Todd Smith, RMT.

My own experience with injury and undergoing two surgeries reshaped the way I understand healing, both personally and as a clinician. For much of my life, I operated from a performance-driven mindset, pushing through discomfort and equating progress with effort. While that approach can produce short-term results, I’ve come to understand that it often overrides the body’s signals and reinforces cycles of tension and incomplete recovery. Being forced to slow down during my own rehabilitation created space for a different kind of awareness, one that required me not only to acknowledge physical limitations, but to turn inward and truly listen.

In that process, I began to recognize how much the body holds. Past stress, injury, and emotional experiences are not simply “in the past”; they are carried and expressed through the nervous system, tissues, and movement patterns. Rather than pushing past sensation, I learned to move toward it with curiosity. This shift—from overriding the body to listening to it—has been foundational. It has meant developing the ability to sense, interpret, and respond to what the body is communicating in real time.