25 Years in Pilates
Looking back to the start of my career
Twenty-five years ago today, I walked into a gym Pilates studio for the first day of an Intensive Studio Pilates teacher training course. It was a rigorous month of learning, and at the time I had no idea that I was embarking on the beginning of a lifelong career. It would be the first of many qualifications in movement modalities that I would gain.
Prior to this I had been in various office jobs, post a degree in Management and Tourism. I worked in HR, PR and office management, but the static, corporate environment was uncomfortable - both physically and for my dyslexic mind. My first taste of Pilates had come through joining mat classes in my local gym a year or so earlier, to help me cope with the desk-bound and indoor nature of these offices. I felt so passionate about how it made me feel that it became clear I needed to make a professional change.
On the 2nd of April 2001 I found myself dressed in exercise clothes, barefoot, and in a very different professional environment. It was fun; it felt good to move around on these pieces of Pilates apparatus all day. Yes, there was a manual, as well as anatomy and physiology theory to wrap my head around, but it was practical and progression was tangible. I have never looked back.
What I thought I was doing, when I first became a Pilates teacher, was learning to do something I enjoyed, so I could do it more often and pass this “feel good” experience on to others. It was so rewarding. Within that first year I was teaching in several North London studios and gyms, as well as people’s homes, I enjoyed holding this space for people to come and move their bodies and to escape like I had. I started to build what would become a loyal client base.
I collaboratively set up a successful Pilates studio in Crouch End, London, where I lived at the time, getting some use out of my management degree after all! Pilates was a “new trend” at the time, and I was full every hour I could teach. I was in my late 20’s, newly married and starting a family; within a few years I shifted my practice back to freelance to balance my teaching with family life.
What I was actually doing during this time was opening the door to my career: to a path that would spark a deep curiosity about whole body preventative health, and an ongoing passion to understand human movement.
I had realised fairly early on that the introduction to the Pilates Method I had received was very formulaic: This is the exercise, this is how you set it up, this is how you perform it. I witnessed that this approach wasn’t enough for most people. Bodies are different. Experiences are different. Injuries, histories, lifestyles, culture. Everything influences how someone moves. I quickly learned that I needed to broaden my skills to be able to modify, prop, or adapt the environment in order to create the possibility for everyone to have a successful movement experience.
In this quest for a deeper understanding, I had sought further training with the renowned Pilates teacher training school, Polestar Pilates. There, I was supported to learn something fundamental; it isn’t the exercise that matters most. It’s the principles behind it and seeing the person. Once you understand that, teaching becomes something entirely different.
Throughout the two decades that followed I have taught in various formats: Group, 1:1, Studio and Mat, and of course online after 2020. I also moved from London to Cambridge. I became a specialist in working with women in their perinatal years, and I trained in other modalities that both compliment Pilates and enable me to take a broad approach to supporting my client’s needs. My supporting role within Polestar Pilates evolved into that of Course Educator and Student Mentor, a role I am still proudly engaged in today and find deeply rewarding.
Lessons have I learnt
The importance of boundaries and space. Looking back, an important lesson for me, in a career of caring for others, has been learning how to work with people - without carrying everything they bring to the session with them.
When someone comes to you in pain or with dysfunction, or where physical or emotional trauma is part of the story, it’s very easy to take it on – in wanting to help them. For a long time, I think I did exactly that; I felt the pains of my clients, or the struggles of my students and I held a responsibility that wasn’t mine to hold. I care deeply about helping people feel better. It’s through this career, and through being a parent, that I have realised I am likely what is now termed as an empath.
As I have matured both as a person and as a teacher though, I have learned that the real skill is holding the space for people to explore and evolve, while maintaining healthy boundaries. Supporting them to do the work. Being a witness and a facilitator. It’s a skill I am still refining, because when the passion to make a difference is genuine, the sense of responsibility is strong.
I have also learned that there is no perfect position, that looking for “exact” can disable movement. Yes, we can improve alignment during our practice, because there is benefit in directing attention to a specific area of the body, as this awareness has the potential to enable a more successful experience. However, we want to let people play, explore, and trust that their bodies will show up in that moment - that they will do the best that they can - because our nervous system knows what to do.
My reflection for new teachers and how I feel about the industry today
When I first entered the industry, I remember learning about the novice-to-expert model and quite rightly identifying as a novice. Now, 25 years later, I find myself at the other end of that spectrum; I am an expert in my field, although it’s something I still find slightly uncomfortable to claim.
Today, with the way resources have become available, and with the ability to see what everyone else is doing, I believe it is easy to get carried along on a tide. But experience matters; no number of books, manuals or social media posts can replace the experience of working with thousands of different people over many years. The observing patterns, trying things, learning what works and what doesn’t. It is ok to be at the beginning of something, or to still be developing your skills. You still bring value and can support successful movement experiences.
Looking back, I could never have predicted where those early Pilates classes would lead. That what started as something fun would open the door to decades of learning and exploration and a successful and sustaining career. Each step has expanded my perspective, and the journey of learning never truly ends, because ‘we’ are developing our understanding of the human body.
Supporting teachers in training is one of the most rewarding parts of my career. Because I remember my beginning, because I want to be generous with what I have learned, and because I want the access to movement’s powerful healing potential of to be spread.
If I were to share a few lessons with the next generation of teachers, they would be these:
See theperson, not the exercise.
Stay within your scope of practice and build a strong referral network.
Don’t try to be everything to everyone.
Find mentors whose work is grounded in real experience and who inspire you to question yourself.
Stay curious and be willing to change your mind.
Don’t let social media drive your development or teaching: clients before content.
And always practise what you preach.
Whole body health
When I created my first website, I chose a quote from Joseph Pilates that still resonates with me today:
“Exercise is the first requisite of happiness.”
Back then I interpreted it quite simply. Exercising makes you feel good. Which it does. But now I understand it much more broadly. It isn’t just exercise. It’s health. It’s the state our bodies are always trying to achieve. It’s living in our bodies in the way they were designed to be used. Nourishing our bodies with real food, breathing efficiently, drinking clean water, spending time in nature, and real-life connection with your community.
In other words, it’s what Joseph Pilates’s message was through his technique, which he called Contrology. When I listen to the stories that my clients share, so many of their challenges trace back to the same roots: stress, disconnection, overload, and the pace and style of modern life. I increasingly feel drawn back towards simplicity. Towards living in a way that aligns more closely with how our human bodies are designed to function. Creating that environment is not easy in today’s world, but each movement session keeps me close to it..
A sidenote of significance is that alongside my movement journey, I have been living with systemic inflammation over the last 20 years causing eye dis-ease and leading to severe visual dysfunction and partial sight loss. This too has pushed me to think more deeply about preventative health and the bigger picture of wellbeing - similarly to Joseph Pilates whose childhood illnesses sparked his motivation to explore the whole-body health approach.
In more ways than I can easily describe in this piece of writing, I’m deeply grateful for walking into that Pilates training all those years ago. It set me on a path of discovery that has shaped much of my adult life. I have witnessed Pilates trend, and then 10 years later “trend” again, and the cycle will continue because the principles of movement behind the method can support anyone: young, older, whatever shape, size, or structure, movement exploration is inclusive of and beneficial to everyone.
Now, after 25 years, I feel a personal shift happening again. Rather than continuing to expand knowledge or skills, it feels like the right time, over the next few years, to consolidate what I have learnt. To sit with it and give more space to my own creativity. It feels like it’s time to specialise more deeply and focus on supporting the demographics I know I can truly help the most.
Without the pressure of announcing a timeframe or sharing details, I am excited about my plans for the next phase of my career. I feel gratitude to all the clients who have come to see me over the years, and to the students I have had the privilege to support, because you have all motivated me to keep learning and keep questioning.
People say these big strapline statements about Pilates and what it can do for you, and most of it is true. I am fitter and healthier now in my 50th year than when I began, and I have no doubt I will age better and enjoy the second half of my life more because of it. I have made hugely rewarding relationships and friendships with my colleagues and peers, some of my clients have become my best friends, I met my husband through that first course and I have received mentorship and education from people in this community who hugely inspire and continue to motivate me.
I hope you will continue to stay connected with me.
