My mom always told me I came out of the womb dancing. From my childhood years, my mom fought putting regular clothes on me because I HAD to wear tutus EVERYWHERE. I remember specifically wearing a tutu to church one Sunday morning when I was little... my mom had put a jean skirt over it. We both compromised.
All to say, I knew from the very beginning what my passion was in life. I wanted to be a “prima ballerina” as I used to say to my mom at the early ages of 5-8.
And dance is what I pursued. From the age of three, I was taking ballet classes. I was determined to become a professional.
Fast forward to my middle school years, and I began to experience frequent injuries. I am naturally hypermobile, which created room for a lack of stability in my body. This resulted in beautiful lines in ballet, but very little control with movement. My first injury was a simple fracture in my left foot. With very little PT afterwards, I reinjured that foot again, four months after recovering. After I finally healed from that injury, I experienced what the doctor told me was a career ending injury in my back... though she never could diagnose me. She just told me that if I wanted to dance again, it would take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years of PT before that could happen. The things the doctor did check were my range of motion and took an X-RAY of my spine.
I was 14, but I vividly remember the doctor having me lie down on my back, where she told me to lift my leg as high as I could take it. Being a dancer and hypermobile meant that I could take my leg up to my ear and still push further. This simple test, that for a HYPOmibile patient might be worth the assessment, was not what was stopping me from moving, and certainly was not the cause of my pain. My pain was coming from my back. Not my leg or hamstrings... Of course, we know these two areas are intricately connected, but for a hypermobile patient, this one assessment was not going to give a doctor answers. They also performed an X-ray, which they told me, “could be a hairline stress fracture in the Lumbar, but it could also just be constipation. You might need surgery, too. We will send you to PT twice a week for 6 weeks.” This is protocol for a great deal of the medical world. As a young dancer, and the only dancer in my family, we did not know any better to find a dance specialist in the PT industry. To put it simply, I was let down by the traditional medical route of treatment. An unfortunate story for far too many of the clients I see daily.
This result prompted my mom to step in. She was diagnosed celiac, and ate gluten free. She suggested I take gluten out of my diet to see how that made my body feel. In addition to that, she brought me to a functional medicine doctor who performed the RainDrop Technique through the Young Living Essential Oils bodywork practice. This was truly the beginning of my story, and my growing love for whole body wellness, essential oils, and simply being aware of what my body is telling me. I knew the doctor was wrong. I knew I WOULD dance again. Thankfully, my mother knew that too, and she advocated for my healing.
After two and a half months of being gluten free, one Raindrop massage, which literally caused me to grow an inch and a half, and continued PT, I was dancing again. I learned all my
choreography for four different pieces in one week, and performed with zero pain the second week. I felt brand new. This is what changed everything for me. If more people could know that there ARE answers to your pain, and there IS a treatment method for you, so many hopeless people would have a life again.
Fast forward four years, I graduated high school with an associates degree and transferred to Belhaven University to study as a dance major. I was the first dance student to graduate in two years, and felt passionate about continuing to search for my own body’s answers. What injury DID I have? Although I was pain free shortly after recovering from my injury at 14, I had accumulated tremendous scar tissue. My left hip would go numb frequently, which left me incorrectly foam rolling and beating my hip to get feeling back in the area. (It never worked by the way.)
Thankfully, I had a wonderful athletic trainer in college, who provided answers. A hypothesis, at least. She treated my chronic aches and pains and truly kept me going. She believed I tore my left iliopsoas (hip flexor), and had a dysfunction in my left SI joint. All of which would make sense when my symptoms included not being able to lift my leg, stand up straight, walk, or walk up stairs. I worked with her twice a week on cross training in addition to my daily dance technique classes. Working with her further educated me on my imbalances and continued to grow my passion for full body healing and gaining proper function back. My college experience led me to study injury prevention for dancers as my senior thesis.
Now, looking back to that project, I was only scratching the surface of what we can do for injury prevention. How I can take back my power in a sense, by simply being in control of how my body feels, and help find the tools to share with those around me so that I can help others get out of pain.
After college, I dove head first into the fitness industry. My goal was to work with clients specifically for injury prevention. Through that journey, I found ProSwim Fitness. It was there that my passions were nurtured and my education in all things health, wellness, and fitness grew. I will always be grateful for my very short time with Proswim. I was with them for 5 months before getting married and moving to be with my husband while he served in the US Navy. Those 5 months with ProSwim were transformative, and I want to share why.
ProSwim is truly about the joy of movement. This small, family owned gym was and is passionate about staying active through your everyday life. They live by the phrase “train for life.” Coming from my background as a dancer, where my body had been shamed my entire career, this environment was healing. I cherish my time with ProSwim, and respect the ProSwim family tremendously because they helped shape me to be where I am today. It is because of them that I am where I am today. I was first introduced to Frederick Stretch Therapy through my manager and friend at ProSwim.
He and I always helped each other out with our specific niches. Being a dancer meant my stretching and flexibility background was pretty dynamic. I helped him stretch, he taught me a lot
about lifting - something I was taught to fear as a dancer due to being told I would get bulky. One day, he came back from the Stretch to Win Institute. All of a sudden, he was teaching me how to stretch! He had me get on his table and it was there that I experienced Frederick Stretch Therapy for the first time. Not only did I experience FST, but it was the first time in 10 years that the chronic numbing in my hip was absolutely gone. I was always told that I would probably need a hip replacement at some point... that day, I got off the table and for the first time, felt hope that my 23 year old body could actually feel like a 23 year old body and not have to endure a life altering surgery to *maybe* be pain free. I had hope. And I needed more of it.
After my first stretch with Marty, the numbing in my hip stayed away for a total of 5 days. After my second stretch, it didn't come back for 2.5 months.
Around this point in time, My husband and I were preparing to move for the last time with the military. This would be his last duty station and we would be staying wherever we moved next, which allowed me the opportunity to think more about having a career. I truly never desired running a business. Running a business was never a passion of mine, but after how much my quality of life changed for the better, there were no questions in my head about starting a business. I needed to share this healing modality with as many people as I could. We moved to Nashville in July of 2019, and I flew to Arizona to attend the level 1 workshop for FST at the Stretch To Win Institute right outside of Phoenix, in September. The week I came home, I had my table ordered and planned to start my business strictly doing house calls. I was also working at a local boutique fitness studio called Pure Barre. I thought Imperium would be a fun side business. A hobby.
By February 2020, I attended level 2 training and started seeing an influx of regulars as well as new clients. March hit, and as any business owner can remember and relate to, I questioned if Imperium was going to last after shutdowns from the pandemic. Thankfully, because I was a mobile business at the time, my expenses were low, and that meant I just had to sit tight and wait for it to reopen. It was scary, because I did lose more than half of my client roster after reopening. I was starting from scratch all over again. Slowly, but surely, I started picking up clients over the summer. I was offered to rent space from a local chiropractor (The Spine Shop) during the days they were closed. This gave me the opportunity to see if having a space for clients to come to me would work better than being mobile. Sure enough, it did. By October, I opened our space in Green Hills, and we have been here ever since!
My passion for being an aid in clients healing runs deep. Bringing hope to someone's hopelessness is a joy I experience multiple times every day I'm in the office getting to work on clients new and old. This work is humbling, inspiring, and leaves me constantly learning. My work is only just beginning. If you are looking for hope, relief from pain, answers to a chronic problem; I hope you will give FST a try. It changed my life in every possible way, and I believe it can help guide you on your path to full healing and restoration in mind, body, and spirit.