Hello, my name is Ian Brooks. I grew up on Bainbridge Island WA, quickly discovering a love of moving my body in the realms of martial arts and mountain biking. While interested in most everything, I felt confident and excited about math and science classes. I enjoyed a smooth social transition from home schooling through elementary years, then private middle school, and finally public high school.

After High School I bounced around a couple colleges before realizing it wasn’t for me at that time: thus began my adventurous education. With the help of Amazon, public libraries, and countless book stores I searched through philosophy, science, mysticism, poetry, novels, and alternative thought in general, searching for something unknown. . .

After two years in San Fran sandwiching a month long Amtrak trip around the USA, I discovered Christopher Hyatt’s Radical Undoing (RUDY). This work evolved from Wilhelm Reich’s early efforts in developing a body-based psychotherapy. Today, this work might be called Somatic Therapy. It has many aims, and could rightfully be called a system of awakening. One of its’ primary aims is breaking down or “un-doing” the neuromuscular patterns innate to each of us. I later discovered these patterns, and their distortions, form the basis of health, from spirituality to psyche to skeleton to soft tissues. Practicing this work helped open a new vision of myself, my life, and the universe.

I was ready to move back home and start searching for a career. RUDY transformed my reality and was useful to me, but wasn’t the end of my search, just a turning point. My sister convinced me to try a personal training school since I had been interested in strength training (especially kettlebells) since ~age 10, experimenting with various ways of training the body. I enrolled in the National Personal Training Institute (NPTI) of Seattle and enjoyed learning more about the body and the science of training, but knew I was not done with my professional education. Luckily, my father and sister stumbled upon a Kettlebell training studio on the Island. I went there for a shadowing assignment for NPTI and ended up watching the lead trainer practice Neurosomatic Therapy (NST). My jaw was on the floor, my brain exploding in the best way possible while listening to the elegantly simple explanations for working each muscle or tissue. I was hooked. Next week, they told me the NST experts were looking for students interested in attending a new school starting in Florida in 2 months and scholarships were available!

After some hesitation, I jumped at the opportunity, flying to Florida with my life in a couple bags and a determination to learn what I could. The next 18 months were educational, fulfilling, stressful and transformative. . . I even made it to the beach a few times! I am and will be forever grateful to everyone at the Center for Neurosomatic Studies in Clearwater, Florida for the scholarship and all the time and energy they gave in helping me learn this most valuable work. I came away with a transformed perspective on health, how bodies work, and the world in general! During this time I also trained for and earned my RKC instructor certification, a goal of mine for over a decade. While my training has evolved since then, many of the core principles I learned from the kettlebell world growing up are still central to my approach to strength today.

Over the last 10 years since graduating from CNS, I have worked at a number of places, trying to gain experience and understand where I fit into the massage field and health care industry as a whole. At this point, owning/running my own business is the best fit for me. This allows me the freedom to help people in the most effective way I know how. My approach to helping others mirrors my personal approach to health care: maximizing personal freedom and responsibility. My goal is to help you become more and more free to manage your relationship with your body. Everyone has different ways of doing this and level of interest in this path. If you choose to work with me, I hope to help you learn more about your body and become more able to manage your symptoms with the amount of time/energy you have to put towards that task. For some that’s booking regular sessions with me and doing 10 min of stretching every other day. For others that’s working on your alignment 30 minutes per day and altering the form of various exercises performed. You get to decide your own level of engagement, and I will try my best to meet you where you are at.

On Training: While I do not offer traditional training options, my background in movement and posture is deep and broad. I have been certified as a NASM CPT, RKC instructor, and trained with the Weck method rotational movement course. I helped teach a Personal Training course at the Bodymechanics Institute and helped develop and teach a Corrective Exercise course there as well before moving on. I began my movement journey in Martial Arts at age 8, learning a variety of styles for 7 years and earning my black belt before moving on to the next adventure. All of these varied experiences have helped me understand the human movement system in a variety of lenses, and help me understand posture and movement in each of my sessions. Currently, I am exploring Arm Wrestling and practice Paratheatre alone when I find time.

Check out my blog for my latest movement/embodiment practices, astrology articles, self-care ideas, poetry, or whatever else I have needed to write about.