Highlands Ranch is not a city. It is a census-designated place in Douglas County, unincorporated, governed by a metropolitan district rather than a municipal government, and that detail matters more than it sounds when you are choosing among chiropractors in Highlands Ranch. There is no town clerk issuing local health-practitioner permits and no municipal register to consult. The only public record that establishes whether the person about to put hands on your neck is entitled to do so is the state one: Colorado licenses chiropractors through the Board of Chiropractic Examiners inside the Department of Regulatory Agencies, and the board publishes its entire licence file as open data that anyone can query.
This ranking was built from that file rather than from what practices say about themselves. The state chiropractic register holds 8,882 credentials in total, of which 2,807 are currently Active, and 71 unique chiropractic licences carry a Highlands Ranch mailing address — but only 43 of those 71 are Active. The rest are expired, inactive, surrendered or worse, which is a useful reminder that a doctor listed in a directory as practising in Highlands Ranch is not the same thing as a doctor licensed to practise anywhere. Sixteen practices were screened in August 2026. Ten chiropractors across the seven that remain were confirmed Active by name, licence number and first-issue date, and none carries a revocation, suspension, surrender, restriction or conditioned status.
The register rewards a reader who knows what to look for, and almost nobody does. A Colorado chiropractic licence is only the base credential: the board also grants three optional authorities that a licensee may hold alongside it, for acupuncture, for electrotherapy and for animal chiropractic, and each one appears in the register as a separate credential with its own number, issue date and status. That turns a vague marketing line into a checkable fact. When a Highlands Ranch clinic advertises acupuncture, the acupuncture authority either sits in the register under that doctor’s name or it does not. Three of the ten doctors below hold one. All ten hold the electrotherapy authority. Where a service is advertised and the matching authority is absent, this page says so plainly and leaves the question with the reader rather than settling it.
The second filter is geography, and Highlands Ranch is unusually easy to fake. Because the community sits against Littleton, Lone Tree and Centennial and shares a postal edge with all three, several practices that rank well for Highlands Ranch searches are not in Highlands Ranch. Two of the strongest-looking candidates publish Littleton street addresses on their own contact pages while running Highlands Ranch landing pages built purely for search. One well-marketed site names no doctor and publishes no address at all. One domain that once served a Highlands Ranch practice now redirects to a parked lander. None of them appear below. The third filter is scope: chiropractic marketing routinely reaches past the musculoskeletal complaints the evidence addresses, and one otherwise well-credentialed Highlands Ranch practice was removed for publishing claims about serious disease. Nothing on this page repeats a therapeutic claim as fact.
How We Evaluated Highlands Ranch Chiropractors
The Top 7 Chiropractors in Highlands Ranch, Colorado
2026 Rankings · Highlands Ranch, Colorado
Rocky Mountain Sports Chiropractic
This is the most completely documented practice in Highlands Ranch and the only one whose advertised services line up credential-for-credential with what the state register actually holds. The treating doctor is named without ambiguity on the clinic’s own bio page — Paul Geersen, DC, CCEP — and the register carries three separate Active credentials in his name: chiropractic licence 5043, first issued on 2 January 2001; the electrotherapy authority, number 2775691, issued the same day; and the acupuncture authority, number 2786167, issued on 27 October 2021. No board action of any kind attaches to any of the three.
That third credential is the one that matters, because the clinic sells acupuncture and dry needling and the authority behind both is verifiable rather than asserted. The rest of the documentation is unusually specific for a solo practice: a Doctor of Chiropractic from Northwestern College of Chiropractic, Class of 2000, which is consistent with a licence first issued in January 2001; a Certified Chiropractic Extremity Practitioner designation; a Bachelor of Science in Human Biology; Graston Technique Specialist and Corrective Exercise Specialist certifications; a postgraduate chiropractic sports practitioner programme; and stated membership of the Colorado Chiropractic Association, the American Chiropractic Association and the Council on Extremity Adjusting. Each of those is the kind of credential a reader can carry to the certifying body and check.
The scope discipline is the other reason this practice ranks first. The clinic’s About page states in its own words that it specialises in treating musculoskeletal conditions, and the published service list holds that line without wandering: spinal and extremity adjusting, gentle neck techniques, cold laser, sports acupuncture, dry needling, soft-tissue therapy, muscle stimulation and postural correction. There are no immune, digestive or systemic-disease claims anywhere on the site. Two things to note fairly. The clinic states it was voted Best of the Best for acupuncture in Highlands Ranch in a Colorado Community Media reader poll in 2021, 2024 and 2025; that is the practice’s own statement about a popularity poll, not an assessment of clinical quality. And the site describes itself as near the border of Highlands Ranch and Littleton, which is accurate — the Springer Drive address is inside Highlands Ranch, at its western edge.
Eastridge Chiropractic Co.
Eastridge is co-owned by two chiropractors who both hold current Colorado credentials, and we verified each one individually. Shantai Mancuso, DC, holds chiropractic licence 8097, Active, first issued on 9 October 2019, with the electrotherapy authority 2787036 alongside it. Mat Mancuso, DC, holds chiropractic licence 8095, Active, first issued on 8 October 2019, with electrotherapy authority 2787034; the register records his first name as Mathew, which is worth knowing if you repeat the search. Neither licence carries a board action. Two owner-doctors with consecutive licence numbers and full published bios is a more transparent ownership structure than most practices of this size offer.
The training is stated rather than implied. Shantai Mancuso is described as a graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic West, cum laude, with a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Alberta, and the clinic lists Webster certification, Spinning Babies training and ICPA coursework alongside an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant credential. Mat Mancuso is described as a Palmer graduate from the Santa Clara campus. The site is careful in one respect that deserves credit: it describes him as soon-to-be CCSP rather than claiming the certified chiropractic sports physician credential he has not yet completed. Practices routinely round that kind of thing up, and this one does not.
The published framing is evidence-based care across pregnancy, paediatrics, sports and athletic injuries, motor-vehicle accidents and work injuries, which stays inside defensible territory. One item belongs on the record for readers weighing services rather than doctors. The clinic advertises dry needling, and Colorado currently ties chiropractic dry needling to acupuncture certification under the board’s scope-of-practice rule; neither Mancuso holds an acupuncture authority in the state register. The board opened a stakeholder process in March 2026 specifically to remove that requirement from the rule, so the position is genuinely in flux rather than settled, and there may be an arrangement the register does not show. Ask the clinic directly how its dry needling is delivered and by whom before booking it.
Reinholtz Family Chiropractic, P.C.
This is the longest-running independent chiropractic practice on the page and one of only three here whose acupuncture claim is backed by a state credential rather than a marketing line. Nicholas Reinholtz, DC, holds chiropractic licence 4469, Active, first issued on 9 October 1997; the electrotherapy authority 2773291, issued the same day; and the acupuncture authority 2773292, Active since 23 April 1998. Nearly three decades of unbroken Colorado licensure at one Highlands Ranch address, with no board action on any of the three credentials, is a substantive record and it is checkable in under a minute.
The clinic describes Dr. Reinholtz as a graduate of the National College of Chiropractic and a certified Chiropractic Sports Physician and Acupuncturist, and states he moved to Colorado in 1998 and opened the practice. The acupuncture half of that claim resolves cleanly against the register. The technique list is specific in a way that helps a reader judge fit: Diversified and Gonstead hands-on adjusting, a Cox flexion-distraction table for disc injuries, acupressure and interferential therapy. The practice states it specialises in auto injuries, sports injuries and workers’ compensation work, verifies insurance benefits by phone before a first visit, and keeps in-house massage therapists available seven days a week with daytime and evening appointments, plus Saturday morning chiropractic hours.
One caveat holds it at third rather than higher, and it is a scope caveat rather than a licensing one. Alongside conventional musculoskeletal complaints, the clinic’s published relief list also names fatigue, dizziness, PMS and depression. Those are the practice’s own words and we neither endorse nor extend them. The federal evidence review on spinal manipulation finds the support strongest for musculoskeletal complaints and reports that a review of non-musculoskeletal conditions showed no clear benefit. If you are considering care for any of those four, discuss it with a physician first, and treat the clinic’s list as a statement of what it markets rather than a finding about what manipulation does.
Pinnacle Chiropractic and Spinal Rehab Center
Aaron Casselman, DC, holds Colorado chiropractic licence 5899, Active, first issued on 7 April 2006, with the electrotherapy authority 2771562 Active since the day before. No board action attaches to either. He is the only chiropractor at the practice and the site says so plainly, which is worth more than it sounds: a reader booking here knows exactly whose licence to check, and the clinic’s own team page names the support staff separately as receptionists, chiropractic assistants and health coaches rather than blurring them into a collective of doctors.
The conditions the clinic publishes are the tightest musculoskeletal list on this page. Sciatica, headache and migraine, whiplash, herniated and bulging discs, back pain, neck pain, numbness and tingling, carpal tunnel, plantar fasciitis, posture, scoliosis, neuropathy and spinal canal stenosis — no immune claims, no digestive claims, nothing about spinal alignment governing systemic disease. Treatment is delivered through adjusting, physiotherapy exercise, in-house digital X-ray, spinal decompression on a traction table, Class IV laser and shockwave therapy. The practice states it has operated in Highlands Ranch since 2007 and that Dr. Casselman has owned it for fifteen years, and it publishes an insurance page and a clinic tour rather than leaving both to a phone call.
It ranks fourth for two stated reasons, neither of which is a licensing concern. The first is depth: one licensed doctor covering the whole practice is less resilient than the two-doctor benches above it, and the site does not name the chiropractic college behind the degree. The second is breadth of the non-clinical menu. Alongside chiropractic care the clinic markets an Ideal Protein weight-loss programme, red-light therapy and a LipoMelt body-sculpting service delivered by a health coach. None of that is prohibited and none of it is presented as chiropractic, but it sits outside the musculoskeletal scope this ranking weighs, with less written training documentation behind it than the adjusting side carries. The site also states Dr. Casselman has been voted the area’s best chiropractor for the fifteenth time in a local reader poll; that is the clinic’s statement about a popularity contest, not a clinical assessment.
Highlands Family Chiropractic
Two chiropractors are named on this practice’s team page and both check out. Andrew Hicks, DC, holds chiropractic licence 7360, Active, first issued on 8 October 2015, with electrotherapy authority 2786460 issued the same day — a licence date that matches the site’s statement that he took over as the practice’s third owner in 2015. Charlotte Harris, DC, listed as the associate, holds chiropractic licence 8289, Active, first issued on 24 November 2020, with electrotherapy authority 2787186. Neither carries a board action. Her mailing address of record sits in Arvada rather than Highlands Ranch, which is ordinary and not a discrepancy: the register records where a licensee receives post, not where they treat patients.
The clinical identity is more defined than most practices in this category manage. The clinic builds its care around Chiropractic BioPhysics, a posture and spinal-alignment protocol, and states its doctors receive ongoing training in it; it also lists Graston Technique instrument-assisted soft-tissue work, non-surgical spinal decompression, shockwave therapy and dedicated scoliosis care. The site states its care plans have a defined beginning and end, which is a more patient-protective framing than the open-ended maintenance model common in the field, and it carries a Proudly Caring for Veterans designation. Auto-injury and personal-injury work is a stated focus.
Two items keep it fifth. The service menu extends into nutrition counselling and a weight-loss programme, which the site presents alongside chiropractic without publishing the training either doctor holds in them. And, as with Eastridge, the clinic advertises dry needling while neither named doctor holds an acupuncture authority in the state register — the credential Colorado’s current scope-of-practice rule ties chiropractic dry needling to, and which the board began a process in March 2026 to decouple. That is a question to put to the practice rather than a finding against it. The clinic also states its doctors draw on more than 300 publications for evidence-based care; no bibliography is published, so treat it as a description of approach rather than a verifiable claim.
Vitality Chiropractic
Vitality names two chiropractors and both hold Active Colorado credentials. Rob Anderson, DC, the founder, holds chiropractic licence 4635, first issued on 8 October 1998, with electrotherapy authority 2775650 issued the same day — which squares with the site’s claim of more than 25 years in practice. Theo Jensen, DC, holds chiropractic licence 8962, Active, first issued on 16 July 2025, with electrotherapy authority 2787676 added on 4 September 2025; the register records him as Theodore Joseph Jensen. He is a recent graduate, which the practice does not obscure. Neither licence carries a board action.
Dr. Anderson’s training is documented: kinesiology and human biology at the University of Colorado Boulder, then a Doctor of Chiropractic from Western States Chiropractic College in Portland, Oregon, with a sports medicine programme during that period. The practice makes a number of athletic claims we report as its own rather than confirm — that he has worked with Denver Broncos players, Stanford University athletes, Nike-sponsored athletes, Olympic teams, Ironman competitors and professional MMA fighters, and served as team doctor at Valor Christian High School. Those are the clinic’s statements. The practical detail a patient can act on is the schedule: doors open at 7:00 am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, the earliest start of any practice on this page.
It ranks sixth on the framing of its published claims. The site describes Dr. Anderson as a leader in alignment-driven neurological healing and states the practice works by restoring alignment and supporting the body’s neurological systems; it maintains a page explaining subluxation, and markets care for newborns, neuropathy and pregnancy alongside its musculoskeletal work. None of that is unusual in the field and none of it is a licensing concern, but it reaches past what the evidence base supports, and this page does not adopt it. The federal review of spinal manipulation reports no clear benefit across non-musculoskeletal conditions. Parents considering chiropractic care for an infant should raise it with their paediatrician first.
County Line Chiropractic
The third and last practice on this page whose acupuncture offering is backed by a state credential. Craig Lewis, DC, holds Colorado chiropractic licence 5498, Active, first issued on 25 July 2003, with electrotherapy authority 2777259 issued the same day and acupuncture authority 2777570 Active since 2 July 2007. No board action attaches to any of the three. His bio states he graduated from Parker College of Chiropractic in 2003, which matches a licence first issued in July of that year, and that he is certified in acupuncture, which the register confirms rather than merely repeats.
This is a small, low-overhead practice and it reads like one, which is not a criticism. The published technique list is concrete — activator, hands-on adjusting and flexion-distraction, supported by traction, electrical stimulation, ultrasound, taping, heat and ice — and the conditions named are conventional: back, neck and shoulder pain, headaches and migraines, sports injuries, personal and auto injuries, and knee pain. Acupuncture and massage therapy are offered in house and the practice provides school sports physicals. The site publishes an explicit anti-maintenance position, stating it is not the goal to see people three times a week for the rest of their lives, which cuts against the visit-volume model this profession is often criticised for.
Two things place it seventh. The practice publishes under the domain littletonchiropractor.com despite operating from a Highlands Ranch address on West County Line Road; the address is genuine and consistent across every page, but the mismatch will confuse anyone checking. More substantively, its About page states that misalignments in the spine can affect many different parts of the body, sometimes areas that may seem completely unrelated, and that patients may even start to lose some weight after a few treatments. Those are the practice’s own words. Neither claim is supported by the evidence review this page relies on, and neither is adopted here. Overall documentation is also thinner than the practices above: no certifications beyond acupuncture are named, and the doctor bio is a single paragraph.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I check a Highlands Ranch chiropractor’s Colorado licence myself?
Colorado licenses chiropractors through the Board of Chiropractic Examiners within the Division of Professions and Occupations at the Department of Regulatory Agencies. The division runs a public licensee lookup, and the same underlying file is published as an open dataset on the state data portal, where you can search by surname and read the licence type, number, first-issue date, expiry date and current status. Status is the part that matters. The register distinguishes Active from Expired, Inactive, Suspended, Summary Suspension, Revoked, Surrendered, Voluntary Surrender, Active with conditions and Active but restricted. Of the 71 unique chiropractic licences recorded against a Highlands Ranch mailing address, only 43 are Active. Get the treating doctor’s full legal name before you book, because a practice that will not tell you which licensed doctor is treating you cannot be checked at all.
What do the acupuncture and electrotherapy authorities on a Colorado chiropractic licence mean?
A Colorado chiropractic licence is the base credential, and the board grants three optional authorities that a licensee may hold alongside it: acupuncture, electrotherapy and animal chiropractic. Each is issued separately, carries its own number and issue date, and appears in the state register as its own record with its own status, so you can check for it by name exactly as you check the licence itself. This is the single most useful thing a reader can take from this page, because it converts a marketing claim into a verifiable one. If a Highlands Ranch clinic advertises acupuncture, the acupuncture authority is either on file under the treating doctor’s name or it is not. Across the ten doctors ranked here, all ten hold the electrotherapy authority and three hold the acupuncture authority.
Can a chiropractor in Colorado perform dry needling?
The position is currently in flux and worth understanding before you book it. Colorado’s chiropractic board rules address dry needling within the scope-of-practice rule, and the existing language ties a chiropractor’s ability to perform it to holding acupuncture certification. In March 2026 the board convened a stakeholder meeting on proposed revisions to that rule and to the continuing-education rule, and one stated purpose was to remove the language requiring acupuncture certification in order to perform dry needling. Until that process concludes, the sensible step is to ask any clinic advertising dry needling which credential the person performing it holds, and to check the acupuncture authority in the state register yourself. Several Highlands Ranch practices advertise dry needling without an acupuncture authority on file for the named doctors, which this page reports where we found it.
What is spinal manipulation actually supported for, and is it safe?
The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health at the National Institutes of Health summarises the research and finds the evidence strongest for musculoskeletal complaints. It describes modest improvement in pain for acute low-back pain and slightly better function than other therapies for chronic low-back pain on moderate-quality evidence, help for acute neck pain on low-to-moderate quality evidence, possible reduction in cervicogenic headache frequency and intensity on preliminary evidence, and possible help for sciatica in studies with many limitations. For conditions outside the musculoskeletal system, it reports that a review showed no clear benefit. On safety, it describes transient mild-to-moderate effects such as increased pain, stiffness or headache as common and usually resolving within 24 hours, notes that serious spinal, neurological or stroke complications are very rare with no accurate estimates available, and records that neck manipulation has been linked to small tears in artery walls at a low incidence that patients should be informed of. Nothing on this page is medical advice.
Does insurance or Medicare cover chiropractic care in Colorado?
Medicare Part B covers manual manipulation of the spine by a chiropractor to correct a vertebral subluxation, and after the Part B deductible you pay 20 percent of the Medicare-approved amount. Medicare does not cover other services or tests a chiropractor orders, and it names X-rays, massage therapy and acupuncture specifically as excluded. That distinction matters in Highlands Ranch, where several of the practices ranked here bundle X-ray, massage, acupuncture, decompression, laser or shockwave alongside adjusting. Private coverage varies by plan and is a separate question again: some plans require prior authorisation, cap annual visits, or exclude particular modalities entirely. Several of these practices state they verify benefits by phone before a first appointment. Confirm in writing what your plan covers, what the visit costs if it does not, and whether the practice is in network, before treatment starts rather than after.
Highlands Ranch is not an incorporated city. Does that change who regulates chiropractors here?
It changes where you look, not how strict the standard is. The U.S. Census Bureau records Highlands Ranch as a census-designated place in Douglas County, the designation it applies to unincorporated communities that function like towns without being one, so there is no municipal government issuing local health-practitioner permits and no city register to search. Chiropractic licensing in Colorado is a state function regardless of where a practice sits, administered by the Board of Chiropractic Examiners from its office in Denver, so a Highlands Ranch chiropractor is held to exactly the same statute, rules and continuing-education requirements as one in Denver or Aurora. Active licensees must complete a minimum of 30 hours of continuing education per two-year licence period. The practical consequence is simply that the state register is the only register, which is why this page is built on it.
Sources & References
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Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA)
Colorado Professional and Occupational Licenses — statewide licensee register
The primary register every chiropractic licence number, authority number, status and issue date on this page was read from, in August 2026. Published as open data and queryable by name.
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Colorado DORA, Division of Professions and Occupations
Colorado Chiropractic Homepage — Board of Chiropractic Examiners
The board that licenses and disciplines Colorado chiropractors. Backs the 30-hour continuing-education requirement and the March 2026 stakeholder notice on revising the scope-of-practice rule to remove the acupuncture-certification requirement for dry needling. Rejects some automated requests; open it in a browser.
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Colorado DORA, Division of Professions and Occupations
Chiropractic Practice Act, Rules and Board Policies
The statute, board rules and policies governing chiropractic scope of practice in Colorado, including the optional acupuncture, electrotherapy and animal authorities a licensee may hold.
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Colorado Chiropractic Association (hosting the DORA board policy document)
Colorado Board of Chiropractic Examiners Policies
Board policy document setting out the optional certifications a licensed Colorado chiropractor may hold alongside the base licence, and the acupuncture certification requirement referenced in the FAQ.
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U.S. National Institutes of Health — National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health
Spinal Manipulation: What You Need To Know
Federal evidence summary. Backs every statement on this page about what spinal manipulation is supported for, the absence of clear benefit for non-musculoskeletal conditions, side-effect frequency, and the artery-tear caution for neck manipulation.
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U.S. National Institutes of Health — National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health
Chiropractic: In Depth
Backs the description of chiropractic’s scope and the distinction this page draws between musculoskeletal indications and claims that reach beyond them.
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Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (Medicare.gov)
Chiropractic services — what Medicare covers
Backs the FAQ answer on coverage: Part B covers manual manipulation of the spine to correct a vertebral subluxation at 20 percent coinsurance after the deductible, and excludes X-rays, massage therapy and acupuncture ordered by a chiropractor.
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U.S. Census Bureau
QuickFacts: Highlands Ranch CDP, Colorado
Records Highlands Ranch as a census-designated place rather than an incorporated municipality — the basis for the statement that the community has no municipal government issuing local practitioner permits.
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NBCE
National Board of Chiropractic Examiners
Administers the examinations a chiropractic graduate must pass before a state will issue a licence. Backs the description of how the DC credential is examined.
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CCE
The Council on Chiropractic Education
The recognised accrediting body for Doctor of Chiropractic degree programmes in the United States, including Palmer, Parker, Northwestern, National and Western States, the colleges named on this page.
Our Recommendation
Rocky Mountain Sports Chiropractic is the clearest recommendation for most readers in Highlands Ranch. One named doctor, three Active state credentials including the acupuncture authority that backs what the clinic actually sells, a published list of technique certifications a reader can verify with the certifying bodies, and a scope of practice the clinic itself describes as musculoskeletal. Eastridge Chiropractic Co. is the stronger choice if you want two owner-doctors treating in the same room, published Palmer training, and a practice careful enough to describe a sports certification as not yet held. Reinholtz Family Chiropractic offers something neither can match on tenure: nearly three decades of unbroken Colorado licensure at one Highlands Ranch address, with acupuncture and electrotherapy authorities on file and Saturday hours.
Whichever you choose, do the check almost nobody does. Ask for the treating doctor’s full legal name before you book and look it up in the state register yourself. It takes under a minute and it tells you whether the licence is Active, expired, inactive, restricted or the subject of board action, and whether the acupuncture or electrotherapy authority behind an advertised service actually exists. Of 71 chiropractic licences recorded against Highlands Ranch addresses, only 43 are Active, and several practices that rank well in ordinary search are not in Highlands Ranch at all.
This page is not medical advice. It is an editorial assessment of publicly verifiable credentials and published claims, not a clinical judgement about any practitioner or any treatment. Nothing here diagnoses a condition, recommends a therapy or promises an outcome. Therapeutic statements made by a practice are reported as that practice’s claims and are not endorsed. If you have pain, injury, or any new or worsening symptom, consult a qualified healthcare professional, and seek urgent medical attention for symptoms such as loss of bladder or bowel control, progressive weakness or numbness, or pain following significant trauma.
Denver Dean’s List maintains editorial independence. We do not accept payment for rankings and do not accept advertising from the practices we evaluate. Licence numbers, authorities, statuses and issue dates were read from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies licensee register in August 2026; every practice website was fetched and confirmed live in the same pass. All other practice information is drawn from each practice’s own published site and attributed as such. Licence status, staffing and addresses change — verify all three independently before making a healthcare decision.