Co-Founder/Owner/Therapist NC LMBT #3174/ NCBTMB Approved Provider #174/ Hawaii LMBT #11077 Michael Roels is the creator of the RoelsMethod Structural Bodywork. In 1997, he was a passenger in a 70 mph head-on car collision. He was diagnosed with herniation of T-12 and all his lumbar discs, whiplash, sciatica, migraines, fibromyalgia, chronic back and hip pain. In chronic pain for three and a half years, he had many different therapies prescribed by his health care team, including a brief experience with massage therapy. When he was released, he was told that “if patients’ conditions do not improve after three years, it is not likely their pain would decrease. “He was then instructed to go on disability because he would never work a full time job since he could not sit or stand for long periods of time. A nurse also told him how long term use of prescribed pain medications shut down the production of your endorphins, the body’s natural pain relievers. Michael decided that this diagnosis was not acceptable, and went home and prayed. He started walking every day and stopped taking the pain medication he was prescribed. He lived everyday with the attitude of “what would you do in your life now if you did not have pain?”After three months, he was a manager of a small restaurant and was experiencing no pain for the first time since 1997! He wanted to help people who suffered from chronic pain any way he could.As he reflected on the brief experience he had with massage therapy, he realized that it was the only therapy that not only did not create more discomfort but that also decreased his pain level. He researched schools all over the country and chose a school that specialized in Neuromuscular Therapy and Structural Bodywork.Over the past 12 years, Michael has developed and practiced his technique in Charlotte, North Carolina; Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, California; and Maui, Hawaii. This experience includes private massage therapist to popular TV actors, Grammy award winners, professional athletes, musicians and published authors. He has worked with chiropractors, trainers, physical therapists, and doctors who felt their patients benefited from his work. He has been an instructor in massage schools in both Long Beach, California and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He moved back home to North Carolina in 2012 to be with his family and share the technique he developed so that massage therapists can help their clients with chronic pain who haven’t found relief through conventional therapies or traditional massage. He now has a business, Essential Balanced Bodywork, in Clemmons, North Carolina with a team of licensed massage therapists trained in RoelsMethod Structural Bodywork. Essential Balanced Bodywork is here now to serve with a consistent, high-quality, advanced level of bodywork in the Clemmons massage therapy community.