The Passion Witch Project Episode 21: What Is This Sorcery? The Hidden World of Fascia

What happens when the pain is real—but no one can tell you why?

Before Leslie Fraser Breneman became an expert-level myofascial release therapist, she was a person with persistent neck pain who had tried just about everything. Traditional treatments hadn't helped. She'd been told there was nothing technically wrong. And yet, she still hurt.

Then one day, she climbed onto the treatment table of a woman who shared her office space. When the practitioner placed her hands on Leslie's abdomen, Leslie remembers thinking, essentially: The pain is in my neck, but sure. I'll play along with your little game. By the end of the session, her neck pain was gone. Her response? “What is this sorcery?”

Leslie has spent much of her life since then answering that question.

In this episode of The Passion Witch Project, Leslie introduces us to the extraordinary world of fascia: the interconnected meshwork she describes as the body's “fiber optic system”—liquid crystalline pathways through which our light travels. Because fascia is interconnected throughout the body, restriction in one place can create pulling, tension, and pain somewhere we might never expect.

We talk about what happens when the body knows something our conventional frameworks can't quite explain, how curiosity can turn a bewildering healing experience into a life's work, and what Leslie has learned through years of studying and practicing myofascial release. But Leslie's healing work extends beyond what happens on the treatment table.

She is also the steward of Rivermede Retreat, an idyllic property in York, Maine, that has stood since before the United States existed. Leslie grew up there and eventually returned as an adult to care for a home shaped by generations of her family's love and attention.

Today, Rivermede provides the setting for her healing practice—and is slowly revealing what else it might become.

This is a conversation about fascia, pain, curiosity, place, stewardship, and what can happen when something we don't understand works so beautifully that instead of dismissing it, we ask: What is this sorcery?

Find Leslie Fraser Breneman and Rivermede Retreat here: https://rivermederetreat.com/