Bodywork

Manual treatment and massage can complement your work at Balance Within, particularly if you are recovering from injury or illness. It is also a major factor for persons dealing with chronic situations in the body such as misalignment, instability, repetitive uses and stress. Often there are structural or soft tissue situations that must be cleared up to correctly access the muscles used for Pilates. Since correct patterning is a crucial piece of Pilates work, bodywork can be an important key in facilitating Pilates progress.

At Balance Within we work with the entire body and person, and have also the goal of better function in daily life. To achieve this, we work closely with the medical support community and a number of our teachers are also massage therapists. We work closely with like-minded practitioners in the bodywork

Gail holds a BA in Education and has drawn on her education, movement and bodywork background to create Balance Within Pilates Studio. She founded and directed Body Evolution in Minneapolis, MN, providing instruction in aerobics and conditioning as early as 1981. She began her work in Pilates in the early nineties under the mentorship of Elizabeth Larkam of St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco. She studied a more traditional Pilates with Cary Regan and formalized her certification through The Pilates Center of Boulder, CO. Balance Within was founded in 1995 and in-house teacher training and certification began in 1997. The training now draws in serious Pilates students from across the state. Gail continues to study and absorb the work of all the master Pilates teachers and prominent figures in movement she can find, and pursues ongoing studies in bodywork to bring as much knowledge as she can to her clients and students. Gail is a licensed massage practitioner and studies at the URSA Foundation, where she completed the highly respected Silver Series. She is a Gold Certified member of the Pilates Method Alliance and the more she practices and teaches, the more she sees the essential connection between intelligent bodywork and functional Pilates. She firmly believes Pilates work is not an event, but a process – a lifelong process.

Katie, a long-time equestrienne, started as a client at Balance Within to polish her riding skills and was inspired to learn more about Pilates and share that knowledge with others. She joined the Balance Within studio training for teachers and has flourished as a teacher ever since. A few years after completing her certification she graduated from massage school, which has enriched what she can bring to clients as a teacher. Katie is the senior teacher at Balance Within and assists in the training program and mentors new trainees. She is also available for bodywork sessions and continues her training in that field with the URSA Foundation and the Upledger Institute.