Spring and Klein residents may have been surprised to see a local business owner featured in a Head & Shoulders commercial in this year’s Super Bowl on Feb. 3. Decked in a hard hat and safety glasses, Smash Therapy owner Jennifer Morales wielded a hammer on television and urged viewers to stop by her business and “get swinging.”

“It didn’t feel real,” Morales said, referring to being selected for the ad.

Growing up in a foster care home, Morales said her childhood experiences inspired her to open Smash Therapy on Stuebner Airline Road last June. The business offers “rage rooms,” where customers can yell, scream and smash items to relieve stress and express themselves in a physical manner.

“I was an angry kid,” she said. “I had a lot [of anger] that carried on to adulthood.”

Morales said she tried boxing in 2008 to cope with her anger. Eventually, she started a boxing team at Texas Southern University and became the first woman to qualify for regionals and nationals in college boxing, with the goal of making the 2020 Olympics, she said.

Alongside boxing, Morales serves as a director of an adolescent unit in a hospital and has worked in the health care industry since 2007. She said the idea for Smash Therapy came in October 2017 when she witnessed a psychiatric patient meltdown.

“He started destroying property, tearing the phone off the wall [and] punching holes in the wall,” Morales said. “When he was done doing everything, … [I asked him if he felt better]. He said he did, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I know what I’m going to do.’”

Morales created her business website that day and applied for a business license in November 2017. She officially opened in June and offers three rage rooms where customers can spray paint walls or choose objects to destroy. Prices vary depending on the amount of time and the objects destroyed.

Morales also offers pamphlets for various counseling centers, hotlines and therapists for customers who need professional help beyond what is offered at Smash Therapy.

“Smash Therapy is for everyday people who need a break,” she said. “It is not for the people who are unstable or ... at risk to harm themselves.”

Smash Therapy
17425 Stuebner Airline Road, Ste. N, Spring
832-874-8137
www.smashtherapyllc.com
Hours: Fri. 3-10 p.m., Sat. 1-4 p.m. and 5-10 p.m., Sun. 1-6 p.m., Thursday (private events), closed Mon.-Wed.