It was 14 years ago, but Deanna Hansen vividly remembers the moment that changed her life for the better.

Hansen had a solid practice as a certified athletic therapist, but she suffered back pain, was 50 pounds overweight and her personal life wasn't good.

"I had issues with anxiety, constipation and depression," recalled Hansen, 44.

Hansen was 30 when she had a severe anxiety attack. She instinctively pushed her hand into her belly to check on her breathing. She found it was layered in scar tissue -- the result of years of poor posture and breathing, she said.

"I had been a deep tissue worker for five years at that point, so I totally understood what scar tissue felt like under my fingertips," she said. "I'm moving my fingers around my belly ... and there was tons of scar tissue there."

Hansen felt she had the answer as to why all her five-mile runs didn't reduce her belly size.

"There was no blood flow getting to this tissue to metabolize it," she explained.

That night Hansen spent 45 minutes working on her belly with her hands, just as she would any scar tissue.

She was sore the next day but worked the area again for another 45 minutes. At the end of the two days she was stunned at what she saw in the mirror. Her belly was flatter and she was standing taller.

"Within two weeks my low back pain was gone, my constipation was improving, I was feeling joy in life for the first time in years," she said.

"I started flipping my patients on to their back and working on their belly ... For me, this was always a technique I did on myself and translated into patients."

Hansen feels better than she did in her 20s and has a range of flexibility that rivals a teenaged gymnast.

Six months ago she altered the focus of her Fluid Isometrics practice. She now teaches "block therapy," much like a yoga class. Instead of using her hands on patients, she has them do a variety of stretches and exercises with a "block buddy," a wooden block designed to fit the contours of a body to melt the scar tissue that leads to pain.

"I figured out how to teach people how to lie over the block, using their body weight and gravity to get the same effect when I was using my hands," said Hansen, who has three therapists trained in her technique.

Whether clients suffer pain in their back or neck, most ailments need to be treated in the body's core as a result of how people "collapse into themselves," she said.

"Nobody is breathing properly," she said. "When we breathe diaphragmatically, we feed the body 600% more oxygen than when we breathe through the muscles in the upper chest.

"If you look at a healthy baby when they're born, they breathe through their belly. Over time as we age we lose that breath, because pain, fear and stress causes us to reactively hold the breath, so we start breathing through the muscles in the chest, but that only pulls in a fraction of the oxygen that our body actually requires."

Hansen's clients range from young athletes recovering from acute injuries to seniors striving for more mobility. Her nephew, Quinn Castelane, 19, became one of her teachers on his way to a remarkable physique.

"He's an all-natural bodybuilder," she said. "All he does is work out and do block. He takes no supplements."

For more details on Hansen and where her classes are offered, go to www.fluidisometrics.com.