About me

Learning new things is a passion of mine. As my knowledge grows, so does yours. 

Come and join a class or arrange for one-to-one tuition.

My story

My journey towards teaching pilates and yoga began at birth, but took over 40 years to come to fruition.

I was dragged into the world with forceps – it seems my mother had a difficult delivery. A baby’s skull has to be pliable to exit the birth canal. But I began life with quite a pointed forehead and, little did anyone know about it then, this would have a profound effect on my skeletal development, in particular my jaw.

Very little was known then about how the development of the jaw could affect the rest of the body. I never connected the chronic pain I had in the left upper side of my back or the ‘episodic migraines’ with the alignment of my teeth and the state of my jaw.

Diagnosing the problem

I moved to west London in my early thirties and found a new dentist. Going for my regular check-up and was told that I had an overbite – the teeth in my lower jaw were overcrowded and the solution was to remove a couple of teeth. I went away to decide my next step but fate intervened.

That dentist had a heart attack and had to retire due to ill health. A much younger, more dynamic dentist called Dr. Chatfield took over. His specialism was the jaw and its dysfunctions. He recommended a threefold treatment, including a gum shield to stop my teeth from grinding (hence the headaches), followed by a process that involved stretching the jaw to create gaps between my teeth. Finally a brace top and bottom to realign everything.

It was painful and meant that I couldn’t eat crusty bread or corn on the cob for a while but it was worth it.

Posture to Pilates

Something else happened post-treatment – my posture changed. Previously I had had splits on the outsides of my feet due to the way I walked, but afterward my gait was much more centralised.

It was then that my dentist mentioned Pilates, which was at the time a very new concept. I found a class at my local gym and loved it so much I went on to teach it, later adding yoga to my repertoire too.

Today, despite doing Pilates on a regular basis through my classes, neither my back nor my posture is perfect. I have slight scoliosis (curvature of the spine) to the right and still have bunions because of the previous imbalances of my feet.

I have recently begun to have regular sports massage sessions to help iron out the remaining kinks. Again, painful during treatment but it will be worth it. I love what I do and see it benefit so many others in my practice – so I aim to carry on for some time yet!