Good Neighbor Podcast: TN-WNC-SWVA
Bringing together local businesses and neighbor of the TN-WNC-SWVA region. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Skip Mauney helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around The TN-WNC-SWVA.
Is your business serving the residents of TN-WNC-SWVA? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpTri-Cities.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: TN-WNC-SWVA
EP# 280: Understanding Fascia: The Forgotten Key to Body Movement with Emily Smith
What makes Emily Smith with Solbody Movement & Myofascial Bodywork a good neighbor?
What if you could transform your relationship with pain and movement by understanding the forgotten fabric that connects everything in your body? Meet Emily Smith, a myofascial release therapist and movement coach who's challenging conventional wisdom about how our bodies work and heal.
Emily's journey from ballet dancer to bodywork expert began with her own chronic pain at age 18. Despite years of teaching Pilates and exploring numerous therapeutic modalities, true relief only came when she discovered myofascial release through the John F. Barnes approach. Now, as owner of Sol Body Movement and Myofascial Bodywork in Western North Carolina, she's sharing this transformative work with others.
"I got into the best shape of my life when I stopped exercising," Emily reveals, explaining that our bodies intrinsically know how to move—after all, nobody taught us how to breathe, crawl, or walk. The problem isn't that we need more exercise; it's that modern life has disconnected us from our natural movement patterns. Emily introduces listeners to fascia, the seamless connective web that science literally threw away during anatomical dissections, leading to a fundamental gap in our understanding of the body. This "fabric within" connects everything from our muscles and bones to our organs and nerves, distributing force, nutrients, energy, and emotions throughout our entire system.
While most of us have heard we need to stretch and strengthen, Emily identifies the missing ingredient in our approach to body care: we need to soften. Through myofascial release techniques that anyone can learn to practice at home, she helps clients "erase tissue memory" and unlock their body's innate healing capabilities. Whether working in-person at her studios in Black Mountain and Swannanoa or coaching virtually, Emily empowers people to reclaim their natural state of pain-free living. Ready to discover what your body already knows? Schedule a complimentary consultation at emily-smith.com and begin your journey toward freedom of movement.
To learn more about Solbody Movement & Myofascial Bodywork go to:
Solbody Movement & Myofascial Bodywork
(484) 472-3626
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Monty.
Speaker 2:Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. So today I'm very excited to have a special guest in our studio for the first time and I'm sure you'll be just as excited as I am to learn all about them and their special skills and what they do. And because today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Ms Emily Smith, who is the owner operator of Soul, Body Movement and Myofacial Bodywork Emily, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Hi, neighbor Thanks. I'm really grateful to be here.
Speaker 2:Well, we're thrilled to have you, like I said, and excited to learn all about you and what you do. So if you don't mind, why don't you kick us off by telling us about your business?
Speaker 3:Okay, my practice is located here in my home studio currently in Black Mountain, north Carolina Mountain, north Carolina, and I am offering myofascial release therapy and movement guidance coaching. I have two separate skill sets that I blend, and so myofascial release is a form of physical therapy and osteopathic manual therapy where I'm doing hands-on work, using touch as the medicine to help people cure themselves of pain. Myofascial release erases tissue memory, the memory that tissues hold from our whole life, including trauma. The fascial system, or fascia, is the fabric, connective fabric connecting us all. So that's one set of my practice, and the other is that, prior to becoming a myofascial release therapist in 2012, I had been teaching movement, primarily as a Pilates teacher, for over 10 years, and when the two converged for me was when I found myofascial release as a patient, and it changed everything in my life as well as the way that I understand the body. I feel it is, but it's also universal because it's so simple and the essentials of what we are as bodies. We thrive on touch and movement. So I'm not a physical therapist, but PT is combined movement and hands-on manual therapy to help people come back to balance. So that's what I'm doing. I'm a licensed massage therapist, and that was the means to an end for me in order to continue on with specializing in myofascial release as the type of body work that I was choosing to do. So I needed a license to touch in order to take John Barnes's seminars in his specific myofascial release approach. So I began that process and journey in 2011, when I became a recipient of myofascial release and pretty quickly understood that that was going to be the next phase of my work and started taking classes in 2012,. And I continued to with John and at some point I realized that I had taken most of the coursework and hadn't had the intention of going through all the classes to be an expert in his work. But that happened for me in 2019, prior to the pandemic.
Speaker 3:For me, it's not just work. It's not work in the way that we don't like going to our job, it's play. I mean, yeah, this is my living and I'm making money doing this, but I really I mean it's an honor, a privilege to know this work and the simplicity of it is anybody with hands and the intention of love can do it too. Um, so I offer my fresh release therapy and then, um, I include in the sessions. Reorganizing the body happens instantly, without us thinking and talking about it, and movement really is the essential piece of after the tissues let go of what they were holding, there's an opportunity for them to hold what they need to hold, which is us, our body weight, all the water that this body, our bodies of water, are holding up walking around on the earth. So bodies of water holding up walking around on the earth. So the movement component seems to be the part that, without that combination, the benefits of each on their own aren't as synergistic or effective as when they happen together. Wow.
Speaker 3:We erase tissue memory with myofascial release and then create new movement patterns by remembering the original movement patterns that we taught ourselves as babies. We all understand this language.
Speaker 2:Wow universal.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a universe, I mean. I think a movement is a universal language. It's like food and that it's our nourishment. It's key, the key for longevity. And the people that I see walking around on the earth are like you know day to day, where you see the movers and shakers, and they the number attached to their body could be ancient, but they still have youth. And when I have the privilege of asking somebody, hey, what's your secret? The answer that I keep hearing is movement.
Speaker 2:Well, what are some myths or misconceptions in what you do, Emily?
Speaker 3:I think there's many. I'm going to try to keep it in some nutshells and keep it simple. Myofascial release is a word that can mean many things. Consider the word cancer. We are in the season of cancer, astrologically, right now. Some people are cancers versus.
Speaker 3:Pisces Right. What a shame for them that that same word is what everyone fears, and so yoga to me is a word that America has created its own meaning for which is very different than what its original intention I believe that myofascial release is becoming, that it can mean many different things to people, and the big difference that I can identify for everyone between John Barnes's approach to myofascial release and I can speak of that because I've exclusively trained with him versus any other type of Hands-on work you can't force. Here's number one principle. You cannot force the system designed to protect against force.
Speaker 3:Fascia is the system that's supporting us. It's the system that's protecting us, connecting us, transporting all fluid, information, energy, nourished nutrients, air. The edge between what the body perceives as being therapeutic versus injurious is a very fine line, and so our autonomic nervous system splits into two different parts parasympathetic and sympathetic. Sympathetic is the fight, flight, freeze, please. Mode. Parasympathetic is resting and digesting. When we go into sympathetic fight, flight, freeze we're running away from the tiger or frozen in fear. We go into the parasympathetic to recover from that traumatic experience so that we can return to what we know is homeostasis, harmony within body, mind and spirit within the body that all the systems are balanced and functioning with ease. When, when the force of touch and the pressures that are being applied to a body are eliciting the reaction of tensing and protecting. It's the opposite of what the tissue does naturally when given the opportunity to is, it softens and it melts. We can consider the labels frozen shoulder somebody who's frozen shoulder. They have lost range of motion in that joint. The tissues have hardened and solidified. That's fascial restriction. Tissue memory of whatever trauma created that over time the tissues did not return to their adaptable natural state, which is soft. So the word soul, sol, means many things like many words means. It means many things like many words. It means sun, it means light. In science the word soul is used to describe the state of our fascia, as well as other substances, when it's in its more liquid state versus solidified state.
Speaker 3:Like the earth, our bodies freeze and melt, freeze and melt, freeze and melt, rehydrate and dehydrate, rehydrate and dehydrate. I would consider fascial restrictions would be parts of the earth that are still frozen in summertime. It's that unnatural, as if there was like an iceberg here in North Carolina, just this one part of the whole region that's frozen in fear. So if we apply a ton of pressure and force it, it's like trying to push a raft underwater. So Instead, the way that John teaches the work is it's sustained and gentle pressure. Consider how long it takes for an ice cube to melt in our hands. I could assimilate it to myofascial releases, like being held like a baby as an adult. And that as the tissues sense. The fascial systems. Your proprioceptive system senses that pressure and receives it as love. The tissues soften. It takes time upwards of ten minutes for the real magic to even begin. So it's a different experience than massage. It's a different experience than traditional body work, and the less force we use, the deeper we go.
Speaker 3:I like to talk about it in metaphors because it helps to describe it in a way that most of us understand. I can go to the science and explain it, as there's a word called fix, a trophy t-h-i-x-o-t-r-o-p-y. It's the property that substances some substances have in being able to change from a solid state into a liquid state, back into a solid, back into a liquid. The earth does it, our body does it. Water does it. Oils do it. The more liquid state is called soul, oils do it. The more liquid state is called soul, the more solidified state is gel, and so when you consider our bodies, we are bodies that are bodies of water.
Speaker 3:The areas that are not soft, the areas that are restricted, are like statues versus oceanic, adaptable and changing. Okay, and so I think of the body being really simple We've got soft parts and we've got hard parts. Once you're fully grown, your hard parts stay hard. They stay the same length. They don't change in state. Hopefully, our bones, everything else holds water. Everything else is a soft part Organs, tissues, all that matter that holds the water. So areas that are restricted have become statuesque and they act like bone. They don't move, they don't stretch, they don't change in shape. Fascia is seamless, connecting all systems, organs and cells, so restrictions. To me, in my mind, it's like a kink in the garden hose and it's visible. We can see it for ourselves when we use our eyes as the sensory tool that they are, and we can see our structure looking in the mirror. There's there's nothing linear nor straight in nature.
Speaker 2:That's true.
Speaker 3:So, we are a series of balance in vertical alignment, which is our ideal posture to be a homo erectus walking around on the earth. We're a series of balance, a balance of concave and convex curves that's not straight. So in restoring that balance we can see the structural imbalances of where the concavities and convex shapes are off balance and really asymmetrical. So we're not bringing ourselves back into perfection. I think there's nothing completely perfect about being human either Dr Justin Marchegiani Right.
Speaker 3:Dr Anneke Vandenbro right. But we come back to balance and that's what myofascial release does by erasing the tissue memory of where we're holding, restoring the adaptability of the tissue to its sole soft state. It then is able to stretch change in length, change in state. It can hold ten with tensile strength to hold our weight up in a new way than when it was inhibited by the kinks, the imbalances. Joints glide when we have balance in our structure. When we have imbalance they grind and that's arthritis. Itis is inflammation, arthro is a bone. Inflammation of bone versus plantar fasciitis. We can break down these words. Everybody knows fascia, they know those words. Inflammation. Plantar is the bottom surface of the foot. So inflammation of the fascia in the bottom of the foot. So instead of going to the area that's screaming, we look and see where's the imbalance. Let's treat where it's not screaming and then the symptoms Stop crying. If we hold our body like a baby, allow it to restore itself like it does when we're sleeping. We pretty much all believe that when we're sleeping we're healing ourselves. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:Well, who's doing that? It's not our thinking mind that has to turn off in order for the healing to happen. That's our subconscious, that's our feeling intelligence, that is our fascial system. That's who's moving us around when we're not thinking about how we move.
Speaker 1:That's who's moving us around when we're not thinking about how we move Myofascial release.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're subconscious, so myofascial release accesses what's happening. It's simu, it's stimulating it, what's happening while we're sleeping, but we stay awake to witness what happens. Okay, so I use this metaphor as it came to me. I was like it's just too beautiful not to share.
Speaker 3:I was a dancer, I am a dancer, but when I danced on stage, or when I go to see a performance as the audience member, we're watching the performance, we witness it. We don't know what's going to happen next. And so when we're witnessing the subconscious healing, we're not thinking about what's going to happen next. And so when we're witnessing the subconscious healing, we're not thinking about what's going to happen. That inhibits it from happening as of when we get in our heads. So we witness the healer. So the myth that it has to hurt it doesn't have to hurt. If it hurts while you're on the table, it's going to hurt after. So to me I'm like therapeutic injury, healing, crisis versus lack of awareness of when somebody's subconscious is going into protection. And it can happen like that therapist who's been a very sensitive patient can tune in and know when to ease up, ease up on pressure, go to another area without triggering the system into protection. It's really beautiful work Wow.
Speaker 3:Fascinating. I say fascinating. If you haven't heard of myofascial release yet, you're going to want to.
Speaker 2:If you could think of one thing that you'd like our listeners to remember about soul, body movement and myofascial body work, what would that be?
Speaker 3:Y'all have the power to heal yourselves. That really I I believe our health is determined on that, on the boat, our belief that we have the ability to heal ourselves, the fix it mentality. I feel like it goes along with the blame and shame game and that when people have asked can, can you fix my whatever you know can, can you fix my sciatica? Can you fix this, can you? I'm like, I'm not a vet, I don't think that you want to be fixed, man we can repair.
Speaker 3:I don't. I to me, we're not broken, we, we, we. We can be wounded and we repair. I mean, this goes back to healing doesn't have to be injurious. When we break our, they heal on their own. That's a really painful way to create healing. So next time you look in the mirror, smile at yourself really big and look at your gums and your teeth and realize those are bones and soft tissue. That's the fascial system on the outside of the body and we all were taught worldwide, hopefully how to care for that part. Myofascial release is a way to care for the rest and that what we see here on the outside. Remember how we had to pull our teeth out Because they're connected. That's a view of what it is within. There's nothing separated, it's all in one. Sealing our lips with a smile while we breathe like a baby. That's one way to get home, to homeostasis.
Speaker 3:Feeling our feet feeling, feeling our souls being supported by the earth. That's a way to feel connected. We consider that our feet are always touching the ground when we're sitting and standing. So another tip I would offer is for everyone to have their legs higher than their heart and their crown the crown of the head to flip that posture of sitting. Can you visualize that If we were sitting in a chair with our spines in vertical alignment, sitting up straight in school, like we all did? If we take that same shape and flip it so that we're lying on our backs and the lower legs are resting on the seat of the chair, it's the same shape, but we don't have to hold ourselves in it. And having our legs higher than our heart not only helps our posture, it helps our heart. It's using gravity to help the venous return of blood to the heart, while it simultaneously is releasing the tissues in the lower legs that are responsible for pumping the heart back up, back up to the heart. So it's two crumbs with one bird.
Speaker 3:In addition to doing work in person here in black mountain, I work with folks online and my practice is offering hands-on myofascial release and movement instruction online. It has become a fascial care coaching practice, which I integrate into the in-person practice as well. So I guide through a series of yin shapes yin meaning passive. I use gravity and our household furniture, as well as props, to create shapes that help the joints restore balance without having to create any tension. It's a way of creating self-myofascial release so we can apply the principles of what we know. It takes upwards of 10 minutes for the beginning of the process to occur. I would offer you and anyone else I have an offering on my website where you're welcome to schedule a 20-minute complimentary online consultation where we're able to take a look at your sculpture wabi-sabi sculpture of what our posture is in the moment.
Speaker 3:Based on that visual we both see, we can make observations about structure and then, based on that, I coach into the shapes that we use to help balance the structure. It's not so much about following a formula. It's about listening to your body, understanding the language of sensation, movement, posture, breath, then using functional movement patterns we get up from. I typically coach people doing this on their bed, not the ground, so that they don't have to go change levels that significantly dramatically. And so when I'm guiding them, coaching them of how they move off their bed, they're standing up and walking immediately, unless they're not able to do that because of pain. But the walk, walking, our walk, is what reorganizes the system and resets the joints instantly. And so then we go back to the visual and they see for themselves the difference.
Speaker 2:Speaking of that, how, for those of us, including me, who are intrigued and interested in your services, how can we learn more?
Speaker 3:You're welcome to check out my website, which is emily-smithcom, and on Instagram, which, honestly, I don't post that much for my business yet is Simple Human Movement on Instagram. Simple Human Movement, that's another way to connect Awesome. I would welcome anyone to reach out via email or even through text, and you're welcome to schedule yourselves online too, off my website, to do a complimentary online session or phone consult, and also to schedule to come in for a session thank you, and and again, I appreciate you.
Speaker 2:taking time out of your schedule to spend some time with us and telling our listeners all about what you do is fascinating and amazing work, and thank you for that, by the way.
Speaker 3:It's a pleasure. Thank you, it's really a pleasure.
Speaker 2:Maybe we can, maybe we can have you back sometimes. I'd love it. Thank you All right. Thanks so much, Emily. You have a great rest of the day.
Speaker 3:You too.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnptry-citiescom. That's gnptry-citiescom, or call 423-719-5873. ¶¶.