Leeanne Schendel

Block Therapy Academy Success Story

"When I started to realize the change in my alignment - I had always had a ton of neck issues which I went to the chiropractor for, and I still do - I believe in other modalities like that work with Block Therapy very well. I had a break from all of that because of the pandemic. Going back to him - he’s amazed, he was blown away at my x-rays after two years of not seeing him. That alone told me that I did those changes myself just practicing Block Therapy. And that is amazing."


~ Leeanne Schendel

Block Therapy Instructor

"My name is Leeanne Schendel and my previous career actually was not anything to do with the wellness business at all. I was in the corporate fashion world so it was quite different. I made this transition just a couple years ago so it is all brand new to me and it has been a great learning experience for sure.

This came on me at a perfect time. I was going through a lot of changes. I had a lot to things happening my family. So when I broke from my fashion business I really had time to think and step back. I had done Block Therapy personally in previous years but because I was always so busy I hadn’t been practicing regularly. This was way before all of the digital content was available so I didnt know I could have been practicing all this time. When you’re in your own world you just keep going. When I realized I could access the digital content I started practicing Block Therapy. 

Block Therapy was the only thing I felt I could do during the pandemic. I didn’t feel like going for a run, I didn’t feel like doing any other stress relieving activities - even meditation at that time. Block Therapy really got me through. 30 minutes a day - I just felt better. It is low impact. You can make it as high or low impact as you want. That is what really got me back into it. From there, I was really evaluating where I was at and I thought..I should do this! This is what I love doing everyday. Why can’t I just do this? I wish I could just do this. And then I thought, I can! So that really made me take the leap into getting my certification. And that lead to some other certifications after Block Therapy, because once I got my Block Therapy certification I found it so fascinating how our fascial system worked and there is just so much more research out now too. We know that that is where all of our pain comes from - traumatic pain and physical pain - I just found that so fascinating the mind-body connection and all these other things. I moved on from Block Therapy to supplement, and I got my personal training and corrective exercise and I also became a fascial fitness trainer. That supplements my Block Therapy practice and all of these modalities complement Block Therapy really well and gives me a unique approach to training the body.

For my previous job my biggest challenge was time. I was travelling constantly. All of that work - I was at the computer all the time. If I wasn’t in a chair I was in an airplane seat. My body was just so out of alignment. My posture was terrible. So even though I was exercising - I have always tried to keep up my exercise when I travelled - I didn’t realize that I was reinforcing all of these bad postures. I thought I was doing something good by exercising but I was actually reinforcing this terrible alignment. That was a really big realization as I started practicing Block Therapy and stopped working at the computer all day and being in this crunched forward airplane seat.

When I started to realize the change in my alignment - I had always had a ton of neck issues which I went to the chiropractor for, and I still do - I believe that other modalities work with Block Therapy very well. I had a break from all of that because of the pandemic. Going back to him - he’s amazed, he was blown away at my x-rays after two years of not seeing him. That alone told me that I did those changes myself just practicing Block Therapy. And that is amazing. So getting out of my previous work where I was abusing my body so much, and not to mention the nutritional issues with travelling. It’s so hard on your body. I had my years of doing it and now I am happy to be able to work at home. And work on my own schedule. Just scheduling meetings with clients online and in person. It’s beautiful. I feel so so lucky to have the flexibility that I have now. I can go to the grocery store on a Tuesday afternoon if I need to. You have that flexibility to work when you want to or have to and have lots of pockets of time to do personal things. It’s a really nice balance. When you’re passionate about something and love what you do it doesn’t feel like work either. Sometimes I think about teaching classes or working with clients one-on-one and I can’t believe this is work. It feels so natural and enjoyable. I really can’t even look at it as a job. It’s just what I do and I enjoy it.\

What made me really scared to do it in the first place was just being in the same thing for so long. I had been in the fashion world for 25 years, so making a leap to make a change and leave all of that behind and do something new was really really scary. What changed my mind was that I had the opportunity to be in Winnipeg and meet Deanna personally. Just to ask her questions and meet her. That was a real turning point because just meeting her and her positive energy and learning about the community that she has built. Looking into it and seeing the support of her and Quinn and all of the other instructors, teachers, those who practice, the Facebook community. I knew right away that this is a great group of people, I am always going to have support, Deanna is an amazing founder. I just knew that it was the right thing to do. The support - I cannot stress enough how much the support made that decision really easy for me. Learning to do something brand new after 25 years - I hadn’t studied, I hadn’t opened a book, I hadn’t taken a course. I hadn’t done anything. It was really scary to think about studying again. Doing tests and videos and all these things was really intimidating. The non-judgemental attitude of the company and all those involved in it was so supportive. It just made all the difference in the world. I could do it at my own pace, there was no pressure. I had so much positive feedback from everyone no matter what I was doing. It still is supportive. I know from taking other certifications - there is just no other network like Block Therapy. The support that you get, the continuing education, the access to new information, the constant new material that Deanna puts out all the time just to support us and the communication is just amazing. No other certification has that by far.

Well my business was new after getting my certification. There was a learning curve because I was popping into a brand new industry. I really had a lot of support from friends and family in the beginning which really helped me practice and hone my skills a little bit. That was really important, to have the support and practice on people who were close around me. Some of those people are total converts now - they are Blockers! They really stuck with me. Because I did the Block Therapy training first and then added on the supplemental certifications to work with Block Therapy, I think that really gave me a well rounded business plans. I think that because I am in a market where no one really knows about Block Therapy, my challenge is educating people and really bringing awareness to people here. It is an ongoing process for sure. It’s a great opportunity because it is so unique - there’s nothing else like it. When I get interest from people they are absolutely curious and want to learn more about it. I am just going to keep growing that way. I love the fact that this practice works with so many other modalities. It’s not just that it works well with yoga, it works well with people that run or bike or do other exercise. It also works phenomenally well with people that are going through physical therapy or chiropractor work or massage therapy. All of those modalities really complement Block Therapy. So I have had a lot of success too with connecting with those type of practitioners and we can refer back and forth to each other which is really helpful.

I get so much joy out of sharing this practice with people that are in pain or people that have never exercised or done anything and are getting to the point where they have to do something. Because their changes are so dramatic. They are usually so scared in the beginning but once they get over the hump of seeing what it can do for them it is so rewarding to see the change. Someone actually texted me this week and said that she went to a wedding last weekend, wore high heels, danced all night and her feet were not sore! I mean, that was awesome to hear. It’s amazing. Or I have some people who are real exercisers and do triathlon or marathon running and the relief of their muscle soreness - this makes such a huge difference if you are really heavily active to eliminate that muscles soreness. I have had people say to me “I can’t believe I’m not sore - I can’t believe it.” So I think those kinds of things are so rewarding - to hear the kinds of things that people see. And the stress relief too. It’s just unbelievable some of the traumatic response and release. I have also had people share emotional change which is awesome. And the breath! I could go on about this one for a long time. I’ve had a ton of people say they didn’t know how to breath before. And this has made a huge difference in how they sleep, their posture. They’re more conscious of how they breathe and that can be distressing in itself. Lots of positive changes that I get so excited about.

With adding Block Therapy and my other modalities because they work really well together. I have had a lot of people come in with some kind of issue - hip pain, shoulder pain, neck pain. Whether or not they have ever done any kind of physical therapy or anything else, I immediately try to get them to do the Block Therapy first. Because they have so many adhesions that you can tell that no matter how many exercises they do that they are never ever going to release that pain just by doing the mobility work. I can do corrective exercise with someone who is just coming out of physical therapy, but I have learned and I have seen that using the compression work and using the fascial release with Block Therapy just totally sets people miles above. You get so much more range of motion and strength building properly because you’re learning proper alignment. I can say with people who have acute issues that are coming to me, I still always - my number one thing is - you have to get on the Block first. And then we’ll do the range of motion stuff and the strengthening. So I really feel that I have increased my Block Therapy business by meeting people with an acute injury who have no idea what Block Therapy is but then after they see the progression of doing that first and then doing the exercises, it is hugely beneficial and they see really really good results doing that.

I’ve seen a lot of change in all areas of my life since completing Block Therapy Avademy. I just have learned so much about the human body. Professionally it has launched me on a whole new career. I found that once I got my certification and realized what was going on in my own body I was really able to connect that with people. You start with friends and family and it grows from there. It’s also brought a lot of meditation practice and breath practice - a lot of stress relief, a lot of techniques that I never really thought of before. I was thinking of it only in the physical matter before. But it really brings that meditation body-mind connection and breath work full circle with the whole modality of everything that we do in Block Therapy. I feel that it gives me a sense of calm. It has taught me to be more aware of my body. I definitely bring that to clients as well. It has brought me an endless amount of benefits. That is why I am so passionate about it. I have had a lot of changes in my body physically but I’ve also had a lot of emotional change and this sense of calm that I have - I certainly didn’t have it when I was in the fashion business I’ll tell you that!

The most important thing that I learned in Block Therapy Academy was all of the anatomy and the workings of the body and learning how important fascial tissue is. Fascia tissue wraps around our muscles and nerves and everything in our body - it’s such an intelligent system. Coming back to that mind-body connection, that is where we hold absolutely everything and thats what really fascinated me about learning the coursework of Block Therapy. Beyond that, once you engage with the other instructors, practitioners and of course Deanna and Quinn and Heather, and you just start seeing how much support and how much change people experience when doing this practice - I just feel like that is an amazing tool that we have access to. Every time that I have a client who has a problem that I haven’t heard of before - the first thing I’m doing is going to that community and checking. There is always somebody that has had the same thing and that is a fantastic resource. I can get so much support from people in the community.

My biggest feeling about Block Therapy Academy is that it is an incredible program. It is so unique. You learn so much about yourself and your own body and your own mind-body connection. The support of the community - I really cant stress enough how amazing this program is. You are never going to find another program out there with this kind of support and education and it is just awesome.

If you are on the fence about joining Block Therapy, I would suggest taking your time of course and practice. Focus on yourself and that will bring you to your decision. Nothing that is worth doing is easy, and it is all about going out of your comfort zone sometimes. That is how you grow and how you change. Don’t be afraid. You can do it."

~ Leeanne Schendel

Want to Learn More About Becoming Our Next Block Therapy Instructor?

Whether you are a fitness professional, a bodyworker or are looking for a new career, the Block Therapy Instructor Training course is designed specifically for you.

This training prepares you to teach Block Therapy to your community in a class setting, or on a one-to-one basis. This can be both in person and virtually. Whether you are a fitness professional, a bodyworker or are looking for a new career, this program is designed specifically for you. There is no pre-requisite required to undergo the training, just a love of helping others improve their health and a desire to share this simple, safe and effective system that is gaining global credibility.

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