Dr. Kristina Mungenast: Helping Women, Children, and Families Live Healthier Lives

“Better health creates the foundation for stronger families and fuller lives.”

When women, children, and families face health problems, finding the right care can be difficult. Health concerns can affect daily life, comfort, and confidence. For parents, looking after their children while managing their own health can be especially challenging. Having the right support can help families feel better, enjoy everyday life, and worry less about their health.

With this belief, Dr. Kristina Mungenast, Owner and Doctor of Chiropractic at St. Louis Family Chiropractic, has dedicated her work to helping women, children, and families take better care of their health. Since starting the practice, she has built a welcoming space where families feel comfortable and supported. She provides chiropractic care for expectant mothers, children, and other family members, with care plans shaped around each person’s needs. Along with her team, she focuses on helping patients understand their care, feel heard, and take an active role in their well-being.

Dr. Kristina’s commitment to family wellness is supported by advanced training in caring for pregnant women and children. This training helps her meet the needs of patients at different stages of life. She continues to build her knowledge to provide thoughtful care to the families she serves. In 2024, she received the Best Doctor in Missouri Magazine Award, recognizing her dedication to patient care and family wellness.

A Childhood Experience That Inspired Dr. Kristina’s Career

Dr. Kristina’s journey into chiropractic care began with her own health struggles as a child. She suffered from severe allergies and asthma, which often made her sick and affected her daily activities. Her parents tried different medical treatments, but the medications often made her feel unwell.

While looking for other ways to help her, her parents noticed that she was standing unevenly and took her to a chiropractor. She was diagnosed with scoliosis and began receiving regular chiropractic adjustments. After several months, she noticed improvements in her posture, allergies, and asthma symptoms. This experience showed her how much the right care could change a person’s life and inspired Dr. Kristina to become a chiropractor so she could help others in the same way.

As she continued her studies, Dr. Kristina learned how chiropractic care could support women during pregnancy. She saw how it could help expectant mothers feel more comfortable, stay active, and prepare for delivery. This sparked her interest in women’s wellness.

Over the years, her work with women and children has deepened her passion for helping them manage health concerns. She has also seen patients benefit from a more personalized approach, using appropriate lab tests, supplements, and dietary changes alongside their care. This has included supporting women with hormonal imbalances and recurring infections, as well as children experiencing eczema and difficulty with attention. These experiences have strengthened her commitment to women’s and children’s wellness.

Building a Practice Where Families Feel at Home

During chiropractic college, Dr. Kristina had the opportunity to observe many different approaches to chiropractic care. While she enjoyed helping patients find relief from pain, she soon realized that chiropractic care could offer much more. It could also help people function better and support their health at different stages of life.

She saw chiropractors work with infants who had difficulty nursing, help children with early developmental skills, support students in performing better at school, and assist young people recovering from sports injuries. These experiences showed her how chiropractic care could support a person from infancy through adulthood. This broader approach to care strongly influenced the kind of chiropractor she wanted to become.

As her career developed, Dr. Kristina faced another challenge. Traditional chiropractic offices did not always provide the type of family-friendly setting she wanted to create. She wanted parents to feel comfortable bringing their children with them rather than having to arrange separate care.

This became an important part of building her own practice. At St. Louis Family Chiropractic, she has created a welcoming environment where families can feel at ease. Children can play in the practice’s play area while their parents receive care, making visits easier and more comfortable for the whole family. This reflects Dr. Kristina’s goal of creating the kind of family practice she had envisioned early in her career.

Comfort, Care, and Education All in Chiropractic Health

Dr. Kristina founded St. Louis Family Chiropractic in 2020 with a clear goal: to create a place where women, children, and families would feel welcome and comfortable. She wanted the practice to feel less like a clinical setting and more like a home where families could receive the care and support they needed.

The practice has a safe play area where children can stay comfortable and enjoy their time during visits. The staff also helps care for children while their mothers receive adjustments and supports children when they are receiving care themselves. This helps make visits easier and more comfortable for the whole family.

Dr. Kristina also places strong importance on learning and patient education. She continues to build her knowledge in children’s and women’s health so she can provide thoughtful care to her patients. She takes time to explain what she finds during an examination, what can be done to address it, and what patients can do at home to support their own health.

For Dr. Kristina, patients are not simply people receiving care. She believes they should understand what is happening with their health and take an active part in improving it. This focus on education, comfort, and participation remains an important part of how St. Louis Family Chiropractic serves families.
Making Family Care Easier for Parents

St. Louis has many excellent healthcare providers, but Dr. Kristina noticed that some offices were not designed with whole families in mind. Parents could find it difficult to receive care when they had young children with them, especially when there was no comfortable space for children to play or staff available to keep them occupied.

At St. Louis Family Chiropractic, she wanted to remove this barrier. The practice welcomes parents to bring their children along during appointments and provides a family-friendly space where children can play while their parents receive care. This makes it easier for mothers and fathers to look after their health without having to arrange separate childcare.

By creating an environment that welcomes the whole family, St. Louis Family Chiropractic helps make regular care more practical and comfortable for parents. The approach allows each family member to receive the attention and care they need without childcare becoming a reason to delay or skip an appointment.

Personalized Care for Every Stage of Life

St. Louis Family Chiropractic focuses on helping patients improve their health through specific and gentle chiropractic adjustments. Each adjustment is based on the patient’s individual needs rather than using the same approach for everyone.

With her advanced training and certifications, Dr. Kristina Mungenast is able to care for a wide range of patients, including:

• Newborns
• Children
• Pregnant women
• Adults
• Older adults

Her approach allows her to adjust the way she provides care based on how a patient responds from one visit to the next. She may also use different techniques for different areas of the spine during the same visit. This helps her provide care that is more suitable for each person’s needs.

Along with chiropractic care, Dr. Kristina may suggest simple changes that can support a patient’s progress. These may include changes to diet and daily habits, exercises, or supplements. The goal is to help patients support their health inside and outside the practice.

To provide additional support to families, St. Louis Family Chiropractic also offers services such as:

• Massage
• Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy
• Photon Therapy
• Infrared heat therapy
• Ionic detoxification footbaths
• Red and green light therapy
• Hormone testing
• Food sensitivity testing
• Functional health support

Through this range of services, the practice aims to give families different ways to care for their health and work toward better overall well-being.

A Child’s Recovery That Left a Lasting Impression

One patient experience that has stayed with Dr. Kristina happened several years ago. She received an urgent call from the mother of a child she had cared for since infancy. The child had fallen from a bed onto a hard floor, and his mother believed he had hit his arm and head. After the fall, he stopped talking normally, began using baby talk again, and stopped walking.

The child was brought to the practice immediately. Dr. Kristina carried out a careful examination and explained the possible benefits and risks of chiropractic adjustment after a serious fall. The mother chose to proceed with the adjustment. The child had been crying and whimpering since the fall and had not eaten. After the adjustment, he became calm while being held by his mother.

Dr. Kristina then explained that he might remain sore for a few days and gave the family home-care instructions. She also explained the signs that would require a visit to the hospital for further examination. While they were talking, the child asked his mother to play with him. He climbed out of her lap, began playing with his brother, and soon asked for a snack. His mother was relieved to see him talking and walking normally again.

Family Like Treatment

Dr. Kristina believes in caring for her patients the same way she would care for her own family. For her, good care starts with trust, understanding, and knowing what each patient wants to achieve with their health. Since every person and family has different needs, concerns, and goals, she does not follow the same approach for everyone.

She sees herself as a partner in each patient’s health journey. Along with her healthcare knowledge and clinical experience, she values the experiences, concerns, and goals that patients bring. By bringing these perspectives together, she can create care plans suited to individual needs.

Listening and patient involvement are central to her approach. She takes time to understand what matters to each person, explains health information clearly, and helps patients take an active role in their care decisions. She also shares practical knowledge to help patients better understand their health and make healthier choices in daily life.

These values also shape the team at St. Louis Family Chiropractic. Dr. Kristina works to create a team culture where patients and families receive the same care, patience, and respect they would receive from their own loved ones. By leading by example and continuing to learn, she aims to provide better support to the people who trust the practice with their care.

Above all, she wants every person who visits St. Louis Family Chiropractic to feel known, valued, and genuinely cared for. For her, chiropractic care is about addressing a health concern and helping patients feel heard, informed, and supported throughout their experience.

Creating Trust Through Care and Clear Communication

Dr. Kristina highlights that trust begins when patients feel heard, informed, and supported. Her team plays an important role in creating this experience.

During every appointment, team members take detailed notes to keep patient information accurate and up to date. They also help care for children during appointments, allowing mothers to give their full attention to the doctor and their own health needs.

During a first visit, Dr. Kristina takes time to go through the patient’s health history and examination findings with them. She explains what she observes and discusses the care plan together with the patient or parent. Her team is involved throughout the process and understands why each part of the care plan is recommended.

The team focuses on several important parts of the patient experience:

• Keeping patient information accurate and up to date
• Helping care for children during appointments
• Reviewing health history and examination findings
• Explaining the recommended care plan
• Giving patients and parents time to ask questions
• Helping families understand their care options

This approach helps patients and parents understand what is happening and why certain care may be helpful. More importantly, it encourages them to take part in their own care. By working together, Dr. Kristina and her team create a welcoming environment where families feel comfortable asking questions, understanding their options, and making informed decisions about their health.
Expertise in Prenatal and Pediatric Care
Dr. Kristina is especially proud of her specialized work in prenatal and pediatric care. She holds advanced certifications in both areas, placing her among a small group of chiropractors in St. Louis with this level of training. This specialized knowledge has helped her better understand the needs of pregnant women, children, and families and provide care suited to each patient.

Her work has also received several forms of recognition, including:

• Best Doctor in Missouri Magazine Award, 2024
• Woman of the Month, P.O.W.E.R. Magazine, December 2024
• Featured by The Global Success Review among its Most Innovative Chiropractors Leading the Industry in 2026
• Recognized as one of the top five chiropractic offices in Gravois Township for 2025
• Recognized as one of the top three chiropractic offices in St. Louis Magazine’s A-List Awards
• Recognized as a Candidate for Who’s Who in America

For Dr. Kristina, however, these milestones are closely connected to the people she serves. She and her team take pride in helping patients feel their best.

She believes that education, integrity, and genuine care should be part of every appointment. These values continue to shape her work and have played an important role in the growth of her practice.