About Us

Louisa Griffin

Qualifications
Fitpro – Level 3
Modern Pilates – Level 3
YMCA Fit – Level 2
Bowen Therapist
Be Activated – practitioner

About
I warmly welcome you to the Pilates Rooms Urmston. We are based in Peter Minister House, 26-30 Station Road Urmston, with ample parking at the rear and nearby. We offer Pilates, Yoga and complementary healthcare to the Urmston community and surrounding areas of Trafford and Manchester. Whether you have been referred to Pilates by a medical practitioner, by friends and family, or simply to get yourself more active, rest assured we have the right methods and experience to help you achieve your wellness goals.

We offer a personal and focused approached to understand what level of exercise you need and which other treatments or therapies could help you. We offer small classes to ensure you get the highest level of attention in every class and receive personally tailored exercise. We also run individual sessions, specific group sessions and targeted workshops within the rooms. All this is done in a well-appointed studio and treatment rooms with a friendly yet professional atmosphere that I genuinely hope you’ll enjoy returning to.

I personally have successfully helped many clients improve mobility and performance, overcome long-term persistent problems, remove or decrease pain and have treated people coping with conditions ranging from a bad back to Multiple Sclerosis. We can help you not only with my extensive Pilates experience but other techniques such as ‘Bowen Therapy’ and ‘Be Activated’. I am soon to be joined by other wellness professionals to offer further beneficial treatments to compliment your overall health.

If you have any questions about the treatments we provide, we would be happy to discuss these with you, please call us on Tel: 07816 913107.

We accept self-referrals as well as referrals from local GP’s.

Pilates Rooms opening hours: Monday to Friday: 10.00am to 9.00pm, Saturday: By appointment only.

I have had first hand experience of how Pilates can help physical rehabilitation. My early career started as an aerobics instructor teaching over 25 classes a week as well as playing netball for over 10 years. However at the age of 28 I had a severe back injury which led to me need spinal surgery on my lower back. After the surgery I was advised by my consultant to take up Pilates.

Pilates had a profound effect on my back pain and mobility , so much so I decided to retrain and teach Pilates myself. I have now been teaching Pilates for 12 years. After doing my initial training in basic matwork classes with Modern Pilates in 2003, I have subsequently gone on to further training to specialise in back care, pre and post natal, older adult and neurological conditions including MS.

Building on this training I am now a qualified Bowen Therapist and I’ve had some astonishing results in helping people deal with severe pain and improvement in existing conditions.
I am also a ‘Be Activated’ practitioner which helps increase sports performance and restore correct muscle firing patterns following injury or wear n tear.

I’d be happy to talk to you about how I could help get you where you want to be.

Esmeralda Smit

Qualifications: Hatha Yoga Instructor (200 hrs), Yoga for children (ages 2 – 17), Yoga for additional needs, Reformer Pilates, McLoughlin Scar Tissue Release & Level 3 Swedish Body Massage.

About:

In 2008 Esmeralda started her yoga journey and she immediately felt the mental and physical benefits of Yoga. It helped her with stressful situations at work and her energy levels and flexibility improved. ‘The awareness that Yoga gives you is one of the best things you can do for yourself’ she says.

To deepen her own practice and out of curiosity Esmeralda started a 3-year Hatha Yoga Teacher training and qualified in 2014 in The Hague, The Netherlands. When she started covering a few classes for her Yoga instructor and using Yoga in the classroom where she worked as a special needs teacher, she felt this could be something for the future. 4 years later she left education and now Esmeralda teaches classes for adults, children and additional needs.

Esmeralda’s classes are based on classic Hatha Yoga and often have a theme related to the time of the year and the anatomical areas to help balance body and mind.

If you like an approachable teaching style, a calm and gentle yoga flow where there is focus on moving and breathing you will enjoy her classes. All classes include a short meditation and a well-deserved relaxation.
Esmeralda is also available for relaxing body massage bookings.

Sonya McKee

Qualifications

VTCT level 3 Diploma in Instructing Mat-Based Pilates
VTCT level 3 Award in Designing Physical Activity Programmes for Antenatal & Postnatal Clients
MK/ Drummand Level 4 Pilates Reformer Therapy Exercise Course
Bowtech Bowen Therapeutic Technique , Diploma of proficiency
Future Fit Pilates with Small Equipment
Future Fit Pilates for Common Orthopaedic Conditions
Feel Now Yoga, Yoga for Additional Needs
Spine safe Reformer Foundation & Intermediate

About

Sonya joined us to instruct on various mat based Pilates classes and reformer classes.

Sonya was a teaching assistant for 15 years, but she decided to have a career change.

Sonya said:
I have always been a very active person. Starting back at school, dancing for Trafford & trampolining for the school. I then went on to college & University to do Physical Theatre and Dance, I had a break for a few years whilst I brought up my 2 lovely boys.

About this time, I started working at a special needs school with children with many different needs, complex learning & medical needs and ASC.

After 15 years I decided that a career change was a must, so, I thought that my hobby could become my work, as they say, “enjoy your work and you’ll never work a day in your life”.

Well it is true, I now feel blessed to be teaching Pilates. I work with all abilities and I love to see the progress that my clients make, it makes them smile and that makes me feel happy.

Pilates offers people flexibility, mobility, Co-ordination, strength, Balance and healthy mental well-being what more would you want out of life? As Joseph Pilates said

“The acquirement and enjoyment of physical well-being, mental calm and spiritual peace are priceless to their possessors”

Pilates can really offer it all.

Angela Williams

Qualifications:

Qualified Level 3 Mat Pilates

About:

Angela joins us to instruct on various Pilates classes (see timetable). She has personal experience of how Pilates can help to improve mind and body and welcomes all levels of ability to her classes.

Angela said:

Pilates has improved my health and well being enormously!

I am fitter, stronger, calmer, and happier than I have ever been in my life and I now see the same improvements in my clients too.

I recently qualified in Level 3 Mat Pilates but wish I had done it years ago ! I know from my own experiences with lumber spine and shoulder problems that exercise truly is the best medicine.

Pilates is my passion, my priority and my habit. It challenges, relaxes, rebalances and there is a level for anyone to start, progress and improve from. Its sociable and fun too !

So for me, the satisfaction I get just means that Pilates is a real pleasure for me to teach.

I am really glad to have been given the opportunity to be a part of Louisas team and look forward to meeting you all very soon.

Jenny Healy

Qualifications

Modern Pilates – Level 3
Spine safe Reformer Foundation & Intermediate

About
After working in Human Resources for almost 20 years, I decided to turn my passion for health and fitness into a career. This was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made!

Prior to finding Pilates I was a stereotypical ‘fitness freak’ and loved high intensity, high impact forms of exercise when I suffered a knee injury and had to find a new way to stay strong. I’m so grateful for that knee injury as I found a Pilates teacher who not only helped me rehabilitate my knee, but my whole body and I’ve been passionate about Pilates ever since.

I love working with a huge variety of people who may have started Pilates for different reasons, but share the same goal of getting stronger, fitter and feeling better. Working at The Pilates Rooms is fantastic as we are able to offer our clients both mat and reformer meaning we are able to help just about everybody. When asked what is best, mat or reformer? I tell people it’s like asking me to choose between my children, both are challenging and amazing!

Felicity Nicolson

Qualifications:

BSc. Physiotherapy 2006
MSc. Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy 2011
APPI Pilates: Mat work 1, 2, 3, Ante and Post Natal

About:
Felicity Nicholson, Pelvic Physio Manchester
Please call or text 07835157104 for appointments, or find on Facebook Pelvic Physio Manchester. £85 for a one hour assessment or £45 for any half hour follow ups.

Felicity Nicholson MSc, BSc (Hons) Physiotherapy, MCSP
I qualified as a physiotherapist in 2006 and started my private practice here at the Pilates rooms in 2014. My specialist areas are pelvic floor physiotherapy and psychosexual medicine. I currently work as specialist pelvic health physiotherapist and clinical team lead in the NHS.
Postgraduate training includes:
• MSc Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy with a dissertation in women’s pelvic health
• PGCert Continence
• Acupuncture training with AACP
• Postnatal practitioner
• Diploma in Psychosexual Medicine from the IPM
• Pilates qualifications with APPI
Pelvic Health Physiotherapy
I have been a specialist physiotherapist in pelvic health since 2011. I am passionate about helping men and women address pelvic health issues that are often seen as taboo and can take people many years to seek treatment. However, simple, effective treatment options are available.
Pelvic health physiotherapy addresses problems like stress incontinence, over active bladder, prolapse, bowel dysfunction, pelvic pain and sexual dysfunction. I gained my psychosexual medicine diploma from the Institute of Psychosexual Medicine in 2021 and postnatal assessment is a specialist assessment for anyone who has given birth, to help address any pelvic health or abdominal concerns and return to exercise safely.
I am registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), I am a member of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) and am fully insured. I am a full member of Pelvic, Obstetric, and Gynaecological Physiotherapy (POGP) and their North West area representative.
To book an appointment, or for further information please contact me

Lisa Middleton

Qualifications:

British Wheel of Yoga Foundation Course
350 hours Independent Yoga Network Teaching Diploma with Debbie Farrar
Indian Head Massage Diploma
Intelligent Yoga with Pete Blackaby
Dynamic Yoga with Godfrey Deveruex
Anatomy Intensive with Leslie Kaminoff
Feldenkrais for Yoga Teachers with Daniel Gelblum

About:

HI, I’M LISA…

Yoga has always been in my life in one way or another, my mum practised yoga throughout my childhood and I dipped my toe in and out of it from my teens right up until my late twenties. It was in my early thirties I started a regular daily practice and with this began to feel a sense of confidence, calm and freedom I had never felt before.

After trying out various approaches to yoga, I felt that there was more to learn about this magical practice, so I applied for the British Wheel of Yoga foundation course with my teacher Debbie Farrar. During this time there was a huge shift in my thinking and I slowly started to peel back the layers of what yoga is all about. The fire in my belly had been lit and I decided to continue to study under Debbie, completing the Independent Yoga Network accredited Teaching Diploma over 18 months. This experience allowed me to learn and appreciate the subtleties of the practice, how the philosophy weaves into daily life, the miraculous anatomy, systems and functions of the body and the peace & tranquillity of stillness.

Yoga is an incredible journey and one that enriches my life every day in so many ways, both on and off the mat. Yoga has given me the tools to deal with my own stress and anxiety, help with my father’s Parkinson’s disease and the ebb and flow of life. It is so much more than posture practice, it has changed the way I think, the way I breath, the way I act and react and the decisions I make in life. I truly believe the health benefits mentally, physically and spiritually are endless for everyone regardless of age or abilities.

My teaching is influenced by Debbie Farrar, Godfrey Deveruex and Pete Blackaby whose methods are underpinned by listening to the intelligence of the body and being guided by nourishing sensations. I am also influenced by The Feldenkrais Method which focuses on deep awareness and learning through movement to enhance function.

My classes focus on useful and loving ways to feel, think, move and breathe. A typical class will include body awareness & grounding, breathing techniques, preparing the joints, mindful slow flowing movements & postures, meditation and relaxation.

Allowing you, the unique individual to find freedom and peace in your body and mind & access a yoga toolbox you can bring it into your daily life.

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