FAQ

Pilates is an incredible system of exercises developed in the 20th century by Joseph Pilates. Stott Pilates has taken his genius work and further developed it with the lens of physical therapy and science.

Pilates Movement Therapy uses specific Pilates exercises and other movements to help with YOUR specific pain points, postural imbalances, special conditions, and injuries. By choosing the most appropriate movements for YOU, we see actual change in the way you hold your body from the beginning of the session to the end. Considered a bridge between physical therapy and fitness activities, it empowers students to notice, sense and feel the proper form and technique so that they can exercise and move efficiently in other settings beyond the mat for a lifetime of pain free healthy movement. Movement Therapy has helped people pre and post surgery, and those with issues like back pain, SI issues, hypermobility, neck/shoulder issues, pelvic floor issues, plantar fasciitis, postpartum and many more.

Pilates in general encourages good posture and teaches functional movement, which basically means moving in the way we were designed to move, in biomechanically sound positions. It teaches us to work in the most efficient way so as to not exhaust our bodies and leave more energy for other parts of our life. Once we build a foundation of good principles and functional movement, the work only gets deeper as we begin to layer on more advanced and challenging work.

Pilates Movement Therapy is comprised of:

1:1 sessions

Small Group classes

On Demand Videos

These three offerings are meant to be done in combination to make healing efficient and effective. You will come out of Pilates Movement Therapy with the ability to confidently make changes in your body through movement- to heal from your injury, get out of pain, to stay active, to prevent injury and to become more confident getting back to and enjoying the activities you love.

The combination of the three offerings are the blueprint to making lasting changes. (1:1 sessions, small group classes, on demand video). 1:1 sessions are further cemented into learning by doing at home guided videos and taking small group classes to practice what was done in the 1:1 and videos with corrections. The offerings don’t have as big of an impact when done in isolation- the act of practicing on your own as well as with eyes on you makes a huge difference in the efficiency of repatterning. The offerings were created with affordability and scheduling in mind- the small group classes and videos can stretch the time between 1:1 appointments while not compromising progress.

I like to start with a 1:1 Movement Therapy session so I can help make a plan for which offerings to do in what type of combination for YOU, but many people start with my free reset routine (use code reset) or a small group class (both online) to get to know my teaching style a bit. Fill out the New Client Form to get started!

Pilates is a powerful tool for injury rehabilitation. It has benefited those that suffer from ailments including but not limited to SI joint issues, knee injury, joint replacement, plantar fasciitis, pelvic floor dysfunction, arthritis, disc herniation’s, autoimmune disorders, pre and post-natal, and hypermobility. Mandee has seen so many clients walk in the door in pain and after beginning a Pilates program they report decreased pain and often become pain free and are able to resume the activities they love. Her greatest days are those where someone tells her they feel better, and luckily that happens more often than she can even count. She feels blessed to be able to offer such a wonderful system of healing and to be able to help it become a part of your lifestyle.

Pilates will ‘bring you back to life’ by allowing you to breathe deeper and move with ease. You will stand taller with better posture and align your joints the way you were built to be!

I feel comfortable with this for a few reasons. Physical Therapy exercises are often rooted in Pilates and I can help you refine and do those exercises properly to get more results than you would doing it on your own and possibly incorrectly. Movement Therapy can be such a good add-on to PT because it leaves more time for refining your new movement patterns and empowering you to make lasting change.

While this is ultimately up to you, my answer is yes because there is often so much we can do that will help to get you out of this flare! Mobilizing other areas of the body can often help. In this situation my approach is extremely gentle and everyone that has come on a day like this always feels so much better when they leave. I often say these are the days you need your session the most!

Great point! Did you know I will select the relevant videos for you in a 1:1 Movement Therapy session? This can give you so much direction. But, there are filters in the videos library where you can sort by keyword, length, 'taken by me' and you can favorite the videos you love. I suggest poking around in there and noticing the different categories, etc.

This can be unique depending on the person, their injury, their dedication to doing the work outside of sessions, and their comfort level. Over time, appointments reduce in frequency and students might do more small group classes than 1:1 sessions after they are feeling better, and eventually reduce to 'check-in's' every couple of months to ensure they are staying on track.

These are both small group formats where we customize the sequence based on who is in class and who needs what to feel better. Therapeutic Mat Pilates is best for those working on refining form and movement patterns where Online Yoga is that too, but is great for those who are seeking a bit more intertwine between mind/body and the connection to our nervous system, or simply for those who love yoga and want it cued more specifically than the most popular yoga classes out there.

Pilates starts smaller. It has more refined movements. In yoga, poses are held, and in Pilates exercises are done in repetitions, although not as many and not in sets as in other modalities such as weight lifting. In Pilates we move and stabilize from our center to avoid strain on our joints while building core strength. Pilates focuses on finding and recruiting the proper muscles for each movement. Yoga is an ancient practice that involves much more than just the physical practice and takes it to a spiritual and mental discipline. There are many different styles of the physical practice of yoga, and the one I have been greatly influenced by is Iyengar Yoga, known for it’s attention to detail, alignment and use of props.

The two modalities complement each other and I often find myself improving my yoga poses by incorporating the principles of Pilates and improving my Pilates principles by incorporating the mental & spiritual discipline of yoga. I have found that practice sometimes doesn’t make perfect. No matter how many times you perform a yoga pose, we sometimes do not have the proprioception needed in order to find proper alignment on our own. Further, the strength needed for some poses is sometimes not found in the pose itself, but by strengthening key muscle groups for that pose in other actions. This is the beauty of supplementing our yoga practice with strength by using Pilates & fitness exercises and/or props with the eyes of a skilled teacher. We can take elements needed in the pose and dissect them, breaking them down into smaller yet challenging actions. This can bring us the flexibility & strength needed to attain a pose with proper biomechanics.