MEET ROSIE...

When I learned to have confidence in my body’s ability, in spite of the physical and emotional pain I felt, everything else followed suit. I remember I used to question myself so much.
My job as a police officer covered up how lonely and unworthy and lacking in confidence I really felt. That uniform of power hid a lot. I would try to be the best at everything in an effort to prove myself, as a single mother, I held down a full time job as a store manager and studied for an Open University degree in Law in the evenings. I would heavily rely on my strategy of doing everything myself to cover up how insecure and vulnerable I felt. I didn’t know how to receive, compliments about my appearance or personality, gifts, friendship, love, because I didn’t feel good enough. I would repeatedly push it all away in a misguided attempt at self protection. My journey of body confidence, and beyond, began in a class in Harrogate, at the Police Treatment Centre. For the first time someone told me there was nothing they could find physically wrong with me, no reason I couldn’t exercise and that I was good at something.
That something was Pilates. I had an innate ability.
Those two weeks of Pilates, Yoga, swimming, walks in the woodland, bike rides, time with friends changed me forever. It was like an extended retreat. And I knew when I returned home life would never be the same again
I was in my mid thirties. I went there for help with my years of chronic back pain. I came back with new friends and feeling inspired by the person I was discovering under the uniform. My life on my return appeared to disintegrate, my relationship ended, my finances were a mess, my health got worse, but all of this was falling apart so I could rebuild.

In the eight or so years since then, I’ve peeled back the layers and learned something new. Body, mind and soul.
I don’t stop, there is always more to learn, more to embody.
Now I teach women how to use the Pilates method to really tune into their body, what muscles are working and how they relate to the movement, how less is often more. To really become aware, and to know their bodies, from the inside out. I mentor women in relationships who are looking to connect more deeply and intimately with their partner by teaching them how to regulate their nervous systems and create emotional flexibility.
My Pilates clients usually want
To do everyday things like work, cook, shop, socialise without pain
To feel more confident in their body and their clothes and how they look
To relax without worrying about the gazillion things on their to do list.
To sleep deeply
To have more energy and motivation
They want to feel good.
We start the class by lying down, and really tuning in to what the body is telling them in that moment.
And I ask them to notice, just notice the shape of the body, the areas of tightness and tension, where it all makes contact with the ground. Can they feel how this muscle is working as they move that part of the body There will often be some puzzled faces, no one has ever asked them that before. I can see the concentration on their faces as they begin to explore what their body can do. Not in terms of how good a workout it feels and how much they’ve pushed their body into something looking like they feel it should. And from that place the journey of education, awareness, mind body connection begins. Because without that higher load and strength can’t be sustained.

In both body and mind. Everything they want will stall until they have confidence in their body, not just how it looks, but it’s ability to support them through life, and believe they are worthy. At the end of the class, I ask them to lie down again and notice the difference. When you invest in yourself, your body, your confidence your self worth
Everything else will follow.