Restore your movement potential
About Me
I'm passionate about movement - specifically how people can reprogram their own bodies and brains to get back to their factory settings while feeling and performing at their best! I'm obsessed with helping you give your body what it's been crying out for.
I help get to the root causes of your compensations so you can keep going your activities and plan your next adventure. I retrain the lost connections between the brain and body that are at the root cause of your mystery aches and pains. Unlike traditional trainers or physio I spend an extended amount of time on rewiring your patterns and give you (almost) unlimited access to my help between appointments.
For over 30 years I have been observing and refining movement. I've formally studied a TON of movement; I have a PhD in animal behaviour, I am a graduate of Canada's National Ballet School, AND I am a Canadian and World amateur salsa champion. I have experienced what it takes to train and compete at an elite level AND I've come back (better than ever) from an injury at the worst possible time in my competitive career. I'm also in my mid-40s and work every day to prevent the mobility and health outcomes my grandparents ended up with. Because I've been there and know where I'm going, I can relate to what people like you are going through.
When I'm not nerding out about movement, I enjoy learning languages (Spanish and Korean), knitting, hitting the gym, and finding the best London Fog lattes in the city!
Why Choose Flow Movement Therapy?
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.
If you grew up playing an elite sport or dancing, you knew what your body needed. As a young person you probably brushed off injuries and pains because you bounced back quickly.
Once you became an adult though, you no longer understood what your body was telling you and certain compensations have crept in that you can no longer ignore or figure out.
Even though you are a life-long athlete and do what you can to keep your body working as best you can, it just doesn’t seem to be keeping up. And now your body won’t let you ignore it.
What your body is crying out for through discomfort is being given a reintroduction to the movements your brain has conveniently deleted from your memory. It's this communication with your brain that is missing. Your brain needs directions on how to move so it can level out your imbalances.
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. As a physio assistant I saw first-hand how having support of someone who spends an hour helping you do custom exercises correctly had enormous positive outcomes compared to not having this support. By working outside of the extended medical system, I'm able to use unique modalities, provide extended appointment times, provide digital access to me between appointments and give my clients the personalized care and attention they deserve. You won’t get this kind of attention and support anywhere else.
For me, coaching is not just a job. It's personal. It helped me overcome frustrating limitations in my body and I want to help you. This is why I created Flow Movement Therapy to reach people who want a different approach to what they’ve tried so far.
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 (the photo is 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 am determined to keep feeling my best and performing at a high level. 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.
My approach
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 (AiM)
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)
How do I apply that in your visits? 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 as a kid, the way you put pressure into your feet, or whether your ribs and pelvis can move in opposition.
Postural Restoration Institute (PRI)
"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.
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
Achievements
30+ years of dancing at elite level, (ballet, salsa, latin hustle)
Canadian and World Amateur Salsa and Latin Hustle Champion
Relevant Training
Anatomy in Motion - practitioner with advanced education
Postural Restoration Institute - Postural Respiration
Postural Restoration Institute - Myokinematic Restoration
Postural Restoration Institute - Pelvis Restoration
Buteyko clinic - Breathing for Asthma and Respiratory Conditions
Julie Wiebe- Piston Science course
Experience
Movement retrainer & coach (6 years+)
Physiotherapy 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.