Behind the business
The Perfect Fit
At BodyTherapy Inc., Sara and Ryan Godfrey merge massage therapy and physical therapy with their love of Leland.
W
story by Denice Patterson
When Sara Godfrey
was assigned the task of recruiting a PRN (as needed) physical therapist for the Elizabethtown Nursing and Rehab Center in Bladen County a few years ago, the trim and athletic New York native had no idea what she was in for. “What are the chances of meeting your soul mate on the job in 48
North Brunswick Magazine
PHOTOGRAPHY BY Megan Deitz
Elizabethtown, N.C.?” she asks. “And a fellow New Yorker at that.” Fortune winked that day, and Dr. Ryan Godfrey happened to be working at the outpatient clinic when Sara walked in. The two began to chat. “It was really magnetic,” she says. Sara was born in Syracuse, N.Y., and moved to New Jersey to attend the
Institute for Therapeutic Massage in Brownsville to become a Licensed Massage & Bodywork Therapist (LMBT). She then obtained her Physical Therapy Assistant (PTA) license. Warmer weather called her, so she followed her parents, Jack and Kathy Henderson, to Leland in 2010. Meanwhile, Ryan, a native of Holland Patent, N.Y., had attended the University at Buffalo for a Doctorate of Physical Therapy. The last part of his residency was scheduled in Fayetteville, N.C., in 2009 at the Cape Fear Valley Health System. He later transferred to Elizabethtown to an outpatient clinic. “I had a full-time job and a part-time job up in Fayetteville,” he says. “The last thing I needed was another job at that time. But Sara walked in the door. I said, ‘Maybe I’ll think about it.’” That was in December 2011. They were nearly inseparable from that moment forward and were married in April 2013 at the old Angel Oak in downtown Charleston in an intimate family gathering. Ryan continued to work in Elizabethtown, and Sara opened her own massage therapy business, BodyTherapy, Inc., in 2013, renting a room at North Brunswick Chiropractic and Acupuncture. She also experimented with shea butter and other natural ingredients and developed an all-natural line of lip balm, cream and sunscreen that she sells online. The goal-oriented couple, whose very presence exudes a joie de vivre, developed a five-year plan to open a new private clinic to provide both massage therapy and physical therapy in one facility. That plan was accelerated to a year and a half. “We had looked at several properties in Wilmington that just didn’t work out,” Ryan says. “When this Leland location came available, it was perfect.” “We’ve been dreaming about it ever since we met,” Sara adds. “So hard to believe it is really here.” One of the best parts of owning their own business is that they have total control.