Meet Kim Ries

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kim Ries. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kim below.

Hi Kim , appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

Resilience is a lost art. I see it happening with kids at my daughter’s school, and even with adults my age. We’ve forgotten how to be resilient. One of my favorite ways to foster this invaluable skill/resource, has been through my training. What I mean by training-because this has become such a vague term-is putting my body (and therefore mind) into various states of stress on a regular basis. This can be lifting heavy weights, sprinting up a hill, climbing on the monkey bars with my kiddo, holding a handstand, or performing a deep tissue bodywork session for a 6’5” triathlete. They are all examples of intentionally putting stress on the nervous system, and the tissues of the body which translate into creating mental fortitude. People have stopped stressing their bodies regularly, and therefore are ill equipped to deal with mental and physical stress in the real world.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

What I’d like to think I do, over anything else, is to help people feel more comfortable in their bodies every day. I teach people about their fascia and soft tissues and nervous system, through the lens of hands-on bodywork. Together, my clients and I, navigate physical and emotional stress and try to find ways to unwind the protective mechanisms in the body that have cropped up around these stress inputs. Maybe your right shoulder is locked up and you can’t understand why? Let’s give it some physical input (I.e. manual therapy) and walk through what is going on outside of this discomfort…stress at work or home…too many bench press days in a row trying to grow those pecs…etc. The body is a whole system that should be addressed from a whole-istic approach. I can see my work leading me down other paths of wellness in the future, but my ‘home base’ will always be in manual therapy.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Something that was really impactful in leading me to this work, was my own experience with pain and discomfort. I’ve had debilitating low-back pain on a recurring basis since my daughter was born, 9 years ago. Over the years, I’ve come to understand that the times that my low back ‘goes off’ or ‘goes out’ has a few things in common. There’s usually a combination of emotional stress at home, and a longer block of training where I’m not giving myself enough recovery time (probably because I’m trying to work through the home stress by adding physical stress). Rarely is the cause only physical or only emotional.

Another big influence in the journey to bodywork-was recognizing and accepting that I’m a helper. I enjoy helping people solve problems and figuring out creative ways to make space in their lives to care for themselves.

I would say that the most important teachers are often our own experiences. If we can learn to be self aware and accept each experience as a possible way to learn about ourselves, those same experiences can guide us towards a life/career that is endlessly rewarding.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

I’m always looking for acupuncturists, personal trainers, and chiropractors that understand the fascial system and can work with clients towards the same goals…to help create confidence, comfort, and function in their bodies. Shoot me an email/txt or better yet-book a session for yourself so we can talk shop, while getting some work done! [email protected] or fill out a contact form on www.peak-therapeutics.com.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.peak-therapeutics.com

Image Credits

Noah Berg, Walnut Street Photography