OUR STORY 

It was a seed planted at just eight years old. Limping home in tears after school one afternoon, Glenn Caley had suffered from severe pain in his knees whenever he played sports. Despite visits to doctors, there had been little improvement — until a local chiropractor was able to bring the problem to an end, alongside his asthma and allergies. “That’s the moment my fascination with chiropractic work began,” recalls Dr. Caley, who was born in Cape Town. “He was the first person who made me understand what it was and I immediately saw the sheer power of it.”

Caley’s fascination with the modality continued throughout high school, even turning down a prized rugby scholarship to take a spot at the University of Johannesburg’s chiropractic school, despite his deep passion for the sport. His fourth year of studies saw him join the committee for the 2007 World Congress for Chiropractic Students (WCCS), where he was offered a scholarship to complete his doctorate in the U.S. — his first opportunity to study the Gonstead method of chiropractic, which focuses care on being specific, precise and accurate. “My doctor at the student clinic had worked closely with Dr. Clarence Gonstead and quickly took me under his wing,” Dr. Caley says of his time at California’s Life Chiropractic College West. “The specificity of the Gonstead method means the cause can be much more targeted and the adjustment specialised. That’s what really drew me to it.”

Graduating magna cum laude, Dr. Caley took his skills further afield, heading across the Atlantic to join a clinic in Edinburgh, Scotland before meeting his British wife, Amy, during a brief return to South Africa. Together the couple moved to Northumberland, England for two years, where he continued to practice before joining Britain’s most prominent Gonstead clinic. It was from this Harley Street, London practice that Dr. Caley treated a diverse list of patients for a large gamut of issues — from premiere athletes, royalty and performers to infants, new mothers, health conscious professionals and the elderly. “No day was ever the same,” he says of his time in the British capital, which included global travels to seminars and visits to overseas patients. “London is a unique melting pot and gave me the opportunity to witness first hand that we are all the same, no matter how privileged or high profile our background may be.”

But after more than five years working in London, and becoming a father to daughter Isla in January 2019, Dr. Caley returned his gaze to South Africa. More specifically, to open his own practice in the only place he has truly called home. “It was always the plan,” he says of his decision to open Caley Chiropractic, a dream he harboured since the age of 14. “Wherever I have been, there has always been something pulling me back home. Not only is Cape Town where I want to raise my family, it’s an incredibly unique community that I want to serve.”

And it doesn’t hurt that as a keen surfer he’s back by the sea. “There’s nowhere quite like Cape Town for surf,” he smiles. “Growing up, my dad was a lifeguard at Clifton and I learned to surf at Llandudno, so this has always been a huge part of my life. It’s good to be back.”

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- Omid Scobie - editor-at-large, Harper’s Bazaar