Julie Renae Smith is a physical therapist, coach, speaker, and author whose work sits at the intersection of neuroscience, identity, and the stories we live by. With more than 25 years in hands-on clinical practice, she discovered a consistent truth: burnout isn’t a personal failure — it’s a pattern rooted in the nervous system, shaped by perception and reinforced by habit.

Julie helps leaders and teams understand the hidden drivers of stress—why it feels overwhelming, why old patterns repeat, and how the body and brain signal burnout long before we notice it. She created Pain Bending™, a brain-based method for shifting physical and emotional stress responses; developed the Change… Choose Your Own Adventure™ coaching program; and is releasing her upcoming book, The Elephant in the Pool: Perception Distorts Reality, the first in The Elephant Parables series.

Through practical tools, science-backed insight, and memorable metaphors, Julie teaches people how to regulate in real time, break the patterns that lead to burnout, and step into change deliberately — one ripple at a time.