The Stretch LOFT A New Black-Owned Healing Therapy on the Rise

Article by: Aya Furin-Campbell

Photography by Tracey M. Connor

The Stretch Loft is a health and wellness center that provides holistic treatment for a wide variety of setbacks and strives to improve its patients’ overall well-being through the art of stretching. Practitioners of The Stretch Loft aim to address stored trauma, stress, and anxiety in the body and release and heal it in order to create positive changes for their patients not only physically, but mentally and emotionally as well.

Ben Atanga, the owner of The Stretch Loft, began his practice in 2020 in Prince George’s County, Maryland to begin his healing work in a predominately Black community. Atanga has had his own life changed by stretch therapy, and this is what ignited his passion and gave him the idea to begin helping change the lives of others with this process.

After an injury to his foot that began to affect the rest of his body and overall health, Atanga tried many traditional routes of healing but continued to suffer from the effects of his injury. A stretching trainer noticed that he was suffering from a long-term injury by the way that Atanga was walking, stretched him, and essentially changed his life for the better. From that point on, Atanga became certified in stretching mobility and began to learn about the vast benefits of stretch therapy. “When I started to apply the techniques I was learning on my clients, they were having the exact same results,” Atanga said, “They felt like I was giving them their life back, like they were healing.”

One of the many reasons stretch therapy is so successful is because it addresses the body and mind as a whole, instead of focusing on one specific area. The Stretch Loft provides full body services because “the site of the pain may not be the source”. Mental trauma stores itself in your body, giving it the potential to cause the same negative effects as physical trauma. In speaking on the importance of addressing and healing these setbacks and trauma, Atanaga said, “All that [trauma] is stored memory and all that restricts you from being able to live free. It impacts the way we think, impacts the way we process things mentally and emotionally, impacts the way we rest, and it actually impacts our internal health.”

When the Covid-19 pandemic began, many people were negatively impacted by the trials and tribulations of living through a global pandemic. Atanga began mobile stretch therapy services in order to help people at this point in time, before eventually creating The Stretch Loft. A year later, The Stretch Loft Academy was created to train, mentor, and educate practitioners on the art of stretch therapy, online and in person. “I want to provide a gateway for people who are in wellness to take part in this,” Atanga said, in speaking on the importance of the academy.

Every practitioner in The Stretch Loft has been trained by The Stretch Loft Academy, which is providing a way to expand stretch therapy throughout the country. The Stretch Loft in Prince George’s County has also incorporated massage therapy into their practices, as well as mobile services up to 25 miles from the studio. Soon, there will be multiple new Stretch Loft locations throughout the United States.

In the last two and a half years, The Stretch Loft has had over 5,000 patients and certified around 100 practitioners from different parts of the country who are now able to practice stretch therapy in their own communities. “What makes this all happen is the team that I have around me,” Atanga said, “I started this journey alone and along the way, I’ve attracted different people from different walks of life.” As the staff of The Stretch Loft continues to grow and more and more people begin to find out about the benefits of stretch therapy, Atanga hopes that this practice will continue to spread to give more people relief in their daily lives. “Our goal is to spread this work and have everyone experience it,” he said.

As a newcomer to The Stretch Loft, a consultation and an assessment, as well as an explanation about the benefits of stretch therapy will be provided. This helps new members to identify where they are storing tension and gives stretch therapy practitioners an idea of where to start for their personalized stretch therapy.

The member retention that The Stretch Loft maintains as well as the large influx of new members and practitioners speaks for itself. “The most rewarding thing is giving people hope.” Atanga said, “When people experience themselves newly again after getting that stretch, I think that’s the most rewarding thing.”

For more information on The Stretch Loft, visit their website at thestretchloft.com. The Stretch Loft Academy website will be up and running within the next couple of weeks as well for anyone interested in beginning their journey practicing stretch therapy. “This is something that you need the rest of your life,” Atanga said, “This is the secret sauce, this is the magic pill.”