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

Melissa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

The beginning of the story is going to sound like what my parents did wrong, but it sets the stage for what they did right. My parents got divorced when I was five years old and my mother and I moved from Baltimore to Florida when I was seven (in the middle of 2nd grade). I would go months without seeing my father, but then have the opportunity to spend the entire summer with him as well as Winter and Spring breaks from school. At first, I would dream and wish every day that they would get back together. Remember the movie Parent Trap? At some point though, I realized how different my parents were from each other and began wondering how they ever got married in the first place. My individual time with both of them, watching the twists and turns of their lives, and the very different life lessons they taught me all helped to shape who I am and eventually gave me the courage to open up my own business. Here are some examples and stories.

After a few years of living in Florida, my mother quit her high powered bank job to go back to school and become a Psychologist. She truly wanted to follow her heart and her changing beliefs and values as she morphed into a spiritual woman. My mother eventually opened up The Center for Holistic Healing which included counseling, hypnosis, regressions, and meditation groups, all in our house. She shifted from giving me Sudafed and Tylenol when I was sick, to giving me natural vitamins and reducing my fever through hypnosis. My mother taught me about the holistic approach to wellness and truly impacted my beliefs on the medical system. Thank you Mom!

My father, on the other hand, was a very successful business man. He truly loved his job and always taught me, “If you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life.” The funny thing is that he was always working, but he didn’t look at it that way. He taught me the power of passion, hard work, ethics in business, community, volunteerism, building relationships with clients and more. I worked on his financial advisory team for a couple years before going to Physical Therapy school Watching him with his clients, the attention to detail that he insisted on, his hard work and persistence, and the values that he taught all had a huge impact on me and my career to come.

Although I didn’t pursue his line of work, he was extremely supportive of me and always gave me the confidence that I needed to follow my own dreams and passion.

The very different lessons and values that I learned from both my parents truly led me to where I am today. The mix of the holistic and traditional, business and emotional, grounded and spirituality all mixed together to become the person that I am today. I am extremely grateful for my parents. Thank you Mom and Dad for EVERYTHING!

Melissa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I established Breathe Free Physical Therapy & Yoga, LLC because I wanted to provide a place for people to go where they truly feel accepted, nurtured and empowered by both individual treatments and small group classes for any physical condition.

As a Holistic Physical Therapist, I incorporate mind-body techniques as well as breath work to enhance a patient’s progress in physical therapy. In addition, my small group yoga classes (4-6 ppl) offers the participants a safe, warm and individualized experience. The students have built friendships, grown both physically and emotionally and truly have found a family through yoga. Weekly themes have been established for both my physical therapy and yoga groups to make their experience relevant and meaningful beyond my studio.

In addition, I offer a free zoom on Mondays as a source of inspiration, rejuvenation and recharge for the week. It is a 10 minute zoom where the participants learn, breathe, stretch and participate in a mindfulness activity. Recordings are available for a nominal fee.

My main goal is to empower and educate as many people as possible through my physical therapy treatments, yoga programs, and Zoom sessions. It is impossible to truly separate out physical conditions from emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of a person. Therefore, if not all is addressed, there will never be true healing. In addition, everybody has more power over their nervous system than they realize and can dramatically impact their overall health and wellness through mind-body techniques. It is my passion to spread this knowledge and change the lives of everyone that I meet.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

At this point in my business (less than 2 years), the most effective strategy for growing my clientele has been word of mouth. Initially, I wasted an embarrassing amount of money on ads from Google, Yelp and Facebook. In total, I might have gained 1-2 clients from these ads, but the majority of my clients have been through word of mouth or a friend of a friend. In addition, some of my old clients from Sinai Hospital found out about my business and wanted to come to me instead of going back to the hospital. This style of growth was and still is perfect for my business because it is just me. I wear all the hats and can only grow at a certain pace. You know the saying, ” It isn’t WHAT you know, it is WHO you know”! I have been fortunate enough to know a few people that know a few people who know a few people! My business is located in Pikesville, MD which by definition can be considered a place where everyone knows each other. This strategy might not work well in all locations or all business models.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I think that I probably share the same story as many of you reading this article. COVID hit in 2020 and we all had to pivot in some way. For me, I was working at an Outpatient clinic at Sinai Hospital when Covid-19 became an extreme threat in our area/the country. The department closed for a month and half the physical therapists were furloughed during this time. Thank goodness I was selected to be furloughed because I had to shift to a full time mother, teacher, tutor and eventually camp director for my 3 kids on Zoom School and without a camp to go to in the summer. When my kids started to go back to school, I decided that I needed to be more available to them and I did not want to return to my job at Sinai Hospital. At that point, I came up with the idea of opening up my own business so I could make my own schedule, develop my own programs and have more autonomy in my career. This led to the birth of Breathe Free Physical Therapy & Yoga, LLC in which I officially opened in March 2021.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.breathefreeptandyoga.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BreatheFreePTandYoga/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-wohlberg-16265276/

Image Credits
Julie Woodford