Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Sudbury.
Hi Michael, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Thank you! I’m excited for the chance to interview with you. I love how Voyage Utah looks for the personal stories in local communities, you’re doing a wonderful thing here! Okay, so my story… Something about me has always looked for the little-known and poorly understood things in life. I like understanding how things work, I find beauty and pleasure in it. I loved math and science in school, still do, but there came a moment when I realized that wasn’t the path for me. Now, that attention and fascination of mine have been turned on us human beings.
Over the years, I’ve come to learn much about where we go wrong and end up caught in pain and stuck in misery. Truthfully, I learned because I needed the lessons for myself, but what I was drawn to was all the ways we seem to “miss” how health and happiness really work. Like many, I once scoffed at bodywork, “energy,” and things like going barefoot or taking ice baths to improve your health. But I’ve seen and felt too much now to ever again think doctors and big pharma have got it all figured out.
I now know that we all have a choice when it comes to health. Most choose to ignore their health until they are forced to accept medications and surgeries in order to keep going, as they continue to spiral downward. A few pay attention now to the subtle and everyday requirements of a body and mind that can actually recover, work well again, and feel good for a long time yet.
In the process of learning all this, I became a myofascial release therapist, which is a way of saying that I help bodies work right and feel good, even after years of being stuck in pain or dysfunction. Even after doctors have given up and told you to just “manage” with meds. I love helping people feel good again and seeing them light up as they return to joyful activity and possibility.
My favorite of many stories is how I was able to help my wife recover from an injury that had a chiropractor telling her to never get pregnant. It’s my favorite because we now have three wonderful kids. What I’m just as proud of, though, is that I’ve built a clinic of incredible therapists and we are helping more people and in ways I could never do on my own.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Easy?! Hardly! I’m the last person I’d ever think to see learning about marketing and customer service and, heaven forbid, sales! I’ve had so many lessons to learn and it’s taken me years as I truly did hope I could avoid them.
That worked about as well as it ever does when you avoid the hard lessons you need…
The first time I took out an ad and got a handful of calls, I eagerly and excitedly talked every single one of them out of coming to see me. I was that good. Everyone could hear my inexperience and over-enthusiasm. Each call ended with, “That sounds great, I’ll have to think about it and call you back.” I, of course, felt crushed as I gradually realized none of them would ever call back.
Despite myself, though, I grew as a therapist and so did my clientele. It’s a good thing I was stubbornly determined to succeed at that, clueless as I’ve been. Maybe the toughest lesson, though, was learning that both marketing and sales are actually good things when they’re done right.
But not all my struggles were due to a lack of knowing what business needs and how to do it. Though my wife was able to give birth to our three kids, it did not all go well. She’s had a difficult time recovering and we’ve had three little ones to complicate it all.
With little income and even less time to ourselves, there have been long periods (years) of stress and worry. Keeping my little business going was all I could do for a while, never mind doing anything to grow it.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Release Works Myofascial Therapy?
My vision and purpose as a myofascial release therapist are to help people recover, or keep, a body that moves well and feels great. To me, this requires more than procedures and protocols aimed at “fixing” someone’s achy something or other. We humans are more complicated and non-linear than that.
See, most places and approaches are based on applying a certain set of stretches or exercises for particular pains. It makes sense, it’s logical. But this approach is fundamentally flawed because it completely disregards the fact that we are conscious beings and that our individual patterns of pain and dysfunction are entirely unique to us. Protocols don’t work.
I’m interested in authentic healing. Authentic healing means a deeper resolution of the problem than merely getting better at coping with it, which is what most people do. When you hear, “strengthen your core,” “fix your posture,” or “stretch out those hamstrings or psoas muscles,” it’s all about helping you get better at coping with and “fixing” the problems (meaning symptoms), not healing through them. That is the approach the majority of society takes. This is why people burn out, break down, and give up far too soon.
Authentic healing requires “feeling into and through” the problems and injuries that have happened, as they are allowed to change until they are thoroughly resolved. This allows you to return to a state of ease, balance, strength, and calm. In contrast, if you’re at all familiar with the idea of “I have to try harder to do better,” that is not authentic healing. It is an attempt to apply willpower sufficient to “overcome” what you think is the problem. That approach leads to frustration, downward spirals, and bitterness. It’s not for me.
My clinic and team of therapists are all built around the approach of authentic healing. Each of us has had to walk our own healing journey. We know what true healing takes. We are very good at helping people with the basic pains and aches, but where we shine is in helping people truly return to themselves, and actually feel good again.
Simply not hurting is not the same as actually feeling good. Most people are settling (or trying to settle) for just not hurting. We offer more than that. We love helping people feel good, really good.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I tend to think I’m a pretty open book, but I’m always surprised when people let me know they’ve found me intimidating. I forget that no one really knows what’s going on in my head unless I tell them. This has led to a few misunderstandings, some frustrating, some comical, some both. If only they knew…
I think maybe the most surprising thing most people familiar with my work might not know about me is that as serious and intent as I often come off, I really love the humorous twists. We, me included, all fall into the trap of taking things, life, too seriously. Often, the thing most valuable and needed is to lighten up. I catch myself “trying to do it right,” frequently. When I see it, all I can do is shake my head bemusedly as I laugh at the absurdities of behavior I am caught up in.
My favorite reminder is to say that, “If you can’t laugh at yourself, you’re not paying attention.”
Contact Info:
- Email: info@mfrofsaltlake.com
- Website: www.myofascialreleaseofsaltlake.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/release_works_myofascial/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MFRofSaltLake/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXR0yiVaJQhwj0ljTBug2rw
- Other: https://linktr.ee/releaseworksmyofascial
