"Scott was seeing Dr. Cherie (Goble) and I was working at the cafeteria doing heavy lifting and my legs were going numb. So I came home to get adjusted," she said. "Immediately I noticed a change in my headaches! I am one of these people who had lived with headaches, it seemed like I always had one. I didn’t go for relief of my headaches, I went because my back was hurting from the heavy lifting and my legs were going numb and now no headaches!”

The dramatic change in her own health (including eliminating her low back pain) got her thinking.

Three years into her pre-med studies, she was approaching the deadline to take her “M-Cats”. Dr. Cherie asked her what she was pursuing and encouraged her to consider chiropractic. It was this gentle nudge and her first-hand experience with the success of chiropractic, that prompted Dr. Stephanie to attend a seminar that Dr. Cherie was presenting to chiropractic college students.

“The students at Palmer were all very excited about what they were doing which made me think, this seems like a better fit.” She said. “Dr. Cherie taught technique (how to adjust) but also covered a lot about pediatrics. That really set it. When I saw that chiropractic was for everyone, including babies, I thought, ‘this is it!’”

She made the decision she was not going to pursue medicine. Her guidance counselor and career counselor at Purdue were against the change and told her that it was a “waste of her talent.”

“They couldn’t understand why I would want to go into chiropractic,” she said. “They thought that nobody who goes to chiropractic college gets a four-year degree even though many states require a four-year undergrad degree.”

Dr. Stephanie graduated from Palmer College of Chiropractic in February of 1998 and because of the delay by the State of Indiana Chiropractic Licensing Board requirements, she wasn’t able to take her State Board Exams until the spring of 1998. During this time she studied and took her National Board Examination and completed a second internship with Goble Heal Chiropractic.

During this time of studying and waiting to take the State Board, Dr. Stephanie spent a lot of time at home with her mom, Brenda Rife. “We had all kinds of conversations and some health history things that I needed to know when I became pregnant.”

Her mom passed away in December of that year. That delay in getting her license turned out to be a blessing because of the one-on-one time she was able to spend with her mom before she passed. After she was licensed in the spring of 1999, she thought about opening her own practice but “kept bumping into issues.” So she provided relief work for chiropractors and learned what she did and did not want to do.

“It was an eye-opening time.” she said. “I thought every office was like this one (Goble Heal Chiropractic) but I learned that it wasn’t. I also learned a lot about myself during this time.”

Stephanie married Scott DePoy in 1997. They have two children, Samantha born in 2001, and Sawyer born in 2005.

In 2002, she started working with midwives in Lafayette adjusting pregnant women and babies.

“It was phenomenal being a chiropractor with a baby,” Dr. Stephanie said. “I could relate to moms who said their babies were crying and ‘they had to give them something’ – meaning over-the-counter drugs. I had been there at that point with my own baby. But, I knew from my schooling and my own experience and could share that their were other things they could do instead of drugs.”

Now, with her babies growing up and in school, Dr. Stephanie decided she would like to come back to the place where her chiropractic career was born. She is joining the practice of Goble Heal Chiropractic part-time for now. Her history with the office (studied the same technique and ‘grew up’ with the office) as well as her friendship with Dr. Cherie and Dr. Mark Heal make her a natural fit.

“It feels good to be back in the office,” Dr. Stephanie said. “It’s a positive atmosphere and everyone here is all about helping the patient…that is reason enough for me.”