Welcome to my Somatic Movement Studio for Women’s & Dancer Health™
Exploring something new or wanting to take your movement skills to a different level?
Welcome to my specialist studio, a creative space and place for somatic and embodied movement. Here you will experience classes, depth immersions, courses and memberships suitable for those who are absolute beginners, all the way to movement experts. Or, work with me 1:1 for the most bespoke experience.
The key to lifelong wellness and happiness is about understanding how your body works and integrating that into a felt sense of movement. When we work with our bodies and how they are designed, that is when transformation happens. We become the best we can be, in movement in and in our lives.
Somatic movement does not work from the point of view of extreme exercise, pushing or punishing the body or trying to make it look a certain way. It’s not about hurting or feeling the burn. Regardless of your body type, size, or skills level, somatic movement promotes optimal movement, health and wellbeing. Start your transformation towards a happier, healthier, more confident you, in the safe, non judgemental and creative space that is my Studio.
Please drop me a message if you need any further guidance and I look forward to welcoming you into class soon and moving you forwards on your own journey soon.
Sarah
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Working with me in my Somatic Movement Studio™: Specialising in Women’s Health and Dancer Health and Wellbeing.
The Somatic Approach
My studio is a designated mind body studio which means that you really are engaging in somatic, mindful movement. It can look like many things! The Pilates sessions I teach are somatic in their approach because they teach you to connect deeply with your own body and balance and restore it and my clients love it because they feel and experience movement in a totally different way! Within the Buff Bones® programming we also work from a somatic viewpoint, learning how to feel and sense what our bodies are doing, whilst developing skills of balance, co-ordination and strength in the healthiest way. Pure somatic work of the Franklin Method® is different to movement of a modality such as Pilates, Yoga or Dance; they are codified systems that do have an external aesthetic and focus. Somatic movement comes from an internal or felt experience that always works from the standpoint of listening to your body and is such that there is no right or wrong.
Working with me 1:1
To work with me 1:1 allows me to both advise, plan and devise a bespoke programme that is right for you, calling upon all of my experience as a specialist mind body movement teacher.
I usually advise working with me 1:1 if there is an issue that I need to help you with to take you into a group class situation.
In group class you learn to manage yourself and your body, whereas in a 1:1 session you are working with me in dialogue and we are finding the right exercises or method your body needs in any one session, whilst keeping the bigger overview of your goals and what you want to achieve.
Long term private clients are accepted by me on a case by case basis and want to work within a somatic movement ethos and environment.
Private clients work towards transformation which happens more quickly than being part of group class. Part of your commitment of being a private client requires consistent attendance and commitment as well as homework that is completed between sessions.
Usually a long term private client will have worked with me in a group class or a remedial situation and I will already have knowledge of and experience working with you.
Becoming a Private client is by application only.
Pilates Specialisms: Women’s Health & Dancer Health
Somatic work of the Franklin Method®, the role of interoception within the Pilates Studio Environment and Pilates Matwork
Advanced qualifications
Pre and Post Natal Pilates and The Centre Method for Diastasis Recti Recovery
Foot Health and Management which includes work with hypermobility, asymmetry.
Dance performance optimisation
Pilates and the menopause
Bone and Joint Health - see Buff Bones®
I am an Alan Herdman trained Comprehensive Teacher which means I teach Pilates Mat and Studio Equipment work at every level from total beginners to advanced levels. My Pilates approach can use many different movement strands and incorporate Pilates and the Franklin Method® explicitly, depending on the objectives I have for my client.
As my qualification also has a remedial specialism within it, I also work with people who may have an issue with their body and need more specialist help than you would find in a standard Pilates class with an instructor who perhaps has not had that depth of training or experience.
I work alongside physiotherapists who refer their patients to me and I can take on more of a clinical Pilates role in the case of an injury.
Find out more about my Pilates approach.
Buff Bones®
Buff Bones® is a transformative movement system that has been developed for bone and joint health. It is a system that can provide challenge in many different ways. It is approved by the Surgeon General in the US and is safe for those with osteoporosis, bone density issues or bone and joint problems. A somatic movement system all round it really underpins and should be the centrepiece of any holistic approach to bone and joint health. It is a mix of Pilates, Strength training, functional movement and therapeutic exercise, but the incorporated somatic element and harnessing of the latest developments in biotensegrity makes it an incredibly powerful movement system.
Find out more about Buff Bones®
The Franklin Method®
Because of its transformative nature, the Franklin Method® is the underlying ethos and keystone of every session I teach in my studio, but is also taught completely in its own right.
When you participate in the Franklin Method® you learn by doing. You move towards a felt, experienced or embodied understanding which is very different to understanding things academically.
Franklin Method® sessions always work from a place of comfort, and harnesses a very powerful mix of embodied anatomy, physiology and biomechanics using imagery and a special system of programming movement.
The Somatic Movement Studio for Dancers ™ Franklin Method® and specialist programming for all dancers
Coming from a dance background myself, the health and wellbeing of all dancers is something I am passionate about. I am a Dance UK Healthcare Practitioner and member of IADMS.
Franklin Method® in its purest form is incredable for all dancers because we are working from the fundamental position of how our bodies have been designed to move. My Franklin Method® for dancers sessions are targeted at the needs of dancers even more. I have been teaching Franklin Method® for dancers of every age and ability because everyone, no matter what your experience level, can really use the tools of the Franklin Method® to help you with performance, technique, injury prevention and maintain your health and wellbeing as a dancer. I also work as a guest teacher with several small dance companies.
Find out more about my Franklin Method for Dancers and The Somatic Movement Studio for Dancers membership.
“In gentleness there is power. Stop forcing, start trusting & feeling your body in movement”.
Sarah Pritchard
My studio ethos
My Pilates & Somatic Movement Studio is my passion and commitment to improve the physical health and wellbeing of women and dancers. Guiding you along your own movement journey, using the power and wisdom of your mind and body. Moving through a felt understanding is very different compared to an experience of moving by copying, forcing or trying to understand academically. My studio is based on all of the principles of the Franklin Method® regardless of which programme you are working on with me.
My studio puts you at the centre of everything that happens here as you move towards an embodied or felt experience of what you are doing. When you feel and embody how to move correctly you will discover very quickly how movement becomes easier and more more powerful. You may also lose those aches and pains you may be carrying because often those are a result of a faulty movement pattern we have developed, through injury, lack of awareness or incorrect use of your body, which can happen for many different reasons. You’ll develop of awareness of your body and understand how to use it in an intelligent way, and you’ll also notice that you are able to experience a calm and very settled mind in doing so.
Somatic movement really is the tonic for modern living because all too often our minds and bodies are pushed too hard and are stressed and tired in an unhealthy way. By returning back to our body, very quickly we can change our state into one that is calmer, more confident and self assured. If you are a performer, you’ll also learn how to develop your artistry and expression by using that felt sense in a highly accurate, anatomically and physiologically embodied way.
Best of all, you won’t have to have a fight with yourself or your body any more. Over time, through developing your skills of embodiment you will be able to read your body with accuracy. You will develop an inner trust that there is so much that is already working for you, and that confidence will transfer into other areas of your life too.
Movement is a joy, it is empowering, and I continually find new depths to it. Inside each and everyone of us, regardless of where we start, there is potential to improve. However, you have to be ready to commit to yourself, to invest time for yourself and to be open minded in your approach. I know what that journey looks like and feels like at every level, because I have been there myself. A radical change in how I approached movement was transformative of not just how I moved and how my body felt, but also transformed my life as whole.
Your journey will be different, but if you feel you are ready to give commitment to your own health and wellbeing, get in touch.
Sarah
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“It all starts with the knowledge that we have the power to change” Eric Franklin
Reach out for further support and guidance.