About Us

Where Experience Meets Heart

Twenty-five years ago, I, Dr. Christopher S. Lilja, opened my first clinic with more enthusiasm than experience. I had big dreams about helping people feel better, but honestly? I had no idea what I was getting into.

Looking back now, I’m grateful for every challenge, every patient who taught me something new, and every door that opened to show me better ways to serve the people who trust us with their care. What started as one guy with a passion for natural healing has become something much bigger—a team dedicated to solving health problems that other providers often can’t.

The Road That Led Us Here

The Early Years: Building a Foundation (2000–2008)

When I opened my first clinic in 2000, just a mile from where we are now, my goal was simple: provide excellent chiropractic care and help people in my community live healthier lives. As a Highland Park graduate serving the neighborhoods that shaped me, I felt called to give back to the place that gave me so much.

Those first eight years were successful. But here’s what chiropractic school doesn’t teach you: there’s a huge difference between knowing how to treat patients and knowing how to run a practice that can serve people at the highest level.

The Learning Years: Gaining Perspective (2008–2013)

In 2008, I sold my practice and moved our family to Washington State, where I had the opportunity to work with Dr. Eddie Hansen at Natural Way Chiropractic. This wasn’t an easy decision—leaving Minnesota meant leaving family, friends, and everything familiar. But sometimes you have to step outside your comfort zone to gain the perspective you need to truly serve others.

Working in Dr. Hansen’s multi-clinic system was like getting a master’s degree in healthcare delivery. I worked alongside doctors with different specialties and saw how coordinated care could achieve results that individual treatments couldn’t match.

Coming Home: Bringing It All Together (2013–2015)

We moved back to Minnesota in 2013, and I spent eighteen months working for a clinic in Uptown Minneapolis while planning what would become St. Paul Chiropractic & Natural Medicine Center. When we opened our doors in the spring of 2015 at 464 Hamline Ave South, we weren’t just starting another chiropractic clinic. We were creating something that combined the heart of hometown care with the sophisticated systems and treatment approaches I’d learned during our time away.

Our Philosophy: Fixing Problems, Not Just Managing Symptoms

Here’s what nearly 25 years of practice has taught me: most healthcare focuses on making you comfortable with your problems rather than actually solving them. Pain medications mask signals. Therapy sessions provide temporary relief. Procedures address symptoms without changing the underlying issues that created them.

We took a different path. Instead of accepting that chronic pain is just something people have to live with, we invested in technologies and developed protocols that address root causes. When someone walks out of our clinic feeling better than they have in years, it’s not because we’re miracle workers—it’s because we’ve learned to identify and treat the actual problems causing their symptoms.