Eastern medicine has moved to the forefront in world of healing, health and pain management. When I heard about this VentureMom, her nutrition practice and her integrative hands on healing techniques, I had to give it a try. ( And it worked!!!)
In her previous life she worked on branding the vices – everything from cigarettes to candy – but in her new life, holistic health is her path. Mary Bennett was no stranger to sports injuries because she has been an active athlete all her life. Western medicine had always been the treatment but when her oldest daughter got a heel injury and the pain just wouldn’t go away no matter how many doctors and treatments they pursued, things changed. “I took Eliza to an integrative manual therapist and after two hours of treatment the pain was gone.”
Mary was sold. She took her other children, who were into several sports as well, to see the therapists when pain arose. “The therapist even fixed the pain in my shoulder from an injury I sustained years earlier. At this point I decided I wanted to study and practice this methodology so I could help people in my community.” As Mary’s kids got older and left the nest, Mary found the time she needed to pursue this dream.
In 2006, she began a 3 year long program to become certified as a Integrative Manual Therapist (IMT). Mary had her first “ah ha moment” when she was training and felt the difference in someone she was working on, “I realize there is a lot of skepticism around this type of healing practice. Kids are always good customers because they don’t have any preconceived notions. They just know what they feel and what works so they can get back on the field. After I started treating my kids they would bring their friends over and ask me to ‘witch doctor ‘ their pain, so I did.”
According to Mary’s web site “The hands-on treatment involves gentle manipulative techniques to promote tissue repair, normalize structure and restore function.” The fundamental premise of Integrative Manual Therapy is locating the causes of dysfunctions and reopening the body’s natural lines of communication. Once this inherent flow is reestablished, the body’s innate healing abilities return to optimum.
Mary expanded her practice and new skill from family to friends who finally told her she had to charge them for her time. “I was nervous about having people pay me but the validation I received from happy recipients of my treatments gave me the impetus to keep going on a more formal basis.”
Mary has been interested in the connection between nutrition and health since her children’s allergies caused ongoing ear infections, “I spent a lot of time testing what foods caused reactions.” This lead Mary to the study of holistic health and when she formalized her IMT treatments she integrated nutrition into her work, “I built my own system of testing and determining what a client should eat to get the optimum energy from their diet.”
May’s practice is called, Inergize +, playing off of the fact that you are working from the inside out to energize your body. “I usually start with an adjustment for a pain issue and move to helping a client improve their energy with the food they eat. ” She works with clients of all ages, “It’s great to have my own business but even better to help people feel better. It’s very rewarding.”
Mary has a busy day usually seeing clients in her home office from the time her youngest leaves for school to the time he gets home. Eastern medicine has seen a huge growth spurt in recent years so Mary is positioned to capitalize on helping others deal with pain and energy issues utilizing IMT. Word of mouth about the results Mary provides is insuring that as well.
VentureMom Tip
Build a business around something that has helped you and could help others.
