Meant to be: Logsdon sees continued growth with Free Your Mind, Body and Soul Wellness

Melissa Logsdon was a stay-at-home mother for a time after her son, Jansen Lewis, was placed on life support for a traumatic brain injury caused by shaken baby syndrome in December 2014.

However the 40-year-old Owensboro resident, who opened up Free Your Mind, Body and Soul Wellness over six years ago, seemed to have an inkling for the healthcare profession.

“... I was an administrative assistant at … the Carmel Home here in town,” she said. “Medical’s always kind of been my passion. … I had always wanted to be into body work, and helping people (with) pain relief (and) things like that.”

Following her son’s injury, Logsdon began to look for alternative medicine routes and found success with fish oil before continuing to explore other treatment possibilities.

While Lewis was receiving physical therapy in Winter Park, Florida, Logsdon found out about float pods — which were in abundance throughout that area.

“I had taken (Jansen) to a couple of sessions while we were there in Florida and I saw some benefit from it,” Logsdon said. “... It is about 10 inches of water and about 1,000 pounds of magnesium sulfate, so it’s this environment where you’re completely weightless. … The goal is to try to get to no lights, no sound, no nothing and there’s a sensory deprivation part of it where it just allows your brain to focus internally and shut down all the external stimulation and really feel, heal and work on itself.

“Muscle spasticity is a lot much controllable (for Jansen),” she said. “He seems to focus a lot more after having a session (that) can last for a week or two afterwards.”

When Logsdon and her son came back home, she had Lewis continue float therapy — which involves floating in a water-filled sensory deprivation tank, according to Health.com — by making trips out in Nashville, which she said was the closest city that offered that type of service at the time.

“... I was like, ‘I really just want this for us,’ ” she said.

By chance, during a trip to Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari in Santa Claus, Indiana, Logsdon encountered a married couple where the husband was the manufacturer of float pods.

Logsdon felt this wasn’t a coincidence.

“... I (was) bouncing around the idea, but being a stay-at-home and trying to start up a business … just sounded a little insane,” she said, “but things just kept on happening and it led me to opening and doing it.”

Logsdon eventually connected with an entity that was going out of business to acquire two pods and went through Lowe’s Home Improvement in Madisonville for financing.

“I found a lady over in Madisonville who was just in love with the thought of everything and how everything was falling into place,” she said. “She worked with management and I put it all on the lowest credit card to do the build-out.”

Logsdon opened Free Your Mind, Body and Soul Wellness in April 2018, which offers float therapy along with infrared sauna with chromotherapy, ionic foot detox, Reiki and foot reflexology, chi machine and massage therapy — the latter being something Logsdon recently went to school for and added to the catalog.

Additionally, the business features Myofascial release — a practice that Logsdon said Lewis’ therapist in Florida would conduct an hour before a session.

“That’s my No. 1 that most people come in for,” Logsdon said. “... It can take a couple of sessions, but it has helped people stay away from surgeries and just really helped with their daily life and mobility.”

Logsdon said growth in clientele has been “steady” and “a blessing,” becoming completely debt-free right at the business’ three-year mark.

And she finds that she still gets an opportunity to teach people about float therapy for the first time.

“There’s still a lot of people that don’t even know what it is (and) are not very familiar with,” Logsdon said. “... But people really, really love it.”

Getting the chance to help people is a “very rewarding” endeavor, Logsdon said.

“... This is what I was supposed to be doing,” she said.

Free Your Mind, Body and Soul Wellness is located at 2845 W Parrish Ave., Suite G.

For information and to book an appointment, visit fymwellness.com or facebook.com/FYMWellness.