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.

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.