Adrienne Engel's Experience and Credentials
EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE
Brevard Acupuncture
Merritt Island, FL 1993 - 1995
I began working for acupuncturist Dr Bo-Shi-Ni while still in high school. It was Dr Bo who opened my eyes to the human system's remarkable ability to heal and re-establish its balance. Dr Bo blindfolded me to learn to feel the body's tissues and become familiar with what diseased and dysfunctional tissues feel like vs healthy ones. I also learned to feel the body's energy and circulatory systems.
This sensitivity attuned me to what predisposes a healthy system. Our systems stay healthy when balanced circulation and energy flow unimpeded. When blocked, disease and dysfunction set in. I discovered that specific muscular tension patterns accompanied each condition and or dysfunction. At this stage of my learning, I asked myself, "What are all the ways that we can address muscular tension?"
Florida School of Massage Therapy
Gainesville, FL
Licensed Massage Therapist 1995
One week after graduating high school, I enrolled and began attending The Florida School of Massage. I completed my Florida licensing course.
Gainesville Health and Fitness Center
Gainesville, FL 1995 - 1996
While in massage school, I worked part-time as a personal trainer, teaching circuit training programs to gym members. I observed that mainstream exercise and fitness techniques developed large muscles groups but did not address the stabilizing muscle groups. I recognized that over time, in many cases, they were left feeling more tired and less flexible. I developed techniques to access and engage the stabilizing muscles to support stability and recovery.
Developed and Built A Stretching Wall 1996
I developed a stretching wall to help clients gain access to their full-body systems before and after a workout. The wall provided a pre-workout and post-workout routine. It increased the effectiveness of the exercises and decreased injury.
Florida School of Massage Therapy
Certified Advanced Sports Massage Therapist
Gainesville, FL 1996
I studied under Mike Loomis, a nationally sports-certified trainer. During this training, I learned how to assess and support the rehabilitation of muscles tissues that are injured and overstrained.
Opened Personal Practice
Gainesville, FL 1995 - Present
I opened my first office in the fall of 1995. I was eighteen years old. Thank God for energy and enthusiasm. While learning the nuances of marketing, finance, and customer service, I also developed new techniques and approaches to medical massage. I have kept my private practice operating to the present date (now located in Gainesville, FL); however, I was practising part-time for the first three years while gaining more experience in the medical field.
Faas Chiropractic Center
Medical Massage Therapist and
Exercise Physiology Assistant 1995 - 1997
I worked at Faas Chiropractic part-time for two years as a medical massage therapist. I worked closely with the resident exercise physiologist, David Salhanick, who instructed me in advanced exercise physiology, evaluating patient biomechanics, and developing treatment plans to address their specific conditions. In addition, I learned ultrasound, electrical stimulation, and x-ray assistance.
College of Veterinary Medicine
Informal Student
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 1997 – 1998
At the Large Animal and Dog Rehabilitation Program, I worked with Dr Victor Shale at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine. He facilitated the opportunity for me to shadow a large animal cadaver class. In this class, I observed the dissection of a cow and horse. When comparing the anatomy of their structures and ours, and the therapies for the human body and large animals, I recognized how remarkably similar they are.
Chi Institute
Teaching Assistant
Gainesville, FL 1998
I worked with Dr Bruce Ferguson at the Chi Institute. I shadowed Dr Ferguson in many of his alternative medicine lectures and clinic. I learned about holistic treatments for large animals and pets and alternative nutrition options here.
Rehab and Movement Therapy for Horses
Therapy Assistant
Gainesville, FL 1998
I shadowed Betty Lindquist, LMT and Rehabilitation Therapist for racehorses in Ocala, FL. From here, I learned therapy and biomechanic assessment of horses and their jockeys. I worked with horses and jockeys to release athletic injuries and bring their bodies into balance. Based on her work, I developed TheraPetic Massage, post-surgical and rehabilitative massage techniques for large dogs that owners can do when bringing their animals home from surgery to help with the stress of the procedure and bond as they heal.
Golf and Tennis Specific Massage Therapist and Trainer
Gainesville, FL 1996 - present time
I worked with local country clubs (Haile Plantation Golf & Country Club, University of Florida, Gainesville Golf & Country Club, Meadowbrook Golf Club, and Ironwood) to provide therapy to players before, during, and after tournaments. Therapy results included pain relief, increased flexibility, and core strength. I built up half of my business to focus solely on professional and weekend golfers from this exposure.
University of Florida College of Medicine
Supplemental Educator, Research Student
Gainesville, FL 1995 – 2001
I taught Introduction to Alternative Medicine seminars to medical students. And in turn, they taught me how to research the role that tension plays in various disease conditions by going to the medical library and pulling journal articles.
I was particularly interested in the effects of muscle restriction on circulation to internal tissues, muscles, organs, bones, and hormonal production sites. I attended Anatomy and Physiology, Medical Terminology, and Cadaver classes at the medical school, sometimes just sitting in on classes, and other times bartering massage therapy sessions to professors in return for guidance in my research on the effect of circulation on health and disease. I also studied the effect of circulation on physical performance and healing.
Shands Hospital
Planning committe, and offered medical massage as a volunteer
Gainesville, FL 1996-2000
I served as a Member of the Board of Directors of the Arts in Medicine Department at Shands Hospital (link=http://www.shands.org/hospitals/UF/default.asp).
I developed a protocol to introduce Medical Massage Therapy to patients at Shands Hospital. Its purpose was to speed recovery, decrease pain, and improve the image of massage therapy in the medical field.
Sickle Cell Anemia Unit
I provided imagery and massage therapy to sickle cell anemia patients to facilitate healing and decrease pain. I derived techniques from the books and tapes of Martin Rossman, MD. I modified his approach to addressing the needs of the patients I was seeing. Here I learned how breathing, awareness, and intention could assist the body in healing and decreasing pain.
Developed Inner-Active TherapyTM Process 1999
After two years with Dr Bo and four years of medical specific training, research, and client experience, I developed The Inner Active TherapyTM modality. It combines guided awareness and reconnection techniques with gentle movements that engage the deeper stabilizing muscles and enhance the ROM of large muscle groups—placing the body in a state of optimal circulation and interconnectedness. Inner-Active TherapyTM focuses on reestablishing optimal circulatory flow through four significant zones within the body (I refer to these zones as the Power Zones) That harbor tension and restricted ROM and become the primary underlying precursors to disease and dysfunction.
American Cancer Society / Ronald McDonald House
Volunteer Massage and Self Care Speaker
Gainesville, FL 1998
I provided Inner-Active Therapy to increase circulation and decrease stress in patients at Ronald McDonald House while receiving cancer treatments. I provided self-health seminars to Ronald McDonald House staff.
Ag-el (Pronounced Agile) Foundations Self Care Video Series
Video Production
Gainesville, FL 2000
I wrote and produced a video of the foundational self-care movements and breathing exercises that release and reintegrate tension commonly held within the four power zones of the body. This video offered the basics that clients needed to be doing at home to support optimal circulation throughout their entire system.
- Practicing the Ag-el Foundational MovementsTM awakened the emotional and sensory systems of the body. This awakening spurred the next 20 years of personal growth and further clinical research and development to establish supportive processes of integration emotionally and spiritually. (later to be known as the InBodyMeant, and Divine InBodyMeant ModalitiesTM.)
University of Florida Men's Golf Team
Volunteer Coaching Assistant Offering Massage and Training
Gainesville, FL 2000 – 2001 season
As a volunteer assistant coach to head coach Buddy Alexander, I developed a training regimen to strengthen golf-specific movements. I offered a support role to players' rehabilitation for "overuse" injuries, such as injuries to the rotator cuff, low back, disc injuries, golfer's elbow, and neck injuries—accompanied the team to tournaments and practices and worked one-to-one with players.
Fibromyalgia, Ten-Week Study
Massage Therapist Speciality and Researcher
Gainesville, Fl 2000
I comprised a study of twelve Fibromyalgia patients. I focused on self-care techniques to be performed in the home daily. Eleven of the twelve participants completed the study. All of them felt that they had learned new tools to enhance the quality of their lives.
Symptoms impacted from the self-care routine included decreased chronic fatigue, less migrating pain, and in some of the cases, no pain for extended days at a time—a subtle shift in depression. They also became very aware of mental and emotional stressors they had been shoving down.
2000- 2004
The Fibromyalgia study piqued my interest in the link between emotions and muscles. I studied this connection over the next four years using as a baseline the research done by Dr Marty Rossman, Dr Candace B Pert, Tara Bennett Goleman, and Karla McClarin. I combined aspects of the techniques I developed for Inner Active Therapy and offered more holistic sessions.
Pregnancy Support Programs
Massage Therapy Specailty For All Stages of Pregnancy
Orlando, Fl 2006 – 2009
I developed a Premium Pregnancy Care Program that addresses the three stages of becoming a mother: Pregnancy, Labor and Delivery, and Recovery.
Pregnancy: During the pregnancy, I use specialized techniques that release the connective tissue around the pelvic girdle and rib cage while increasing the mother's strength and assisting in the baby's healthy growth.
Labour and Delivery: As a support member of the birth team, I developed movements and release techniques to assist the body in a gentle birth experience with decreased pain and tearing. I provided labour and delivery support at the following hospitals:
- Shands Hospital, Gainesville, FL
- Orlando Regional Medical Center, Orlando, FL
- Health Central, Orlando, FL
- Arnold Palmer Women's and Children's Hospital, Orlando, FL
Post-Pregnancy rehabilitation: After a women's body has gone through the changes of pregnancy, these techniques return the mother's body to the "pre-baby" body and rehabilitate any scar tissue from C-section or other pelvic imbalances.
Orlando Insight Meditation Group
Student of awareness, stillness, communication skills, and processing of mental stress
Orlando Fl, 2005- 2007
I spent two years studying with a Buddhist sanga group led by mental health counselor Peter Carlson in Winter Park, fl. Peter hosted mindfulness-based vipassana meditation and therapy classes. I attended silent retreats and learned Buddhist physiology basics and how your quality of self-relationship impacts your ability to process unprocessed stress in the mind and body. From my time with Dr Peter, I learned and applied the power of establishing pace and presence into my personal life and massage practice skills.
Developing A Greater Capacity To Connect Through Awareness and Communication Skills
Student of various educators
Orlando and Gainesville, Fl 2005
I studied and applied the work of Dr Martin Rossman, founder of non-violent communication and learned how powerful the correct languaging is in needs-based communication. Using his frame of reference, I've been able to position clients in relationship with their bodies to enjoy more connected outcomes rather than overpowering limiting situations. I found that this applies to your relationship with others and yourself. These perspectives were the basis for teaching my clients how to have a validating relationship with themselves and their bodies.
I began researching the parallels to Christian-based Contemplative Prayer developed by Father Richard Rohr and Father Thomas Keating at the Center for Action and Contemplation. These studies have taught me that the human condition of stress is universal. Beyond religion, we need awareness, stillness, and space to create health and balance as a human system. These key points have become a foundational element for my program.
What has been missing is in the "feeling." Our ability to feel or sense decreases as our stress increases. Decreased capacity to feel stunts our ability to heal, prosper, and thrive.
Breast Cancer Care
Massage Therapist Speciality
Orlando, Fl 2006 – Present
I developed rehabilitation techniques for scar tissue related to breast cancer and the reconstruction process. These techniques significantly decrease pain, assist the body's immune system, and return the patient to an increased range of motion and quality of life. Many body image challenges are healed in this process as well.
Updated and renamed The Inner-Active TherapyTM modality to
InBodyMeantTM Therapy. 2006
I combined awareness, relationship, and sensory work with the biomechanics of movement and massage techniques to align your system's mental and physical aspects for healing and integration.
InBodyMeant Therapy Training -
Power Zone 1: Head and Neck
Windermere, Fl 2007
Gainesville, Fl 2015-2016
I developed and taught a 64-hour head and cervical spine massage and rehabilitation course. I taught InBodyMeant Therapy students how to develop their feel and evaluate head and cervical dysfunction, assess medical history, locate current restriction and biomechanic imbalances, treat the imbalances, and provide individualized take-home exercises and self-care prescriptions for their clients. This series helps therapists support patients experiencing headaches, migraines, TMJ, head injury, stroke, coma, insomnia, vertigo, eye imbalances, MS, Parkinson's, Bell's Palsy, paralysis due to upper spinal cord injury.
InBodyMeant Therapy Training
Power Zone 2 - Clavicle and Shoulders
Windermere, Fl 2007
Gainesville, Fl 2015-2016
I developed and taught a 64-hour clavicle, shoulder, and upper rib treatment and rehabilitation course. I taught students how to evaluate upper torso dysfunction, evaluate medical history, locate current restriction and biomechanic imbalances, treat the imbalances and provide individualized take-home exercise prescriptions for their clients. This series helps therapists support patients experiencing lymphatic drainage issues, post-surgical care for the region of the throat, and upper chest, including breast and thyroid and throat cancer, a reconstruction therapy. It also dynamically supports anxiety and depression and restores ROM for post-car accident cases and whiplash.
InBodyMeant Therapy Training
Power Zone 3 - Diaphragm and Core Body Surgeries
Windermere, Fl 2007
Gainesville, Fl 2015-2016
I developed and taught a 64-hour Diaphragm and Core Body post-surgical treatment and rehabilitation course. Taught students how to evaluate abdominal dysfunction, evaluate medical history, locate current restriction and biomechanic imbalances, treat the imbalances and provide individualized take-home exercise prescriptions for their clients. This series helps therapists support patients experiencing limitations after abdominal surgeries such as colon stomach, liver cancers and treatments, colon removal, c-section, cosmetic surgery and reconstruction, and complications from weight-loss surgeries.
InBodyMeant Therapy Training
Power Zone 4 -Pelvis and Lower Back
Windermere, Fl 2007
Gainesville, Fl 2015-2016
I developed and taught a 64-hour course for Pelvis and Lower Back treatment and rehabilitation. I taught students how to evaluate dysfunction, evaluate medical history, locate current restrictions and biomechanical imbalances, treat the imbalances and provide individualized take-home exercise prescriptions for their clients. This series helps therapists support patients experiencing constraints after lower back injuries and surgeries. It also supports clients in chronic pain conditions, Parkinson's, MS, Paralysis, and leg amputation.
Medical Percussion Tools, and Training Protocols
Thumper Massager - developed trainnig 2011
Rapid Release Tool 2014
Theragun 2021
I developed protocols and training manuals for using percussion tools in the InBodyMeant approach. I taught both the practitioner and home user to work specifically with each of the four power zones to place them in an optimal position for rest and recovery. When used with the radically gentle process of the InBodyMeant approach, percussion tools also allow for a "first offering of release" to overwhelmed and sometimes traumatized tissues. These tools can speed up the body's ability to offload chronically held carbon dioxide to make space to receive fresh oxygen and vital nutrients and position the body to rest and recover.
Rebounder Protocols 2010 – Present
I developed a training manual for using rebounders as part of the InBodyMeant therapy approach to aid in learning how to increase your sensory awareness of held tension and restrictions in your four power zones and release them through the rebounding movements, optimizing lymphatic and circulatory flow. As well as creating a new muscle memory of letting go.
InBodyMeant Stress Integration Workbook and Audios
Produced Guided Audios and Workbook
Orlando, Fl 2012 - present
I developed mindfulness-based audios and videos that support clients in establishing knowledge of their stress states and how to relate to them so that their system can integrate the intensity and restore itself to a peaceful state.
Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute
Dr Peter Levine
Somatic Experiencing Practitioner 2017 – 2020
SE is a body-oriented therapeutic model applied in multiple medical professions. In SE, we focus on unaddressed trauma that impacts physical health, mental health, learning, education, and numerous aspects of life. This three-year certification empowers a therapist to create a supportive space for healing trauma. Trauma is a fact of life. It does not, however, have to be a life sentence.
2016 - present - Called Home Into Intimate Partnership With Our Living Triune Christ
I had a Christ awakening and a near-death experience that led to a complete co-resurrection of my life. The step-by-step co-resurrection occurred over five years and guided me through building a foundation to offer an invitation of active partnership with our Living Triune Christ to establish heaven here on earth.
Here is a small sample of the aspects of my life Jesus led me to bring into partnership with Christ. First, Jesus invited me to begin holding daily active participation classes online. Think of these as the next developmental step after prayer. The daily classes guide you in positioning yourself in a more mature relationship with Christ, one where Christ is inviting you to partner and participate with its living love to gather the corners of suffering alive within yourself. To begin this relationship, Jesus invited me to intuit the In-Christ Four-Part Participation Sessions. I did—every day now since 2016. I was also asked to shave my head. I did.
End my marriage of 10 years and transition into a co-parenting relationship. I did. Work daily privately and personally with the homeless, caring for them, washing their feet, and ensuring clean socks and food. I did. Give up all of my money and closed my professional office to work out of my home, only work with people who seek me out, no more business marketing, rather trust that God would provide. I did, and amazingly God did provide everything for me.
From my partnership with Christ, I co-resurrected all aspects of my life. And from there, I was ready to reenter the workspace with new skills and new collaboration in Christ and use the comprehensive knowledge of my life's work to serve God.
Hand and Stone Massage and Facial Spa
Medical Massage Therapist and Massage Therapy Manager
Gainesville, Fl 2021 – Present
I love this job more than any that I've had. This company and team of professionals have added so much to my life and heart. I am first a fellow therapist working alongside this fantastic team of massage therapists, estheticians, front desk and management teams. My goal in being here is to participate in the dynamics of our current fast-paced spa and massage industry and develop protocols to begin offering more complex medical and trauma-based sessions to the general public. How do we assemble whole-being health knowledge into trainable bite-sized pieces that can be learned and provided on a national and possible international scale? That is the current quest in my heart and soul. I am honored to be a part of this fantastic team and company.
Nationally Certified CBD Consultant 2021 – Present
Nationally Certified CBD Consultant
Through my affiliation and training with Hand and Stone, I initially learned about CBD. At first, I thought it was a gimmick. I am very pleasantly wrong about that. In my 30 years of working in the medical industry, I've never seen anything profoundly release tension, and inflammation, ease the experience of pain and support the body in recovery like CBD quickly does, on the spot, every time. I have also discovered a unique and simple way to apply it that enhances its effectiveness immediately. I became an advocate and got certified to become an educator as soon as possible.
I am currently working with local growers, suppliers, pharmacists, and other educators to develop protocols that bring the correct information about CBD to the general public and other therapists who are drawn.
Moving Forward 2022 -
I am in the process of completing various books and training to support therapists and self-care enthusiasts in their quest for optimal health and connection to their divine purpose.