in orphanages in Chile. In 1998, we all returned to Chile and found their biological parents and another 120 plus aunts, uncles and cousins. What a fulfilling and completing five week Latin experience that was for all of us.

Dr Keith Livingstone and his wife Joanne, who has a passion for graphic design, have been Powerful Practices' members since we started our consulting work in the early 1990s, urged us to share the mass of material we have developed over the past 20 years with as many chiropractors worldwide as we can. 

In October 2000 Dr Livingstone received an Outstanding Service Award from the Chiropractors' Association of Australia, in acknowledgement and appreciation of his outstanding service to the association and the chiropractic community in public education and chiropractic multi-media.

The Livingstones have been an absolutely integral part in developing powerful-practices.com and we will always be indebted to them.

Together with the Livingstones, we share a huge vision for chiropractic world-wide. 

Enjoy your reading, listening, viewing and the success and joy that you will create.