Hidden Gems: Meet Chris Kalisz of Soft-Stretch Release Techniques

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Kalisz. 

Hi Chris, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I started as a Personal Trainer in 2008 in CT and was a Professional Wrestler from 2004 until 2016. Throughout my wrestling journey, I experienced my own injuries suffering cervical compression, a torn right knee, and more minor aches and pains, including a slipped rib at some point. 

Working as a trainer I steered myself into becoming a Specialist in Exercise Therapy and began learning more about MAT (Muscle Activation Techniques), movement mechanics, and Myofascial Release and Fascial Stretching. 

I met my partner and girlfriend Ashly Wenzel at a course and we fell in love with each other after dating for some time. We realized that when we would see each other and work on one another for therapy, that we both had a lot of issues that traditional stretching or massage wasn’t really addressing. 

We both have had our fair share of emotional and energetic traumas throughout life and as we worked more with each other we started diving into that part of healing as well as the physical. SRT Therapy (Soft-Stretch Release Techniques) came about in 2018 as we experimented with new movements and emotional/energetic pieces for ourselves. 

The clientele that we work with range from Fibromyalgia, lyme, and nervous system / autoimmune disorders to rape, molestation, and abuse victims from mental, emotional, and physical traumas. 

True Healing is about the mind, body, and soul, and it seems like most mainstream therapy is aggressive in nature and focused primarily on the physical Muscles and Skeletal systems. 

SRT Therapy focuses on the Nervous, Fascial, Lymphatic, and Belief Systems primarily. We have been teaching live certifications since 2019 across the US and in Iceland. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has most definitely not been a smooth road at all. In fact, I’d say we had to forge through a jungle making our own path as we went. 

We started our business in 2019 teaching classes and certifications under our company. We were immediately met with cease and desists from another company (we don’t wish to give them any exposure), and we entered into a 2+ year lawsuit with them. 

In 2020 the Pandemic shut the world down, and so we were in a lawsuit and now our personal businesses and our teaching SRT had taken a massive hit. Ashly and I were living apart long-distance (her in AZ and myself in CT) during all of this. 

We had hate mail and social media messages from the other followers and “Professionals” of the opposing company harassing us as well. However, at the end of 2020, I relocated to AZ permanently with Ashly and in June of 2021, we completed our Lawsuit, having prevailed on most of the claims, and are now free and clear to continue sharing healing and teaching. 

It has been anything but a smooth road and we will be paying our attorney fees off for another few years, but we are excited to be out from under the oppressive hand. 

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Soft-Stretch Release Techniques (aka SRT Therapy) is a soft, gentle, and non-aggressive approach to Neuromyofascial Release and Relaxation. 

Neuromyofascial in this sense means Nervous system, muscular system, and fascial system. 

Our primary focus is never to “fix” but to assist in the clients’ healing process. We know that everything stems from energy, and we know that emotions and feelings affect our physical body and systems. So, when it comes to true healing, we approach it from an emotional-energetic-physical standpoint. All 3 of these pieces create the puzzle. 

What sets SRT aside is really the experience and the intentional focus of our therapy. Most therapies are aggressive and even painful. Or we see general PT, chiro, Stretch Therapists and LMTs that are heavy-handed and focused primarily on the physical body, mainly the muscles and the skeleton. 

In SRT we focus first on the 4 primary systems (Nervous, Fascial, Lymphatic, and Belief Systems.) 

These 4 systems all directly and indirectly affect the 4 secondary systems of SRT which are (Muscular, Skeletal, Immune, and Energy Systems.) 

As I mentioned, our work is designed to create and generate new emotional and energetic, and physical experiences for the nervous system to feel safe and trusting. Too many professionals neglect the feelings and emotions of the client, in an effort to simply address a Physical mechanical issue. They disregard that the energy and emotions will also be directly or indirectly attached to an injury physically. 

Ashly and I are personally located in Phoenix AZ and have our private business here. We also travel and teach other professionals, certifying them in SRT Therapy, across the country, and in Iceland. 

We also have just added our online academy option for online certification due to the pandemic and inability to travel as much, so everyone can now learn SRT Therapy anywhere in the world at their own pace! 

They can learn more at SRTTHERAPY.COM 

Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
I always tell people this… there are so many different modalities and therapies that exist and that’s wonderful. 

However, everything can benefit everybody, but not everybody can benefit from everything. 

And this is a key misconception many people have. Some people love chiropractic care, while others have been hurt by it. Some people deep tissue aggressive massage work, while other people hate it or it triggers an emotional response. 

So, it’s important to understand that you need to explore and find out what works best for you. Don’t settle and simply accept a professional’s opinion if it doesn’t feel right to you. Every professional will have a slightly different view, perspective, and approach. 

Help is out there; you just may not have found that missing piece yet. 

Contact Info:

• Email: Softstretchreleasetechniques@gmail.com
• Website: Srttherapy.com
• Instagram: Srt_therapy
• Twitter: Srt_therapy