As a Pilates Teacher, I have always enjoyed attending the Pilates Method Alliance (PMA) Conference each year. Going to all the different Pilates workshops, seeing all my friends at the PMA and fellow Pilates Teachers from all over the world. Enjoying the sharing of Pilates knowledge and the community of the Pilates world. This year I am so excited and honored to be a PMA Presenter 2018 in Vegas! I am bringing one of my favorite Pilates workshops to the PMA!

It is now a little over 2 months away and I am getting so excited about sharing this workshop with all the participants that attend. I am already getting some text and emails from Pilates peeps that are going to be “sitting front and center” for support and that just makes it so special for me. I know that seeing friendly, supportive happy faces will ease a lot of the nerves that are starting to surface.

I remember the first PMA I attended. I was so overwhelmed with all the workshop choices, all the events, the Expo and the shopping (which is still a favorite part right? Can you say Pilates Nerd and Toesox?). I left each workshop more and more recharged and feeling even more passion for teaching Pilates and the feeling of community was just the most amazing thing to experience. It was so new to me and I remember getting home and my poor husband getting blasted by so much energy and fast talking that I think he regretted picking me up at the airport! Come to think of it, he hasn't picked me up after any PMA since!

Each year this conference for me does not disappoint! There are so many wonderful people and each year I meet new and amazing friends and see old friends that I get to reconnect with again. The connection for the Pilates community is a key aspect as well as the workshops. To be around those that share the same passion for the work and come from all over the country and world is something I look forward to each time.

So, what got this Pilates introvert on this PMA bound path? I can thank my friend Jared Kaplan for this one! We were standing on the street after dinner in New York when we got discussing the PMA as he was presenting that year for the first time. I told him I would be front and center for him. He said, "Why haven't you put in to be a presenter?" I laughed and said "oh no!" and probably some other things to the effect of scares me, out of my comfort zone! Jared said simply "Do it! Just jump off that cliff, you should do it!"

I thought a lot about what he said and well..here we are!

My workshop for the PMA this year is actually one of the favorites that I give and one that is so fun for me as a teacher. It is “Using the Mat to Assess and where to go from there”.  I love the full participation of this workshop, which to be honest I try with all of my workshops so that everyone can really be a part of it and we all learn and share. This one is really about seeing what we see, in that moment with that person or your client.

One of my favorite things in teaching Pilates is seeing where your client is that day, that hour with you. How are they moving? What are we noticing as we start the mat work with them? As they continue to move does it get more connected for them or do those patterns we see keep going? Once those “issues” or “patterns” show themselves then where do you go? What would be some exercises on the apparatus that may make that connection or fire something that is needed for them?

What can the spring do on the Reformer? Or would all the different options of the Cadillac be better? What about the Wunda Chair? How do you decide ? There are so many ways you could go right? Depending on what we see in that client? That is one thing I love about teaching Pilates and this workshop! We may all see different things going on in a different way, or feel that one thing may work better for that client. The options are all there for us to explore together.

The magic for me with this workshop is then going back to the mat and seeing did anything change for that person? Are they moving more functionally? Are they more connected than when they first started moving? How has that pattern changed for them? Do they feel different?

I am so ready to spend 2 hours exploring this work with all those that come to my workshop and I hope that after they leave the room as I like to after a workshop! Recharged, more passionate and ready to get back to the clients with light bulbs going off for them!