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The Beginning
It all started when I was a teenager. I used to have back pain when doing things like washing dishes, sweeping the floor, sitting down to study for a long time, and obviously my mother thought it was a whim so she wouldn't do the "boring" tasks. However, I also felt pain when I sat down for too long watching TV on the couch, and I had a lot of difficulty breathing when I had to run in physical education. When I was 14, we went to the beach, and it was while I was sitting on the sand that my father noticed a deviation in my spine. Scared by the deviation they were seeing, they took me to the Emergency Room, and that's where I got my first X-ray. (which obviously isn't the one in the picture to the side, because today it would be over 20 years old and we don't like to keep old things, haha)
(On the left, you can see my friend, with a healthy spine. In the center, me, approximately 17 years old and with a severe scoliosis.)
In the photo are my brother, grandfather, mother, and me from behind. At approximately 19 years old, at that time, the aesthetic aspect began to bother me to the point that I considered going through all the risks of surgery. The blouses were very twisted on my body, and I was very uncomfortable. Even the zipper on my pants was further to the side from my belly button. I used to lie on my back and see one side of my ribs much higher than the other.
We discovered a severe scoliosis in my spine already with a 64° Cobb angle. I went to more than 10 doctors for months until I found one who gave me the option of using the Milwaulkee brace and conservative treatment. As my mother was a SUS nurse, she had in mind that we should try Physiotherapy before considering a surgery of this size (very smart, she S2 Thanks mom). It was then 6 years between RPG, gym and swimming (and the terrible vest). Unsuccessfully. The curvature that we monitored every 6 months continued to progress by 1° per year, and as it already had a severe angulation, it was indicative of surgery.
I should add here, how horrible was it to wear that brace?
Can you imagine, a 15-year-old girl, in the middle of the madness of puberty, having to wear this horrible thing 23 hours a day? There was no internet for us to look for ideas on Pinterest on how to wear this with an outfit that would look less ugly or attract less attention. I literally felt like a freak, inside and out. To this day I still go to therapy to see if I can improve my self-esteem.
In December 2008, already studying my first year of Physiotherapy, I underwent surgery.
From then on, my life was about being careful with how I moved,
I was very afraid of moving "wrong" and hurting myself.
I used to go to the University and to work with a really big cushion. In fact, I never stopped to think that someone might be watching. The only thing I thought about was how uncomfortable the chairs were.. After 6 months I was discharged from the doctor's treatment and I was able to return to my physical activities, so I went back to the gym and signed up for a Pilates class on the recommendation of a lot of people. To be honest that didn't go well and I hated it. So in 2013 I thought of studying Pilates because everyone said it could be beneficial to me, then I figured that maybe the first and only instructor I had didn't really know how to work with my conditions. And then, it was when my life really started again. I was excited about the possibilities and also took the Complete Functional Training courses and extra injury prevention modules.
The Restart
Pilates taught me to move consciously and helped me regain confidence and improve my body's functionality as primary gains. I consider all the skills I acquired later, such as flexibility, strength and endurance, to be secondary gains. In addition, it greatly complemented my physical therapy sessions with my patients. And I ended up falling in love with this world of physical activity. Over the years, I discovered my place and my purpose. I decided then that I would work on my own, win over my clients, serve each person for the time I determined would be best and that I would receive the amount I considered worthy of all my effort and dedication. I already had a personal goal of keeping myself updated in my field, and so I attended conferences annually. I attended workshops, SBED (Brazilian Society for the Study of Pain) conferences, I became a member and read the year's articles whenever I received my copies.
I worked at a private clinic in São Paulo, where people who had already tried everything to improve their pain would come to me. That's how I learned active listening, care, compassion, and other skills, such as the use of equipments such as shockwave therapy and traction stretchers, not to mention the scientific meetings on Saturdays with a wonderful team that included all the clinic's physiotherapists and a former University professor who guided us and taught us a lot. At that moment, I realized the needed to study the complex world of chronic pain.
In 2017, I began the journey to open my own practice inside a gym. Soon after, I moved into a larger room, where I could use my own Pilates equipment, and I shared a large house in Vila Mariana, São Paulo, with other wonderful women in the healthcare setting, including doctors, psychologists, nutritionists, and dentists. In January 2020, I moved into a room that could fit my entire Pilates Studio, and then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. I got to know EBP (Evidence-Based Practice) and entered a deeper universe of Science, breaking paradigms and improving myself more and more. With the need for isolation, I started offering online services until August 2020, and that's when I realized how many people I could help through the Internet. I continued to provide services in a hybrid manner until early 2023, and I treated people with various physical conditions in the areas of orthopedics and traumatology. It was then that I decided to close the Studio, sell everything, and move in to Canada, keeping only my online clients.
By practicing Pilates with people who lived in other states and even other countries, such as Spain, the USA, Pernambuco, Santa Catarina, and Amazonas, I realized that it was possible to live and expand the company in this way. That's when the idea of studying Business Management & Entrepreneurship in Ottawa and creating Pilates Anywhere came to me.
Dealing with chronic pain not only as a professional but also as a person, my life experience has brought me here.
If you are looking to improve your quality of life and alleviate your pain, you have come to the right place, as this is what I have been doing for over 10 years as a Physiotherapist, Pilates and Functional Training Instructor.
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20 Canadian dollars
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20 Canadian dollars
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45 min
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1 hr
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