Bob Gardner

Founder and Chief Freedom Specialist
STICK Work™, Breath, and Movement Trainer
Process Development
Public Outreach

Bob Gardner is the Founder of The Freedom Specialist, a body-based approach to happiness, health, and well-being. He is also the author of the book Built for Freedom and host of the podcast Alive and Free. As a Transformational Specialist Bob’s aim is to share his unique tools with the world that help them find happiness, health, and well-being on autopilot.

After 18 years of being trapped in addictive patterns, and on the brink of both divorce and suicide, something inside Bob told him it was not time to quit just yet. So, against the prevailing wisdom that said these problems are permanent, Bob chose to create a way to permanently eliminate them from his life.

His body-based, no-nonsense approach to freedom has since helped thousands of people leave their struggles behind and find real freedom and happiness. In addition, Bob’s intensive power packed in-person retreats, transformational coaching, and online resources have supported people struggling with everything from chronic pain, anxiety, depression, PTSD, childhood wounds, addictions, OCD, and a host of other physical, mental, and emotional struggles so they can finally take their life back and begin to thrive again.

For the past 15 years, Bob has traveled the globe, incorporating the tools and knowledge gained from his years of martial arts, breathwork, functional psychology, deep tissue release and numerous other healing modalities to help thousands of people permanently put an end depression, anxiety, and addiction by identifying and healing what's at the core of these issues.

As he often says, “Freedom is a skill, not a pill. Once you’ve trained your body and mind how to do it, it will begin to happen all by itself while you continue to enjoy all the other bits of your life." At The Freedom Specialist, people are provided with reliable tools and experiences to do that very thing.

Tucker Mortensen 

CEO
Nutrition Specialist

Tucker's story is detailed at length in Adventure #1 of Built for Freedom (the book).  He had been through every possible level of treatment with psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, and therapists to address his diagnoses of severe depression, anxiety, bipolar, and OCD. After years of these struggling to no avail and loads of side effects from different prescriptions, he was on the verge of suicide and coping the best way he knew how — energy drinks, candy bars, angry outbursts, and pornography. 

Within a week of dedicated work with Bob's body-based approach, he began finding relief from the OCD and suicidal ideation. A couple months after that, the other issues began going away on their own, and he decided he wanted to help bring this possibility to others.

Tucker has since been personally involved with the success of hundreds of clients, is the CEO of The Freedom Specialist, and is part of the board of directors for the Built For Freedom Foundation to raise scholarship funds and resources to help people who, like him, didn't know where to find answers and often didn't have the resources available to afford them.

He is also deeply involved with the nutritional aspect of the work we do with clientele at retreats.

Lee Hollis 

President – Built For Freedom Foundation
Retreat Director

After being abused in every conceivable way by his mother for the first 16 years of his life, Lee coped as best he could with the trauma. He was trained in and certified in suicide prevention and  trauma counseling from the Allender Center, spoke nationally to crowds of thousands on the after effects of abuse, and worked in non-profit ministries for 30 years. The message was that this is something that doesn't go away, but you aren't alone and together we can carry the burden. 

That message changed drastically for Lee when he encountered the work Bob was doing and dove in headfirst. You can read about his story and massive transformation in detail inside of Built of Freedom (the book). The short version is that it changed everything about his life. Not only did those decades of trauma evaporate, but so did many of his physical complaints. His sleep apnea diminished. He lost weight. Joint pains started going away, blood markers went back to normal. It's a life he never knew was possible.

As he commonly tells people, "I felt like Bob finally introduced me to my body and taught me how to use it." Now he heads the non-profit branch of the organization and runs around telling corny jokes as often as possible, most of them to captive retreat attendees and unsuspecting listeners of the Alive and Free podcast which he co-hosts Bob.

Amber LaVoie

STICK Work™ Practitioner
Freedom Guide

Wracked by 7 years of chronic, bone-aching pain and beset by Lyme disease, Hashimoto's, Epstein-Barr, black mold infection, cardiac inflammation, and 30 other co-morbidities, Amber had given up on finding any help at all. She came at first  for help with her fears and struggles in getting her own business off the ground. But the direct and intense physical work Bob does shut off the pain on their first meeting. For the first time in 7 years, her body was quiet and finally at peace.

At 1 a.m., after sitting for hours not wanting to disturb the calm, she sent a text, "What did you do, and how do I learn more?" The full story of her journey (including the opioid addiction that came with all the pain) can be found in Built for Freedom (the book). 

She forms a pivotal part of the work we do with those in chronic pain and the women's retreats.

Daniel Linton 

Freedom Guide
Technical Support

Deeply committed as a Christian, Daniel had tried counseling, therapy, and twelve-step programs to try and kick his compulsive pornography use, but to no avail. When he came across Bob's work through an offhand mention in some marketing training, he immediately wanted two things: personal help and to help others. Because he knew just how devastating it could be to not have control in that area of life.

You can hear his story in the video, but it was through these simple body-based practices that he found the control and freedom he had been seeking. It deepened his faith in the Creator and the miraculous design of the human body and has spurred him to helping hundreds of others at our retreats and over the phone to find the clarity they need to do the simple physical things that will finally give them freedom and peace.

Jonathan Temte 

Freedom Guide

Jonathan came to The Freedom Specialist because something about the message really resonated with what he wanted out of life. As an athlete, a family man, and a gregarious friend, he never had to troll the depths of depression and anxiety that so many have done. He knew and saw in others that letting it to build up was a death sentence in the works. It was enough for him to see his own periods of self-doubt, procrastination, and lack of motivation to jar him into action. Only then was he able to fully process the sudden and early death of his twin brothers and let go of the burden of trying to carry that pain for the rest of his family. 

He has since worked personally with hundreds of clients at retreats and over the phone to cut through the same kinds of mental chatter that had dulled the light in his own life.