Dr. Mark Bernhard practicing Tai Chi

I feel extremely fortunate to have settled in the most beautiful area in the world and to work in a profession I love–one that is a continual, fascinating challenge that permits me to be of service to others.

I have met so many wonderful people in this community through my and my wife’s work in teaching, my chiropractic practice, and in the raising our two boys.

My wife is a wonderful, smart, and talented woman and the best cook I know. My children are a continuing delight and inspiration. I can walk to work thirty minutes from my home in a rural part of Live Oak. I enjoy volunteering for local non- profits, reading, hiking, foreign travel, visiting with friends, and listening to live and recorded music, especially jazz and world beat. I play guitar at a very rudimentary level.

I also try to practice what I preach: I swim a half mile every morning; I eat well (see preceding description of my wife); I supplement my diet with herbs and whole food vitamins as needed; and since 2000 I have practiced Tai Chi daily–a profound and deep practice that has altered how I occupy my body and how my body occupies space. I cannot recommend it too highly. You can read more about Tai Chi here.

As a result of all the above, as well as pure grace, I am blessed with good health and a satisfied mind. I look forward to each day as a gift and endeavor to welcome the opportunities and challenges presented to me and to work for a world where others may also experience the blessings and joys they seek and deserve.

A Brief Personal History

I was born in 1948 and grew up in Pasadena with my older brother and parents.

In 1966 I moved to Santa Cruz to attend the University of California shortly after it opened and received my BA in 1970.

Upon graduation I spent 6 months traveling through Canada, the British Isles, and Europe before ultimately venturing further south, hitch-hiking across the Sahara Desert and spending nine months traveling and working in West Africa—Tunisia, Algeria, Niger, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Senegal, Mauritania, and Morocco. This travel was an extremely eye-opening and formative experience.

I returned to Santa Cruz and worked as an arborist for the University for two years while pursuing further education that allowed me to teach the elementary grades at the Santa Cruz Montessori School from 1973-79. I married my wife, Anne Steyaert, a (now-retired) schoolteacher in 1975.

In 1978 my first son, Matthew was born. At the same time I became interested in alternative health care. I took a number of courses in Traditional Chinese Medicine for the general public on what was, in the West at that time, a new, interesting, and novel approach to health.

For no apparent reason, I developed knee pain that inhibited my ability to walk, run, or climb stairs. Visits to several orthopedists left them scratching their heads and me still incapacitated. A friend suggested I see a chiropractor, which I knew nothing about. He said my knee problem arose from a torque in my pelvis caused by carrying my growing son around on one hip, resulting in a sprain of my sacroiliac joint and a muscle imbalance in my thigh.  He corrected my pelvic imbalance and my knee pain of several months duration was miraculously and quickly gone.

I was impressed and decided then and there to become a chiropractor. After a year at Cabrillo and three years at Palmer Chiropractic School I graduated. Three years later, in 1987, my second son, Hans, was born. Since then I have been living and practicing in Santa Cruz, raising my family, and enjoying every minute (where did they all go?).