Life was one big headache for Kyle Kelbert.
Around the age of five, Kelbert began suffering from frequent, painful and mysterious headaches.
His parents took him to several doctors and specialists, who in turn prescribed various therapies and even diagnostic imaging.
A decade of traditional medical approaches failed to turn up a cause or a remedy. Then when he was 15, Kelbert visited a chiropractor for the first time.
“Within a month the headaches were gone,” he recalls. “This was an incredibly large introduction to the practice of chiropractic.”
That miracle inspired Kelbert, then a reserved Hapnot Collegiate student, to chart his own course in medicine.
A quarter-century later, he is a respected chiropractor based in Swan River, running his own practice and helping to license new Canadian chiropractors.
And Kelbert, now 40, hasn’t forgotten where it all began.
Born in Flin Flon to father Ervin, a teacher, and mother Dorothy, a homemaker, Kelbert was a well-behaved kid who rarely had trouble entertaining himself.
“I learned to read very young and was enthralled with books [and] reading an entire book in a day was not uncommon,” Kelbert says.
Though a quiet youth, Kelbert didn’t shy away from extracurricular activities such as rifle club, jazz band and sports teams. One year, he and a group of guys with whom he had played baseball growing up won the provincial fastball championship.
Entrepreneur
Kelbert was entrepreneurial from an early age. When he was ready to work but too young for an “official” job, he launched his own informal business, shoveling snow, cutting grass and raking leaves for neighbours.
“I would tell them to try me for a month and if they were happy with the job that I did then to make me their regular guy,” he says.
As a teen, Kelbert juggled a range of part-time jobs while excelling in school.
Al Mills, who was Kelbert’s vice-principal at Hapnot and later a patient of his, always knew the young man would go places.
“As a student or professional, he was very professional, a very driven man, I guess you could say,” says Mills. “He knew what he wanted to do, he knew what he had to do to get it and he did it.”
Kelbert graduated fourth in his class at Hapnot in 1993, earning one of four scholarships from HBM&S, now Hudbay. He also won an entrance scholarship to the University of Manitoba.
But university would have to wait as Kelbert opted to spend a year in France as a Rotary Exchange student.
“I was dropped off in a foreign land, barely speaking a word of French, and by the year’s end was completely bilingual,” he says.
Upon returning to Canada, Kelbert attended the University of Manitoba for two years. Then it was off to the Northwestern College of Chiropractic in Minneapolis (he had also earned an entrance scholarship there), where he simultaneously earned a Bachelor of Science and a Doctor of Chiropractic.
After graduating in 2000, Dr. Kyle Kelbert stayed in Minnesota to do post-graduate work at a clinic and pay off his student loans.
When the clinic was sold to a new owner who didn’t want to pay Kelbert what he thought he was worth, the young chiropractor weighed his options.
Kelbert returned to Flin Flon in late 2001 to start his own practice. Before the doors officially opened, he was already treating patients.
“I think that I will always think of my professional time there so fondly because I was returning to my hometown community as an adult and as a professional at that,” he says, “and so viewed Flin Flon through a different optic lens and recognized what a great privilege it was to treat the people of the community who had supported me so much growing up.”
Change needed
But individuals such as Kelbert don’t often stay in the same place for long. Sooner or later, his thirst for fresh experiences and adventure would prevail.
As if on cue, in 2008 he received an offer to sell his practice. After some deep soul-searching and several sleepless nights, he decided to accept.
Kelbert deduced that his shoulder, which had undergone reconstructive surgery years earlier, would probably not survive another 30 years of the physicality the job demanded.
“Additionally, through the years of running the practice, I had developed a great interest in business and financial strategies,” he says, “and realized that it was something that I was fairly good at without any formal training, and wanted to follow that interest.”
Kelbert took a few months off to backpack through Africa, the Middle East and Europe, and even climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest freestanding mountain in the world.
When that journey ended, Kelbert, then well into his 30s, moved to Saskatoon to take his Masters of Business Administration.
Working as a part-time chiropractor, Kelbert balanced the demands of academics and a career. After earning with his MBA in 2011, he began hunting for careers that would combine his health care background with his newfound education.
Kelbert knew he was a long shot when he submitted his resume for the position of CEO of the Athabasca Health Region in the far northern tip of Saskatchewan.
He was surprised even to get an interview, never mind being hired as he was less than 24 hours afterwards.
“Starting at the highest position of management in an organization or company just after having received the degree, with no corporate business experience, is rarely seen,” Kelbert says.
In his new position overseeing the health of 2,600 northern Saskatchewanians, Kelbert had input into all aspects of the health region.
“The position was a great opportunity learning how business and health care coincided,” he says.
Kelbert resigned as CEO in 2012 to, not surprisingly, pursue new opportunities. He did more travelling and in time found himself opening a private practice in Swan River, where he remains today.
He also does work for the Canadian Chiropractic Examining Board, the organization responsible for licensing new graduates through theoretical and clinical examinations.
Writing
Outside of his work and travel, Kelbert is a devoted writer. In 2002 he had a story published in Chicken Soup for the Chiropractic Soul, part of a long line of popular true-life inspiration books.
His story told of his childhood headaches and the relief chiropractics brought him, and how as a chiropractor himself he relieved a patient’s 20 years of headaches.
Kelbert also penned a novel that was considered for publication by both Random House and Penguin, and has written for newspapers and magazines.
Still just 40, new milestones await Kelbert, but amid all of his success, this renaissance man can’t help but give credit to Flin Flon.
“It was the best place in the world to grow up,” he says.
“Flin Flon taught me independence, confidence and the importance of community spirit.”
As for those headaches that once dogged Kelbert – blessings in disguise as they were – they remain under control.
“As long as I receive chiropractic treatment periodically, I remain relatively headache-free to this day,” he says.
