I was that overweight teenager, feeling like an alien in my own skin. Today, I’m Mihaly (pronounced [ˈmiha:j]), a Deep Release Bodywork specialist with over 15 years of experience, guiding others to reconnect with their authentic selves. Born in Hungary and now living in London, here’s how personal struggle became my pathway to guiding others to heal.
The weight I carried wasn’t just physical—it was emotional armor, a manifestation of self-rejection tied to not accepting myself. I tried countless diets and exercise routines, but they always felt forced and unsustainable. Even when I achieved my “ideal” shape through these routines, it never lasted because I was chasing external validation rather than inner peace.
What shifted everything was discovering bodywork. Those first sessions taught me that healing isn’t about forcing change—it’s about creating space for natural transformation. Through receiving treatments, I finally connected with my body in a way that changed everything. I started to discover what was essential to me, and learned to let go of what wasn’t.
These experiences showed me that health isn’t just about ticking off a list of diets, workouts, and stretches. While those practices can be valuable, the key is finding joy in the journey, embracing what genuinely resonates, and not forcing myself into anything just for the sake of results. It’s a slow journey for me that I accept now.
Following the Signs
After high school, while everyone chased conventional success, something deeper called to me. Society’s expectations loomed large—get a degree, build a career, buy a house, find a partner. The pressure to follow this predetermined path felt suffocating. While others seemed to embrace these expectations, I dreamed of escaping to the Himalayas to meditate like the ancient yogis. I always felt drawn to helping others heal, though the ‘how’ remained a question.
I remember stepping into my tai chi master’s treatment room for the first time. The peaceful atmosphere, the scent of menthol, and something about the tangible presence of ancient wisdom there—it spoke to me deeply. I glimpsed something in that moment, not just as a career, but as a calling. My sifu, a martial arts master and gifted healer, introduced me to a world where real transformation was possible. This felt like my way of creating positive change, something that resonated with my soul.
My father wanted me to become an electrician—stable job, good income, secure future. But that moment in my sifu’s treatment room had awakened something that couldn’t be ignored. I decided not to follow expectations, fears, or limiting beliefs. The signs were everywhere, pointing in one direction. Even my name held a clue, Mihaly (Michael), asks “Who is like God?” Some interpret this as “there is none like God.” This duality sparked a deeper understanding of my path about helping people reconnect with their divine inner wisdom through healing touch.
Looking back, I notice interesting patterns. My astrological placement has Mars in Pisces—the sign of spiritual healing—connected to Gemini—the sign of hands—literally spelling out “healing through hands.” When I took the Clifton StrengthsFinder, my core strengths came up as Empathy, Belief, and Strategic Thinking—perfect qualities for therapeutic work. These weren’t just random discoveries but felt like confirmations that I was aligning with something already written in my being.
Ancient cultures believed that our talents are how the divine expresses itself through us. When I started massage school in 2010, everything clicked. I discovered my art—expressing myself through healing touch. People’s relief and connection became a beautiful byproduct of this artistic expression, doing what felt true.
My first professional experience was at a five-star Thermal Spa in Hungary. While it taught me valuable skills, I soon realized that following established protocols wasn’t enough. I needed to develop my own approach, one that could address the deeper layers of healing that clients were truly seeking.
Since beginning this journey, I’ve had the privilege of learning from true healers and masters around the world—and from my own injuries. I approach life like a scientist, stripping away the noise to focus on what works. This mindset drives my Deep Release Bodywork practice, where I combine intuitive touch with breathwork and mindful awareness.
Each modality I’ve studied, from Raynor Massage to Bowen Therapy, has deepened my understanding of how emotions, energy, and physical tension are intricately connected. As Einstein said, “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.” This humility drives me to keep studying, always deepening my understanding of how the body holds and releases its stories. Every client I work with becomes a teacher, showing me new dimensions of what it means to heal and reconnect with oneself.
Understanding Through Personal Experience
I know firsthand what it’s like to feel imprisoned in your own body. After a long day of work or hours at the computer, my shoulders pull me down like heavy weights, my neck stiffens, and headaches creep in. In these moments, the physical discomfort leads to everything else—negative thoughts spiral, emotions fluctuate wildly, and anxiety comes in. Sometimes, the tension feels so overwhelming that I wish I could trade my body for a new one.
During bodywork sessions, everything transforms. Under the care of expert, intuitive hands, my tension melts away, my thoughts slow down, and I enter a profound state of relaxation—as if floating between worlds—aware of my surroundings but completely disconnected from the physical tension. What feels like just five minutes turns out to be a 90-minute session, and when I come back to full awareness, it’s as if I have that new body I longed for: shoulders relaxed, neck liberated, back pain-free.
It’s not just about physical relief; it’s a journey inward through the layers of being—mental, emotional, and physical. Sometimes the process is challenging. Pain surfaces, my mind resists, and old wounds rise to the surface, reminding me of things I’ve suppressed or avoided. Yet, this is the path to my authenticity. Each session peels back another layer, leaving me freer, lighter, and more aligned with who I truly am.
These personal experiences of transformation deepen my understanding of what clients go through on their healing journey. This allows me to work intuitively, engaging with each person’s unique story and energy patterns rather than following rigid protocols.
The Nature of My Work
Every client is a unique canvas, each with different boundaries, physical limitations, and past experiences that color our present time together. Like an artist working with different mediums, I blend various techniques to create something personally meaningful for each individual.
During a session, you might feel deep pressure penetrating through layers of physical tension. Some clients experience waves of peace, others find clarity about old patterns. Each session is unique because every body holds its own story.
I believe we each have a unique purpose—our true calling. It’s not about changing the world through grand gestures, but about being authentically ourselves and finding what brings us into a flow state, what makes us come alive. For me, it’s through bodywork. I’m following my dharma, my Ikigai—that sweet spot where what I love, what I’m good at, what the world needs, and what I can be paid for all intersect.
A client once told me after a session, “I don’t feel like a human; I feel like a spirit.” That’s exactly what this work is about—returning to your natural state of wholeness, where body and spirit align perfectly. Until you’ve experienced that deep release, it’s hard to grasp the profound difference between carrying tension and living free from it.
Instead of telling you what to do, I believe in elevating your consciousness and creating the right conditions. In that higher awareness, you naturally know the right decisions to create a more just, abundant, and beautiful world. None of us are here by coincidence—your very presence is purposeful. The gifts, strengths, struggles, and passions within you are encoded there for a reason. They are your unique compass, guiding you toward your dharma—the essence of who you meant to be. You just need to let go of who you are not. There’s a phrase I keep coming back to “do your best and leave the rest”.
While discovering and embodying your dharma isn’t about instant gratification, it also isn’t abstract or out of reach. The work happens in the body, through lived experience. Bodywork offers tangible steps on this path of transformation—not by forcing change, but by creating the conditions where it can arise naturally.
What I’ve learned is that the body already knows what it’s doing. It doesn’t respond to pressure or persuasion, only to safety. Change arrives when the conditions are right, not when the mind decides it should. With steady presence and attentive care, something begins to move on its own—sometimes through words, and sometimes through quiet, physical contact. Healing unfolds in its own time, revealing itself gradually as trust is built.
This is where my deepest joy lives: in helping people reconnect with themselves and witnessing the shifts that follow. As calm replaces tension, focus sharpens, clarity returns, and a sense of responsibility and enthusiasm naturally emerges. Over time, it becomes clear that creating the life we long for isn’t about wishing or waiting for the universe to deliver it fully formed. It’s about showing up.
Transformation asks for action—consistent, deliberate, inspired action. Step by step, day by day, week by week, even the smallest choices begin to ripple outward. When those actions come from truth rather than force, real change doesn’t just happen—it lasts.
An Invitation to Reconnect
Between endless notifications, demanding schedules, and the relentless pressure to perform, we forget what it feels like to simply be — to pause, to breathe, to feel at home in our bodies. The constant buzz of technology and life’s overwhelming demands pull us in every direction, leaving little room for connection with ourselves.
Do you ever feel like you’re not living your life, just watching it like a movie? Like your body isn’t yours, overtaken by tension and aches, moving on its own while you feel far away from yourself? This disconnection is all too common in our modern world, but it doesn’t have to be your reality.
When was the last time you truly checked in with your well-being? Listened to what your body might be trying to tell you?
I invite you to pause, to take a moment for yourself. Perhaps your body is gently whispering that it needs a little care, a bit of relief, a chance to reconnect.
This is why I don’t offer instant fixes or miracle cures. Instead, I provide what I wish I’d found earlier in my own journey — a genuine path to transformation. Through gentle yet powerful bodywork and emotional release, you can rediscover what it feels like to be truly comfortable in your own skin.
This work invites us into territory that science has only begun to explore — spaces that can’t always be explained but are undeniably felt. Just as my own journey from that disconnected teenager to a healing practitioner has shown me, transformation is always possible when we create the right conditions for change.
What I’ve watched happen — not just physically but in how people carry themselves, relate to others, show up in their own lives — is that when the body finally gets to release what it’s been holding, something much bigger shifts. Not because I promised it would. Just because that’s what happens when we stop fighting ourselves.
This transformative journey wasn’t always clear or easy. I share the deeper parts of my story for those who know that real growth often comes through unexpected paths.
