Our team
Local people, keeping Norfolk County moving.
Meet the Team at Achieve Movement Health Clinic in Simcoe
From the warm welcome at the door to the last exercise of your session, you are treated with care by people who know you.
One-to-one, always, and never double-booked.
Who we are
A local team, built for local people
A space built with care to feel like nothing you would expect from a health clinic. Warm lighting, welcoming furniture, and a design that makes you feel at home. That was deliberate, because the people coming through the doors are neighbours, and nobody should feel like a file number in their own town.
That thinking carries into the treatment room. We are not only treating conditions, we are treating people, so you have your clinician's full attention for the whole appointment, and nobody here is double-booked.
Dr. Steve Martinow
Chiropractor · Clinic OwnerSteve achieved his Honours Kinesiology degree at Brock University in St. Catharines. He followed it with his Doctor of Chiropractic at New York Chiropractic College in Seneca Falls, in the Finger Lakes region of New York. By then, years of competitive and semi-pro baseball around Simcoe had already taught him what an injury takes from a person. He has kept adding to his training ever since, with Contemporary Medical Acupuncture at McMaster University in Hamilton and Functional Range Release for hands-on soft tissue work. He also earned the Shift Concussion Management Advanced Level 2 certification, so that concussion care could happen here in Simcoe instead of an hour down the highway. Steve leads the concussion work at the clinic today. How a renovated garage in 2020 became this clinic is a story of its own.
Read why Steve built this clinic
Dr. Eric Haydt
ChiropractorEric achieved his Honours Bachelor of Health Sciences at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, followed by his Doctor of Chiropractic at D'Youville University in Buffalo. He grew up playing soccer and football, and he still loves getting outside to hike, fish and dirt bike. His own story starts with a high school football tackle that left him with chronic low back pain. On and off, he has dealt with flare-ups and pain for years, and his biggest takeaway is that rest was never the answer. In his words: "Whenever I would rest my back pain got worse. It seemed to be that I felt the best while moving, and the more active I was, the less back pain flare ups would occur. And that is where it hit me, that movement is truly medicine." In recent years Eric has picked up golf, and it has become his new addiction. Staying active on the course keeps him feeling good, and it is another way to connect with friends and family. That is exactly what he helps people get back to doing. Getting out of pain matters, but on a deeper level it is the social interaction, being an active parent for your children, picking up new hobbies, and not having to say no to the things you used to enjoy. Eric is very approachable and can carry on a conversation about anything. Bring a dad joke or two; he would love it. And yes, he is still passionate about football and an avid Seattle Seahawks fan.
Pranjali Vora
Resident PhysiotherapistPranjali first studied physiotherapy in India, achieving her Bachelor of Physiotherapy. Right after graduation she had the opportunity to come to Canada, completing a graduate certificate in Interprofessional Practice - Gerontology at Lambton College in Sarnia. She then passed the national Physiotherapy Competency Examination.
Back in India, Pranjali played badminton and cricket. In her second year of physiotherapy school she injured her meniscus at a sports event. Self-testing with her professors and fellow students came back positive for the meniscus, but she had no pain. No pain means no problem, right? She set off on a ten-day mountain hiking trip, and her knee felt great the whole way. Then she came home, and the pain arrived all at once. An MRI came back negative: no tear, just minor inflammation and strain, a diagnosis that fell short of what her own body was telling her. She did rehab with a physiotherapist and felt better for the next few years. Then, after a summer working two jobs, the flare-up came back, this time so severe she could not walk, and she went home to India for the summer. On the next MRI, a doctor told her she had the knee of a 60-year-old and would just have to live with the pain.
With everything she knew, Pranjali took matters into her own hands and began sports physiotherapy rehab: extensive work on her knees and her whole lower-body kinetic chain, every day for six months. That focused rehabilitation gave her back her full ability to walk, jump and play sports again.
So when a patient tells her they cannot get back to their sport, their activities, or the things they love, she can relate. She has been in their shoes. And when that same patient tells her they are back to it without any discomfort, that is what brings a big smile to her face.
Pranjali is also an avid Marvel fan, and she loves hearing travel stories and the different cultures you've experienced in the countries you visited. She's a foodie and loves to hear about the cuisines as well. Share your local recommendations with her.
Alexis VanDerMaelen
Office ManagerMovement and sport have always been a huge part of Alexis's life. Growing up, she was involved in competitive dance, gymnastics, power tumbling and high school cheerleading, and she went on to spend more than five years on the Dance & Cheer Team for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats football team. Along the way she achieved her Fitness and Health Promotion diploma at Niagara College in Welland.
With all of that movement came its fair share of aches, pains and injuries. Over the years she experienced many forms of treatment, including physiotherapy, chiropractic care and other approaches. Many of them provided relief, but something always felt missing when it came to truly understanding why her body continued to hurt and getting back to feeling her best. Like many people who walk through the clinic's doors, she was once told she would simply have to live with it. She is still on her own path of helping her body heal from years of injuries, lingering pain and diagnoses. It is a journey, and it has given her a deeper appreciation for what patients here experience, and a deeper understanding of how important it is to look beyond the symptoms and find a path toward meaningful, lasting change.
One of the most rewarding parts of her role is seeing where patients begin and watching how far they come. She meets people at their very first assessment and sees the physical and emotional toll their pain and limitations have taken on their life. Then, as they move through their journey, she watches their confidence grow, sees them regain their abilities, and ultimately get back to the things that matter most to them. For Alexis, it is not just about seeing someone feel better. It is about seeing them believe in their body again and get back to living their life with confidence.
Alexis is a big believer that movement should be part of life, and that it should be something we enjoy, not something we fear because of pain or injury. Outside the clinic she lives that way: boating, fishing, camping and exploring the outdoors with her family and the people she loves, including her golden retriever, Karl. Yoga and music fill in the rest, and she is happiest when she is moving.
Book a free discovery call and Alexis will most likely be the first person you talk to.
Why this clinic exists
Dr. Steve Martinow
Dr. Steve Martinow was raised in Simcoe and lives in the community. He has played his share of sports in the area as well, most of it competitive, some of it semi-pro baseball in the Intercounty League. Play that long and the injuries find you. His did, and he will tell you that is the part of his education that matters most. He has been the person on the table.
Which is why one thing in this field bothers him more than any other. If all you ever get is passive care, he says, you are just chasing symptoms. Someone walks in hurting. Something gets done to them. They feel better for an afternoon and go home no stronger than they arrived. Nothing gets built. Nobody asks what they are trying to get back to. The pain gets treated and the person does not.
"Being told to stop doing what you love isn't a solution, it's a compromise."
Steve didn't set out to run his practice that way. So in 2020 he renovated his own garage into a single treatment space and started doing it properly, one patient at a time, in the hours that he could. Within 18 months he was running the practice at his home full time. That garage clinic has since been transformed into the Queensway West location.
Steve is a Brock kinesiology graduate with a doctorate in chiropractic, and the advanced concussion certification behind it is one he went and earned so a family in Norfolk County would not have to drive another hour to reach a concussion clinic. Every room here has been built with comfort in mind. He wanted it warm, because he did not want anyone walking into a cold, stuffy medical clinic.
It is the same reason chiropractic and physiotherapy run as one plan here instead of two departments, and why the first question you get asked is what you want back, not just where it hurts. He calls it customizing care to the person, not the condition. You are being treated by someone who grew up in this town, played through his own injuries in it, and then built the clinic he would have wanted to be sent to.
Our highest values
We Over I. Energy Creates Impact. Climb the Mountain.
Three things you will feel from your first visit: a team that includes you, people who bring the energy, and a climb you take one step at a time, back to what you love.
What to expect
Your first visit, beat by beat
Most people walking into a new clinic are braced for a rushed intake and a rushed opinion. Here is what happens, so there are no surprises except the good ones.
It starts with a conversation
Your full story, not a checkbox form: what happened, what you have tried, and what you are trying to get back to. That last part becomes the goal the whole plan is measured against.
A full one-on-one assessment
Your clinician watches how you move and tests what your body will tolerate today. It is just you and your clinician for the entire appointment, never double-booked.
You leave knowing three things
What is going on, why it is happening, and what the plan is. You go home with a personalized rehab and progression plan, and things you can start doing right away.
Follow-up appointments on a flexible schedule
Most patient sessions are scheduled a week apart. That gives you time to do the exercises at home and see how your body responds, and it gives your clinician something real to work from at the next visit. It is a team between clinician and patient, never a dictatorship, and the end goal is your independence.
Think beyond pain
Focus on the activities, roles, confidence and experiences that matter to you. That is the question your first visit is built around, and your answers set the summit for everything that follows. Your goals are a compass, not a test.
Real patients, real words
What people say after they have been in
Come meet us in person
A free discovery call is the easiest introduction. Tell us what you are dealing with, and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right fit.
We direct bill most insurance companies; coverage depends on your plan and policy.