Licensed Massage Therapist
Bill first became associated with Stretching Your Life when Kim Ortloff, assisted by Jenn Bendfelt, agreed to supervise a massage therapy apprenticeship program for him in 2015. This was a dream come true for Bill, whose life-long relationship with massage began when his dad would rub out his childhood leg cramps, and has continued to the present day, as it helps to keep him running and swimming! The benefits Bill has derived from bodywork also inspired him to share the gift of massage with others, and for many years he would do informal seated massage on the tight shoulders and necks of appreciative friends and co-workers. Still, he wanted to do more.
For a large segment of his life, Bill’s many interests and commitments kept him from taking massage any further than that. For 30 years, he taught special education at Leon County’s Gretchen Everhart School, and was dedicated to expanding his students’ life experiences. He met his wife , Lynn, a physical therapist at Everhart, in 1983. They married, and became quite busy raising two boys, Christopher and Michael, now adults. In addition, as a competitive endurance athlete, Bill’s daily running, swimming, or biking training took considerable time and energy. An avid performing musician his entire adult life, Bill also squeezed frequent band rehearsals and gigs into his schedule. For over 50 consecutive years, he was never NOT in a band!
When Bill retired from teaching in 2014, the resulting free time felt more like a beginning than an ending. It enabled him to complete his apprenticeship with Kim and Jenn in February, 2017, and after three months studying for the massage therapy boards, he received his license in June; he was finally a massage therapist! Kim’s generosity proved to extend far beyond mentoring Bill through his apprenticeship; she and Jenn basically adopted him into the Stretching Your Life family, sharing office space with him, and involving him in their work. At the office, he has done massage, stretching, and laser therapy with clients, helped Jenn conduct active isolated stretching classes on Monday evenings, and assisted her with outreach at sites like FSU, Maclay School, and the Senior Center. Bill has been part of the SYL team at annual running events like the Tallahassee Marathon and the Run for Lawson, and more recently has been individually representing SYL at many popular local races.
Bill is forever indebted to Stretching Your Life for making it possible for him to do what he now does. As Bill himself says: “Being a massage therapist is all I ever hoped it would be, and so much more is possible. I am so fortunate to have the privilege of working with people and their bodies; I can’t imagine anything more fulfilling!”
