Hi! Thank you for visiting Imperium and being interested in this work. My name is Sophia Murphy, owner and operator of Imperium Stretch + Recovery.
My journey in the health and wellness industry truly began at the beginning of high school when I experienced what I was told should have been a career ending injury as a young ballet dancer. I refused to believe that my dance career was over and began searching for support and alternative modalities to find my way back to full health. I wrote extensively about my journey and path to FST HERE.
During that season of research and discovery, I learned that my body doesn’t tolerate dairy, soy, or gluten well. This knowledge inspired me to study nutrition and injury prevention for dancers as my senior thesis in college. This work deepened my understanding of whole body health and continued to drive me deeper to understanding the best ways to find balance and eliminate pain.
After college, I became a certified personal trainer, working specifically in cross training for the general population. I worked with a family owned gym, who trained me up, and taught me different training strategies, including aqua fitness, and high intensity interval training.
After getting married in 2017, I moved to Washington DC where I worked as a resident assistant at Kirov Academy of Ballet, as well as continued my passion for fitness as a pure barre instructor. During our time in Washington DC, I often traveled back home to South Jersey where I partnered with the gym that I worked at prior to getting married to assist in training the International Drum Corps.
My former employer became certified in Frederick Stretch Therapy. When I visited home, he stretched me, and it was the first time in 10 years that I didn’t have chronic pain and numbness in my hip from my HS injury. Not only did the pain and numbing go away during this stretch, it stayed away for five days after the stretch. After my second stretch, the pain didn’t come back for 2.5 months. I was sold and it was all I needed to get certified myself.
In spring 2019, my husband and I got stationed in Nashville, which would be our last duty station as my husband was coming off of active duty after seven years. This allowed me to truly pursue a career. It was a no-brainer for me to commit to going through the Stretch To Win Institute certification process to become an FST Practitioner myself.
In September of 2019, Imperium Stretch & Recovery LLC was born.
I began this journey exclusively doing house calls, while continuing to work at PureBarre as an instructor. What began as something I thought would be a fun side business, quickly grew into something so much bigger than I had ever dreamed. This technique is so effective that although I began my business shortly before the the pandemic hit, by my one year anniversary in business I was so booked that I needed a permanent location to take on more clients.
By October 2020 I was working six days a week and still had a wait list of clients. It was at this moment that I realized I was going to need to hire more hands to help bring healing to the general population of Nashville.
My entire life, holistic health has been a part of my day to day. When I experienced immediate change in my chronic pain after just one 60 minute stretch, it just made sense. I had a lot of people I needed to help get out of chronic pain with the use of FST.
Since beginning Imperium, I’ve continued my education through:
- Stop Chasing Pain's Lymphatic Mojo
- Stop Chasing Pain's Vagus Nerve Mojo
- Stop Chasing Pain's Tongue Mojo
- I’ve also gone on to complete three additional certifications through the Stretch to Win Institute, making myself an L3 Sports Specific Frederick Stretch Specialist
- LifeStretch through the Stretch To Win Institute
- Personal Fitness Trainer Certified through the American Aerobic Association International and The International Sports Medicine Association
- CPR First Aid Certified through the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
Over the years I've had the privilege of working with pregnant mothers, specializing in keeping their rapidly growing bodies in a state of balance, while creating space for the baby to stay on top of the mothers hips as opposed to pressing out in front of the hips to find space. I have also worked with local musicians to relieve nerve compression in their hands, forearms, elbows, necks, and jaws from all the overuse of playing and singing they experience regularly.
These are just a few of the MANY areas I've found myself assisting clients in:
- Stroke survivors
- Parkinson's disease
- Raynaud's syndrome
- Pinched nerves
- Triathletes
- Post-op recovery
My hope for you is that you find full body healing, in mind, body, and spirit. It is my mission to bring your body back into balance, aiding you in taking back your physical power of pain free living. I can’t wait to meet you, learn from your story, and help you along your wellness journey. I’m so glad you’re here!
