Trauma recovery and growth*
I bring an added layer to my practice through a trauma-informed approach. I am not a therapist, but I am a fellow survivor. My body certainly was keeping the score, even when the game had long been over.
Pilates is a significant part of my Complex Post-traumatic Stress Disorder recovery story. Trauma can take us out of our bodies, it teaches us how to put the bad stuff in one corner while we are busy focusing on another mess. Finding your way back to yourself is hard work.
My studio is entirely private. It's a space for you to continue the work you have been doing your whole life. I’m here as part of that circle of helpers to provide the space to build your physical strength to match the emotional fortitude you demonstrate every day.
*As part of my training, I have also completed a certification through Trifecta Pilates’s Trauma-Informed Pilates Instructor Program.
Training
I am currently an apprentice Pilates instructor and owner of Studio Curran. I am enrolled with the Art of Science & Contrology, one of the most rigorous Pilates instructor training programs in the country.
The program, under the directorship of Simona Cipriani, is 650-hours, with a heavy focus on the original Pilates as first developed by Joseph Pilates. Upon completion, I will be third-generation instructor.
My Pilates Story
I discovered Pilates while walking down Main Street in Northampton, MA where I nearly fell over a sign for Great River Pilates. I didn’t take the sign itself, but I got the sign. I had been working at desk jobs for the better part of three decades. My hips were in rough shape. Every joint ached, my neck was a constant source of pain. I was newly fifty years old and my body felt decades older.
This is unacceptable,” is the phrase that ran through my head over and over again. Was I really going to lie down or sit down and stop participating in life? Was I going to quit on myself? I had so much left to do. In so many ways, I felt like I had only just started living my “real life.” That beautiful phase of life when the kids are adults and you’re all planning to travel the world together.
I had my husband snap a photo of Great River’s sign and followed up the next day.
From that first session, my first introduction to the reformer and the cadillac and The Method, something inside me clicked. It all made so much sense. It was all encompassing and for an hour, I didn’t think about anything other than the task at hand. To move, to breathe, to just be in a space where I felt safe and supported.
I didn’t leave the studio aching and feeling like I’d just been in a car accident. I felt taller, which was weird I thought, but it's true. You will, too. Every session we leave feeling better, stronger, more capable, and in a lot less pain.
Pilates changed my life. It tends to do that, don’t say I didn’t warn you.