I fell in love with movement at the young age of 3 when my parents enrolled me in my first ballet class. Fast forward a bit and I had performed for 10 years alongside Boston Ballet and was getting ready to study Mathematics and Dance at Hamilton College. After graduating, I danced with Mystic Ballet and eventually found my current dance home of 13 years at Urbanity Dance. Along the way, I worked in research administration and distinctly remember my first day of sitting during the hours of 9am to 5pm. My body was uncomfortable and restless; I felt like it was screaming at me to move. And then something scary happened when I realized my body had stopped talking to me and I was numb to sitting for 8+ hours a day.

After what would be a rather long journey of soul searching to find the “perfect” career that didn’t involve sitting behind a desk all day, it came down to pursuing higher education for physical therapy or engineering. I like to think that in choosing physical therapy, I have both.
I get to be an engineer for the human body.

After completing my doctorate, I started my professional career at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital where the patient population was diverse. I worked with a wide range of individuals from pre-teens in the early days of a dance career to centenarians trying to maintain independence. I particularly enjoyed my time at Spaulding’s National Running Center and developed an affinity for working with weekend warriors and high-level athletes with chronic injuries – those pesky things that just won’t go away. I love the puzzle of it and when it’s solved, seeing how it can turn someone’s day from cloudy with a chance of rain to nothing but sunshine.

As I gained experience, I was looking for a way to solve my daily score of human engineering problems in a way that allowed for a bit more creativity. I turned to Pilates, remembering that it had been the foundation of my physical health during my dance career. And after doing some research, decided to complete Polestar Pilates’ comprehensive teacher training program – a year long program designed by a physical therapist. The best part of the experience was that I found a way to combine my knowledge of the human body as a physical therapist with my experience with movement as a dancer, blending art with science.

As I continued to develop this new way of working with my patients and clients, I was increasingly dismayed at the effects of our modern world of phones, computers, cars, and comfy couches. The same cycle of postural deviations, breathing inefficiencies, and compensation strategies arose in most of the people with whom I worked. It led me down yet another nerdy path, this time into the world of pelvic health. I become a Pregnancy & Postpartum Corrective Exercise Specialist - it’s a specialization that goes well beyond pregnancy and postpartum and gave me the skills to effectively address the pelvic floor from an exercise standpoint. After that was done, I completed another course with Herman & Wallace – the leader in pelvic health physical therapy. Adding this layer of knowledge opened up yet another way of treating and puzzle solving.

I look forward to guiding you in solving your own engineering problem.