Why we built this
For years, Brian trained for the most extreme environments on Earth — base camps at altitude, summit pushes in minus-40 conditions, months of preparation followed by days of absolute physical depletion. He learned everything conventional sports science had to offer. And he still felt like something was missing. The missing piece wasn't more training. It was recovery — specifically, the kind of deep, cellular-level restoration that conventional recovery methods couldn't reach. Sound. Light. Electromagnetic frequency. The body's own natural rhythms, supported and amplified rather than fought.
Vanessa was on a parallel path. Her father suffered from chronic illness, and two siblings from addiction. She saw the toll and spent her early years deeply immersed in learning how nutrition, wellness, and therapeutic living can support a body broken. Three decades of study in Ayurvedic medicine, yoga, and mindfulness had shown her that the ancient wisdom traditions had always understood what modern neuroscience is only now confirming: the body heals in stillness, in resonance, in harmony.
The Sound Mind & Body Studio is where those two paths converge. Built for people who push their limits — and for people who simply want to feel like themselves again
Who we are
Brian Block
Before Brian Block was a wellness coach, he was a mountaineer. He is the first Iowan to complete the Seven Summits — climbing the highest peak on every continent, including Mount Everest and the two contested peaks- for a total of nine. That pursuit required decades of extreme physical conditioning, mental resilience under life-threatening conditions, and recovery protocols that most people will never need to think about. Brian thinks about them every day — because they are the foundation of everything he has built. Today, Brian channels that hard-earned knowledge into wellness coaching and the programs at The Sound Mind & Body Studio. He is a certified Total Well-Being Coach through the Gaja Collective, an integrative program that combines evidence-based coaching, meditation instruction, and Ayurvedic health principles to support transformation across mind, body, and spirit. This training equips him to guide clients in building sustainable habits, managing stress, cultivating clarity, and creating meaningful life change.
Throughout his career, Brian has combined his love of adventure with entrepreneurship and wellness leadership. His experiences training for extreme environments, navigating risk, and pursuing long-term goals give him a practical perspective on resilience, recovery, and peak performance—insights he now brings into his coaching and wellness work.
Today, Brian works with individuals seeking a more aligned, energized, and intentional life. Whether through coaching, wellness programming, or community leadership, his mission is to help others reconnect with their potential, elevate their well-being, and live with greater purpose.
Brian on the summit of Mt Vincent, 2012
Costa Rica reset, 2022
Vanessa Block
Vanessa Block is a wellness practitioner, entrepreneur, and operations leader dedicated to helping people reconnect with balance, resilience, and sustainable well-being. She has spent her life pursuing the knowledge of wellness and optimization born from trauma, chronic illness, and challenge, and found it in ancient healing wisdom and modern neuroscience — though she would not have described it that way when she started.
With more than two decades of experience leading complex programs, building organizations, and managing cross-functional teams, Vanessa brings a grounded, practical perspective to the world of holistic health. Her professional background spans leadership roles in global outdoor and performance brands, where she specialized in strategy, operations, and relationship-driven leadership.
Alongside her corporate career, Vanessa has pursued an extensive path of study in holistic wellness and personal transformation. Her path began with understanding chronic illnesses in her family, and deepened into the study of Ayurvedic medicine, the 5,000-year-old system of health that understands the body through the lens of energy, constitution, and the deep relationship between mind and physical wellbeing. It continued through yoga teacher training at Yoga Farm Ithaca, Primordial Sound Meditation instruction through the Chopra Institute and Gaja Collective, ultimately learning to guide clients through burnout, hormonal health, grief, and the particular depletion that comes from decades of giving everything to everyone else.
What she discovered across all of those traditions is what neuroscience is now confirming: the patterns that keep people stuck — the stress loops, the burnout cycles, the emotional responses that persist despite every effort to change them — are not character flaws or lack of willpower. They are neural patterns. Deeply encoded, entirely learnable, and with the right conditions, entirely rewritable.
Her approach blends ancient wisdom traditions with modern life demands—helping clients create practical, sustainable changes that support physical health, mental clarity, and emotional well-being.
Vanessa is currently completing her Neuroplasticity Coaching Certification and a micro-bachelors in Neuroscience— formalizing a framework she has applied intuitively throughout her career and bringing a precise, science-backed language to the brain-based work she has always done.
As co-founder of Sound Mind and Body Studio, Vanessa focuses on creating experiences and environments that support restoration, nervous system regulation, and whole-person wellness. Her work is centered on helping people slow down, reconnect, and build a foundation for long-term vitality.
Brian and Vanessa have 5 wild and active kids. They love to explore, learn, and travel alongside their children. You will find them on the slopes, at a mountain lake on paddleboards, coursing down a river, at the local driving range, or scaling rocks and bagging peaks around Utah and beyond.
Contact us
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