Classical Pilates has been my lifeline twice so far…

First after retiring from my professional ballet career with chronic pain and hormonal chaos and second after undergoing chemotherapy treatment for stage IV lymphoma in 2025. For me, Pilates goes far beyond just the physical benefits– the mental clarity and self-confidence are just as important. 

My story in relation to the Spring to Life Method really started in 2016 when I lost my dad to prostate cancer. His illness was swift and unforgiving and it forced me to really consider my own health and mortality. In 2017, I finished my last season dancing professionally for the San Diego Ballet and began a period of transition that lasted about two years and included a lot of chronic pain, tension migraines, and my first foray into the fitness industry working at a spin studio. 

After suffering from debilitating chronic neck and shoulder pain that was impeding my ability to live a normal life, I intuitively decided to find a Pilates teacher training in 2018. Even though I had rudimentary experience with Pilates, I knew it was what my body needed to feel strong again. I found a 500-hour comprehensive teacher training at a studio minutes away from my house. 

With lots of previous teaching experience from my ballet career, I excelled at leading classes and started teaching before I even finished my certification. But I felt disconnected from the movements I was teaching and disappointed in how little my pain had improved even after 6+ months of practice. 

Sometime in early 2019 I stumbled into a different kind of Pilates class at a different kind of Pilates studio. Within three classes I felt an improvement in my pain levels and knew this is what I had been looking for:  classical Pilates. Within a matter of weeks I enrolled in a 6-month mentorship with the owner, Jennie Rathke, a second-generation teacher trained by Lolita San Miguel. 

For the next six months I had my “Beautiful Mind” experience– the deeper I got into the method, the more I grasped the nuance, intelligence, and cohesion that my initial contemporary Pilates teacher training had lacked. I no longer felt overwhelmed by teaching because I had a system I could trust. My confidence grew and I fell deeply in love with classical Pilates. 

In 2019, motivated by my painful hormonal cystic acne, I also enrolled at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition for a health coaching certification. During my education, I experienced first-hand the power of food as medicine and the mind over healing, but most importantly, I learned the intricacies of the female menstrual cycle and reproductive system. As a 28 year old, I felt like I was learning about my body for the first time.

It became clear to me that the remaining “normal symptoms” I was struggling with on a regular basis–  food sensitivities, anxiety, depression, cystic acne, low libido, brain fog, and thin, brittle hair– were related to my reliance on hormonal birth control. I vowed to educate myself enough to be able to confidently stop using hormonal birth control. This led me to obtain a hormone health coaching certification and study the FEMM fertility awareness method. 

I also started to draw parallels between the lifestyle advice given by Mr. Pilates in his 1945 book, Return to Life Through Contrology, and the holistic lifestyle principles I was learning at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. He was ahead of his time advocating for proper breathing techniques, time outdoors in natural sunlight, and the importance of caring for your body to combat the ‘nervous tension’ brought on my modern life. 

I was inspired to combine the power of Pilates with natural cycles and fertility awareness to create a lifestyle that supports a balanced body, mind, spirit, and cycle. Ever since, I have been on a mission sharing my love for Pilates and educating women on the magic of their menstrual cycles and how to confidently take control of their fertility.