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Justin Andrews LMBT# 20750
Justin brings a wealth of knowledge from various aspects of his health and wellness background to his massage practice. He integrates a form of myofascial unwinding called Intuitive Myofascial Unwinding (IMU) to support clients of all backgrounds seeking to improve their health. IMU works by strengthening the connection between mind and body at the fascial level. Using gentle, specific, palpating and mobilizing techniques, he works to remove restriction patterns and promote fluid and pain-free movement. Justin is also trained in Swedish Massage. He has also taken courses in Craniosacral Therapy, Functional Movement, and has experience in functional stretching and sports-related massage through his coaching background. He also completed graduate coursework in human anatomy, motor development, exercise physiology, kinesiology, musculoskeletal disorders, and applied manual therapy. Justin began his journey into the health field as a teenager, practicing martial arts in high school and playing intramural and club sports in college. While studying Exercise Sport Science at Elon University, he began coaching gymnastics and learned valuable lessons on motivating and training athletes of all ages. After college, he began working in the field of orthopedics, supporting physical and occupational therapists in the treatment of post-operative, sports injured, and chronic pain patients. The challenges of the medical and health insurance reimbursement model had an overwhelming impact on Justin, and he quickly realized that supporting and motivating clients to improve their knowledge and health practices is the best strategy for promoting optimal health and sports performance. A stint in physical therapy graduate school at UNC left him with a wealth of knowledge but also an even greater understanding of the challenges within the healthcare system. After leaving UNC and the healthcare field in 2017, Justin married his wife, Liza, who he met while studying at UNC and they have two (very soon to be three) young boys! Supporting his family through a variety of jobs including construction, retail grocery, and farming, Justin was pulled back into the question of health in early 2020 at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thinking deeply about what it means to be healthy in the midst of a pandemic, Justin spent much of 2020 reading about the importance of overall mental and physical well-being. After reading James Nestor‘s book “Breath” in early 2021, Justin decided to take “the plunge” and dive into the practice of deep breathing, meditation, and cold exposure therapy (aka ice plunge or cold plunge). Nestor's book followed numerous promoters of breathwork including Wim Hof, who set world records by immersing himself in the cold. In September of 2021, Justin attended his first Wim Hof Method workshop with Jeremy Price, massage therapist, yoga and breathwork instructor at Vital Body Yoga and Calisthenics (VBYC) in Roanoke, VA. Since then, he has been working as VBYC's Breathwork Intern, promoting breathwork and meditation workshops in the Chapel Hill area. Jeremy convinced Justin to enter massage therapy school to deepen (no pun intended) his understanding of the body. With the support of Justin's amazing wife, he completed his massage therapy training at Durham Tech in 2022 and is now licensed to practice in the state of North Carolina! Whether you are a weekend warrior training for the next race, a parent wanting to get active again, a student looking for stress-relief, or someone trying to get past their chronic pain, Justin is ready to to help you reach your health goals! |