The Wright Stretch & MELT Method
January 2025 | By Sarah Hodges
Leslie can remember massaging family members in pain when she was growing up. If her mom mentioned having back pain, young Leslie always could find the exact spot to bring relief. She could just sense it. Leslie cannot imagine not helping people in this way. “I have a natural tendency to want to help people who are hurting physically,” explains Leslie. “It’s like breathing, and if I don’t do it I’m not happy.” As we’ll see, Leslie ran into trouble being in her “happy place” about five years back.
Healing runs in Leslie’s family. Her aunt, Ann Frederick, is the founder of Stretch to Win in Arizona, a method for bringing health to the body’s fascia. This method now includes thousands of trained practitioners worldwide. Leslie’s aunt worked on Olympic athletes and with NFL teams, ballerinas and athletes like Mike Tyson.
In 2004, after graduating from Northwest School of Massage, a timely phone call with her aunt landed Leslie in Arizona to learn her aunt’s innovative fascia-focused technique. Over the following years, Leslie Wright developed her own bodywork method, the Wright Stretch, and opened a vibrant private practice in Seattle.
Then in 2020, major changes in the world called for social distancing, putting many bodyworkers out of business. Leslie suddenly discovered she could no longer touch her clients.
How was Leslie going to do the healing work she was born to do?
One afternoon during an online search Leslie stumbled across something called MELT, a self-care modality that focuses on working with fascia. A spontaneous moment of recognition – just what she was looking for!
Somewhat like Feldenkrais, MELT instructors guide their movers to heal themselves and work on their own connective tissue through specific self-massage techniques with soft balls and rollers. Leslie immediately signed up for the first level of online instruction which focused on hands and feet. After day one of the training, from only working on the fascia in her foot she felt a dramatic shift throughout her entire body, much like that full-body ease that happens after a great massage.
Leslie knew she’d landed on something good. With MELT instruction from a distance, Leslie could help her clients heal themselves!
Just before this series of events, Leslie and the kids moved to O’ahu with her husband for his new military post. She dove into learning the MELT Method and within the next year became a certified MELT Instructor. As if life had already planned this path for her, Still & Moving called Leslie one day not long after she completed the training. Though she had not heard of our center before, she eagerly responded to the request for a MELT substitute teacher.
Soon, Leslie increased her involvement with Still & Moving Center’s MELT classes. She also began offering the Wright Stretch at the Center for clients who wanted to have one-on-one bodywork. Leslie was overjoyed to be back offering this hands-on technique.
As Leslie’s time neared to leave O’ahu and head to her family’s permanent home in Wyoming, Still & Moving welcomed Leslie to teach weekly MELT classes. Thanks to Still & Moving’s live-streamed class option, Leslie is able to teach MELT from Wyoming. In these classes, her students can go in person to the studio and use MELT foam rollers at the Center or take classes from their own living rooms.
Leslie was thrilled to attend the Academy of Mindful Movement Instructor Level 1 training this past year and now adds valuable principles from the Academy. “As a bodyworker, I was used to working with people one-on-one,” says Leslie. “The Academy gave me a greater perspective on how to teach groups, and how to apply therapy while looking at the whole human being – self, body, mind, emotions.”
“I loved the playful element,” Leslie reflects. “At first I thought, What does this mean to “play” while I’m teaching? I was used to structure and schedule, and being serious with work. Studying at the Academy changed not only how I approach things as a teacher, but also how I experience other parts of my life.”
Since the training, Leslie often turns simple tasks like laundry or vacuuming into a game. She sometimes turns a drive to the store into an adventure with her kids, finding a new route just to see where the road will lead. “The Academy has served as a beautiful reminder to open to curiosity both while I’m teaching and when I’m outside of the studio,” says Leslie.
Learn more about Leslie’s work here: thewrightstretch.com





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