EP# 239: Healing Hands: Stephen Opper's Journey Through Pain to Performance

What makes Stephen Opper with Asheville Pain and Performance a good neighbor?

Ever wondered if the pain you're living with is truly permanent? In this revealing conversation, Stephen Opper of Asheville Pain and Performance challenges the notion that chronic discomfort is something we must simply accept.

Stephen takes us through his unexpected journey into medical massage and bodywork, which began with his fascination with Chinese medicine and evolved through his own struggle with debilitating back pain. "I'd been an athlete and a martial artist and a movement artist my whole life," he shares, explaining how his personal experience transformed his professional approach. After suffering a back injury that left him bedridden for weeks and unable to work for months, Stephen had to reevaluate everything he thought he knew about healing. The result? A deeper, more nuanced understanding of pain relief that has allowed him to help countless others find their way back to comfort and function.

Throughout our conversation, Stephen clarifies important distinctions between relaxation massage and the medical bodywork he practices. His work focuses specifically on treating pain and supporting injury recovery rather than providing spa-like experiences. Most importantly, he offers hope to those who have resigned themselves to living with discomfort: "For most people, there's a way out of pain." His own journey from chronic suffering to being "virtually pain-free" stands as powerful testimony to the healing potential of specialized bodywork when conventional approaches fall short.

Whether you're currently struggling with pain or simply curious about alternative approaches to healing, Stephen's perspective may open your eyes to possibilities you hadn't considered. As he wisely advises, "If you haven't got what you need, keep looking, because it's probably out there." Ready to explore what medical massage might do for your pain? Connect with Stephen through his website at AshevillePainAndPerformance.com or call 828-231-5031.

To learn more about Asheville Pain and Performance go to:

https://www.ashevillepainandperformance.com/

Asheville Pain and Performance 

[phone]

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Skip Monty.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Good Neighbor
Podcast.
So today we've got a veryspecial guest in the studio with
us and I'm very excited tolearn all about them and their
business.
And I'm sure you will be too,because today I have the
pleasure of introducing yourgood neighbor, Mr Stephen Opper,
who is the owner-operator ofAsheville Pain and Performance.

(00:30):
Stephen, welcome to the show.
Thanks a lot.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Skip, glad to be here .
Appreciate you reaching out.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Absolutely.
Like I said, we're very excitedto hear all about you and
Asheville, pain and Performance.
So if you don't mind, why don'tyou kick us off by telling us
what you do?

Speaker 3 (00:46):
All right, asheville, pain and Performance is just me
.
I perform medical massage.
I do deep tissue body work forpain relief, injury recovery and
just general maintenance Anumber of different courses of

(01:08):
study and things in mybackground, but I like helping
people In particular.
I like helping them get out ofpain and recover from injuries,
but certainly nothing needs tobe talking too loudly.
I just like getting to work andfinding where things can be
improved.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Very good, very good.
Well, how exactly did you getinto this business, stephen?

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Sort of by accident Back.
I think it was 97, I went toschool and it was a Tweenaw
school.
Tweenaw is basically thebodywork portion of Chinese
medicine and I was justfascinated with Chinese medicine
and Chinese culture at the timeand thought it would be a good

(01:57):
thing to learn.
And by the time I finishedschool I had I had my, my eldest
, my daughter, on the way.
So I decided I just goteducated for this, might as well
start practicing it.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
There you go Well in the pain and performance massage
business.
What are some myths ormisconceptions?
I'm sure there are some in yourindustry.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah, there are plenty, and part of that is
because there's a lot ofdifferent types of massage and
body work, so if you're lookingfor one but you get the other,
that can be a little frustrating.
I don't think a lot of peopleunderstand how profoundly the
right type of body work can helpwith pain and recovery, and so

(02:44):
that's kind of an area that alot of people have a little bit
of a blind spot to, and that'swhat I like to focus on.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Awesome.
So, and you say body work, doesthat differ from just massage
in general, or is that justanother term for massage?

Speaker 3 (03:04):
That's a good question.
Yeah, thanks for asking,because it is.
We use the terms fairlyinterchangeably.
Um, massage just tends to givea little bit more of the idea of
a nice relaxing um, you know,experience, you know nice music,
scented candles, that sort ofthing, which is wonderful, but

(03:26):
it's a little different fromwhat I do.
But the terms areinterchangeable.
The license is massage and bodywork.
It's kind of just to cover thewhole gamut of things.
I tend to use the word bodywork, but they're totally
interchangeable terms.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Good to know.
So does it well, well, a littledeeper than that?
Does body work relate more tolike closer to physical therapy,
or is that part of the bodywork as well?

Speaker 3 (03:54):
that's how a lot of us use it, and certainly
physical therapists can dohands-on and manual therapy, and
I'm actually not certain howthey tend to refer to it.
I don't believe they usuallyrefer to it as massage, but it
all falls under the samecategory of hands-on manual

(04:16):
therapy, and so most of us whouse the word body work are
talking about something a littlebit more on the medical side of
things.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Good to know.
So, outside of work, stephen,if there is time outside of work
, what do you like to do for fun?

Speaker 3 (04:34):
Outside of work.
Well, I love these mountains.
I get in them less than I'dlike to, but a lot more than if
I did live somewhere else,that's for sure, Trying to spend
a little bit more time in therethis summer.
I've also got five kids, threeby blood and two stepkids, and

(04:54):
they're fantastic.
I'm kind of at the tail end ofraising them.
I've only got one left in highschool and the rest are all
graduated and they come and go,but they're less here than they
used to be.
So you know, my wife and I areentering that phase of life

(05:16):
where we start having time again, so we're going to figure out
what to do with it again, sowe're going to figure out what
to do with it.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
Almost empty nest.
I'm with you, brother.
I got five kids as well.
My wife blended family.
My wife had three, I had twoand, yeah, we love spending time
with them and that's always theright answer is spending time
with family.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
That's.
That's a lot.
There aren't.
I haven't encountered too manypeople in a similar situation.
Yeah, that's that.
We're in the exact samesituation.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yep, that's right.
So a question can you describea hardship or a life challenge
that you've overcome and how itmade you stronger in the end?

Speaker 3 (05:58):
Oh sure, you know.
One is, you know, just asrelates to my work was, you know
, having a back injury.
And it kind of happened in acouple phases.
You know, I first injured myback when I was 22.
And it was, ironically, just acouple weeks before I was

(06:18):
finishing school for body work,weeks before I was finishing
school for body work, and eventhough I was, you know, going to
school, you know, for this Ihadn't really had, I'd been an
athlete and a martial artist anda movement artist my whole life
, you know, and that was part ofhow I got interested in just
the body and how it functions.
But I never had any pain.
That, you know, didn't resolveitself in a few days.
And so when I was 22, Isprained my back pretty good and
it wasn't catastrophic, but itjust didn't resolve itself in a

(06:39):
few days.
And so when I was 22, Isprained my back pretty good and
it wasn't catastrophic, but itjust didn't go away.
It was every night, fallingasleep for years, oh man, my
back hurts.
Every morning waking up, oh man, my back hurts.
And then usually if I got warm,I was okay, you know, for for
most of the day.

(07:00):
And you know, and that was along process of finding
different people to try to helpme, seeing what works, seeing
what didn't work, and I got to agood plateau where I was mostly
pain-free, but a few.
You know, two or three times ayear I would do something and I
couldn't get out of bed for acouple of days.
And you know, in retrospect Icouldn't get out of bed for a

(07:20):
couple of days.
And in retrospect obviouslythat means there's still a lot
of work to do.
But it took a lot of work tokind of get to that point and I
thought, well, maybe this ismaybe I just have to accept this
.
And then one day I decided myback was flaring up and I said
I'll take my own advice.
So I went to go see somebodyfor help and I walked in with

(07:43):
back pain and walked out withdisc bulging on my spine and so
that was a whole other level ofpain and just dysfunction.
Things just didn't work.
It's one thing to push throughpain, but when things don't work
you can't do anything about it.
So I was basically bedriddenfor three weeks, couldn't work

(08:03):
for about six months and then Icould only work part-time for
about six more months.
And you know, it was ironicbecause I'd been doing body work
professionally, helping peoplewith their bodies, studying the
body.
I'd been, you know, moving in mybody and teaching people
movement practices, you knowmoving in my body and teaching
people movement practices, and Iknew I had issues, and that's

(08:24):
part of why I did, you know, somany therapeutic movement
practices, but I didn't realizehow close to the edge of a cliff
I was standing, and then I kindof fell off the cliff and so
what it did, you know, at thetime I wasn't exactly happy
about it, but I had to kind ofalmost go back to the drawing
board and say, ok, some of thethings I know are correct and

(08:45):
some of them are clearlyincorrect.
And for a while, you know, Iwas just trying to figure out
which was correct and incorrect.
What did I understand correctlyand where were the big blind
spots I'd been missing, and so Ilearned a lot from that
experience.
Were the big blind spots I'dbeen missing, and so I learned a
lot from that experience?
You know, happy to say my backis in better shape now than it

(09:06):
has been since before.
You know the injury.
You know I'm virtually painfree.
We all have our kind of weakestlink, but you know, most days
my back doesn't bother me in theleast.
But I had to really kind ofreevaluate a lot of what I
thought I knew, and soultimately I'm grateful for what

(09:32):
I've learned because of it.
At the time I wouldn't havewillingly gone through that for
some knowledge, but inretrospect I'm incredibly
grateful for the knowledge Igained from that.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Well, that's good news that you're paying free
virtually, and of course, we'reall, like you said, not not
paying free, but especiallyaround my age.
But but that's great and andand I I'm sure serves as
motivation for you to helpothers to deal with the same
thing.

Speaker 3 (09:59):
Absolutely.
And you know, especially onceyou know, I started making it
out the other side and going, oh, this can actually heal, this
can keep healing, this can healbeyond where I thought was an
acceptable plateau.
You know, and so that hasallowed me to see you know, that

(10:21):
for most people there's a wayout of pain.
Sometimes, you know, sometimes,honestly, all we can do is
diminish pain, and often there'sa way completely out of pain,
and so it takes persistence.
But it's, having seen it bothin myself and in others, I have
a lot more faith in that process.
Awesome.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Awesome.
Well, stephen, if you couldthink of one thing you would
like our listeners to rememberabout Asheville pain and
performance what would that be?

Speaker 3 (10:53):
Well, I guess the first thing would just be to
remember that I'm here andavailable and very happy to help
people with, you know, bodyissues they want to improve with
.
I'm in the Asheville area.
I know some of you all are alittle farther, but not just me.
Like I said, there's greatpractitioners of all sorts and

(11:17):
sometimes if you're working withsomebody and it's not giving
you what you need, there's otherfolks to try.
You know.
There's, I know, incrediblepeople who are really good at
helping some folks, but theycan't help everybody and
unfortunately that's that's.
That's true for all of us.
And so you know, like I wassaying, I kind of foolishly

(11:38):
accepted living with a good dealof pain and discomfort, and it
was years later that I actuallygot the help I needed to get all
the way out of it, and so Ijust want to remind people that
the same is true for most of us.
You know, if you haven't gotwhat you need, keep looking,
because it's probably out there.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
Keep looking.
The solution's out there andone of them is Asheville Pain
and Performance.
So for those of us listenerswho are interested and are in
pain and need help and, by theway, we do have listeners all
across Western North Carolinaand East Tennessee, so we're not
that far away how can theylearn more about what you offer?

Speaker 3 (12:21):
You can go to my website, which is
AshevillePainAndPerformancecom,and I've got some write-ups and
things that describe a littlebit about my background and my
approach, and you're alwayswelcome to call or text me at
828-231-5031.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
Very good 831-5031.
Very good Well, stephen, Ican't tell you how much I
appreciate you taking time outof your busy schedule to talk
with us and our listeners allabout what you do, and thank you
for what you do for gettingpeople out of pain.
That's something that a lot ofpeople live with and I think
you're right they don't realizethere's opportunities there to

(13:01):
change that.
So thank you so much for thatand we wish you and your family
and all five of your kids andyour business all the best
moving forward.

Speaker 3 (13:13):
Thank you, Skip.
I appreciate the time andopportunity.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Absolutely, absolutely, and maybe we can
have you back on the showsometime in the future that'd be
fantastic, all right.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
Thanks so much thank you for listening to the good
neighbor podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go to gnptry-citiescom.
That's gnp try-citiescom, orcall 423-719-5873.