Qualifications
Education
Masters of Science and Doctorate in Animal Behaviour - Simon Fraser University
Canada’s National Ballet School - Professional Program Graduate
CanFitPro - Certified Personal Training Specialist
Relevant Training
Anatomy in Motion - practitioner with advanced education
Postural Restoration Institute - Postural Respiration
Postural Restoration Institute - Myokinematic Restoration
Buteyko clinic - Breathing for Asthma and Respiratory Conditions
Julie Wiebe- Piston Science course
Experience
Movement retrainer & coach (6 years+)
Physical therapy assistant (2.5 years)
Salsa Instructor for school with dozens of national and world champions (2 years)
The Minimal List - professional member. The Minimal List is a network of foot care professionals with a modern, minimalist approach to healing.
Achievements
30+ years of dancing at elite level, (ballet, salsa, latin hustle)
Canadian and World Amateur Salsa and Latin Hustle Champion
My Story
My movement (and injury) journey
I'm a life long mover and learner. I've been dancing since I was 10 years old, graduated from the National Ballet School, and became a National and International Salsa Champion (above that's me and my coach with my three 1st place world's trophies in 2018).
Over the years, I had lingering injuries and nagging pains. I tried stretches, online tutorials, and saw many professionals. These approaches would provide temporary relief, but they would always come back. Six weeks before my first national competition I got injured and missed the competition. Frustrated by this agonizing wakeup call I wanted to get to the root of my problems, and that's just what I did.
I dove into studying the AiM approach because it looked at the body as a whole unit. I was hooked (literally, I studied for an hour a day, 7 days a week for 2 years). I came back better than ever after that injury because of the methods I use today. I am dedicated to using my obsession with understanding how the body works as one unit and retraining movement to helping you avoid the path that I had no choice but to go down.
Now that I'm in my mid-40s I don't want the mobility challenges I watched my parents and grandparents go through. Giving up activities they love (running, gardening, traveling) because of pain and not finding solutions. I have reorganized my life to optimize my imaginary '85 year old self' focusing on intermittent fasting, diet, sleep quality, joint mobility, strength training, and mindset work to be the spry, healthy, 85 year old in my imagination.
Why Flow Movement?
I truly believe that to get to the heart of the issues in our bodies, we need to consider the whole. Throughout my journey, this is what was always missing.
So many practitioners ask you where it hurts, and treat that specific area. They send you home with some aftercare or exercises that they rushed through showing you (that you may already know), and NEVER ONCE looked at how you move or do the exercises. My colleagues affectionately call this 'nobody-ever-moved-me-itis'. What your body is crying out for through pain is being given a reintroduction to the movements your brain has conveniently deleted from your memory. It's this communication with your brain that nobody talks about. Your brain needs directions on how to move so it can level out your imbalances.
In Canada, most practitioners work within the extended health benefits framework. This greatly restricts the time they can spend with you AND the methods they can use. By working outside of this system, I'm able to use unique modalities, provide extended appointment times, and give my clients the personalized care and attention they deserve. For me, coaching is not just a job. It's personal. This level of attention is what I think is missing in our current wellness landscape. This is why I created Flow Movement Therapy to reach people who have felt their health care experience has been underwhelming and unsuccessful. Read more about my entrepreneurial journey here
My approaches
Your brain and body have 'factory settings'; the way you moved before life happened to you. Pushing the reset button requires knowing what to push. Both of my methods involve putting your body into positions and movements it's forgotten. By reintroducing these patterns I rely on a concept called 'neuroplasticity' which is the brain's ability to learn new things.
Anatomy in Motion will "determine exactly what movements you are missing or struggling to access, and regardless of your symptoms, will use Corrective Movements to re-educate the body in it’s movements and allow the body to reorganise itself and take the pressure of the system that is causing pain. We get the body to do the healing through movement." (AiM website)
What does that mean in my practice? The body is one big system and reintroducing movements you had no idea you weren't doing can allow everything to work as it intended. Sometimes we look in places you'd never think to look, like your ankle sprain at age 5, the way you put pressure into your feet, or whether your ribs and pelvis can move in opposition.
"The human body is not symmetrical. The neurological, respiratory, circulatory, muscular and vision systems are not the same on the left side of the body as they are on the right, and vice versa. They have different responsibilities, function, position and demands on them. This system asymmetry is a good thing and an amazing design. The human body is balanced through the integration of system imbalances." (PRI website)
These imbalances can be compounded by our modern lifestyle, creating movement dysfunction and pain. Breathing gets thrown off further by your imbalances and so breathing becomes the key to rebalancing you. Using methods from the PRI courses, I can identify and undo the imbalances causing problems in your body and give you the tools to correct them.
