Hi, I'm Liz

Movement has been part of my life since I was four years old. I trained in ballet through school and university, discovered Pilates in 1993, and knew almost immediately that it was something I wanted to teach.

My first career was as a veterinarian, and that scientific grounding in anatomy and how the body works has shaped my approach to Pilates ever since. I founded The Perth Pilates Studio in 2000 and led it for nearly two decades, working with everyone from elite athletes to people finding their way back to movement after injury or illness. Over the years, that included members of the Australian National Cycling Team, the West Australian Football League, the West Australian Ballet, and cast members of major musicals.

Since 2003, I've been part of the Polestar Pilates faculty, one of the world's most respected Pilates education programmes, presenting and examining internationally. I hold multiple certifications across mat, reformer, studio and rehabilitation Pilates and am a Principal Trainer Member of the Pilates Association of Australia.

For most of my adult life, I lived in a body I trusted. Strong, capable, reliable. Then in 2023, I was diagnosed with grade 3, stage 3 breast cancer. What followed was a year of surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and medications that turned my world inside out. Halfway through treatment, fungal pneumonia landed me in ICU with respiratory failure.

When I came out of ICU, I barely recognised my body. I couldn't stand without help. Standing alone sent my heart rate to 167 beats per minute. I lost so much muscle mass that my legs didn't know how to hold me. Later came osteoarthritis in both knees, chemo-induced menopause, hormone blockers, corticosteroids, and ten extra kilos on a body that had never known that weight before.

It has been confronting. And if I'm honest, there has been grief. Grief for a body that carried me for decades. Grief for ease and familiarity.

But here's what I know now that I didn't fully understand before.

I know what it feels like when movement is hard. When progress is slow. When you look in the mirror and don't recognise yourself. When you have to celebrate tiny wins because they're the only wins available. I now work a desk job alongside teaching, sitting more than I ever have, rebuilding strength around fatigue and stiff joints and a baseline I never expected to be standing on.

To look at me, you wouldn't know any of this. But inside the Pilates studio, I feel it every day. And it has made me a better teacher than I have ever been.

I'm not standing at the front of the room with a body that has it all together. I'm in the middle of the room with everyone else, applying everything I know to rebuild from the inside out. Patiently. Precisely. With thirty years of experience and a whole new understanding of what it actually takes.

If your body has changed and you're finding your way back to it, I'd love to have you join me on the journey.