We get it
The Menopause Squad was formed by Kara and Emily when they became frustrated with the lack of trustworthy information and competent providers while navigating menopause.
The Menopause Squad is here to listen and help guide you through your menopause journey with evidence-based solutions to your WTFs.
We’re not here to sell you “magical BS”, we're here to empower you through knowledge and support. Kara and Emily both stay up to date on menopause practices and trends.
Kara Stiles, Nurse Practioner
Kara Stiles, ANP-BC, is a nationally certified nurse practitioner who took a winding path through the military and business worlds before realizing her dream of becoming a nurse practitioner and graduating from Northeastern University, Boston, in 2012. She has intentionally focused her clinical practice on communities with limited access to healthcare across the U.S., from Boston to Oregon, before choosing to make her forever home in New Mexico.
Her life experiences, both personal and professional, have extended across many cultures and culminated in a respect for each individual’s life choices. This respect helps her connect with people on their healthcare journeys and figure out what works for each person’s life and body. Her practice is focused on primary care, sexual and reproductive health, and geriatric care.
Kara has embraced the healing properties of traditional medicines and blended them with the benefits of Western medicine. Her curiosity leads her to continually learn about and honor the traditional medicines found in New Mexico.
Kara works with folks for primary care, full-scope sexual and reproductive health, including menopause concerns, and preventative screening visits, and contraception.
She is also a resource for guidance through medical consults to advocate for care within the Western medicine community, helping veterans tell their stories for disability claims, and connecting community resources to families with loved ones with dementia symptoms and other age-related care.
Dr. Emily Blair, DC, CFSC
Dr. Emily Blair, D.C. focuses on comprehensive movement and manual therapy.
Emily grew up in a small town on the coast of Maine and had the opportunity to spend much of her time outdoors. Childhood summers and winters were spent joyously hiking, biking, snowshoeing, sledding, camping, sailing, kayaking, and rowing.
This love of movement carried through her first career as a legal assistant, still spending as much time outdoors as possible hiking, exploring, and camping.
In addition, she spent many years as a student of kung fu, tai chi, qi gong, and aikido. The martial arts gave her an extra appreciation of the capabilities of the human body and mind. It was this interest in health and movement that inspired her to leave the legal field to attend the University of Western States, where she graduated cum laude with a four year musculoskeletal doctorate degree in chiropractic.
After graduation the learning truly began. Emily took a deep dive into movement and rehabilitation, including the Functional Movement Assessment, TPI Golf Institute, kettlebell training, and then later on, Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization (DNS) which focuses on developmental patterns. Most physical therapy starts too far along the development chain, and there is neurological gold in returning folks to these developmental patterns. This is often the missing link in rehab, and fitness.
Emily also spent years training in NeuroKinetic Therapy, a unique way to find and treat hidden compensation patterns.
While in school Emily suffered from a hiatal hernia that was fixed by visceral manipulation. This led her to a 96 hour course of study with the Barral Institute in Visceral Manipulation (VM). VM has been life changing for many patients, as the organs, while often silent, are usually driving the musculoskeletal bus!
Often scars and adhesions are a key factor in truly rehabbing a peri or post menopausal body. In addition to Visceral Manipulation Emily has invested in a Class IV Laser that has been getting great results in softening not only abdominal adhesions but post-mastectomy cording. Restoring movement to these forgotten areas can often achieve huge improvements in digestion, reduction in pain, and better ability to achieve strength and fitness.
A further dive into the Barral Institute led Emily to take training in Neural Manipulation, a 72 hour course of study that further refined her focus on treating the nervous system first.
Taking a nervous system treatment to approach, and honoring the body, allows for gentle yet precise bodywork. The addition of movement and active care rounds out the treatment, so that each patient can become empowered in their body.
Emily feels incredibly fortunate to have a career that enables her to help others stay active and enjoy their lives to the fullest.