Instructor Trainer bios

Sandra de Sousa Machado is the owner of Pilates Holistic Center Hamburg. Always looking for a way to combine therapy and training, she discovered the STOTT PILATES^® method. Sandra felt the difference in her body during the education process and long afterwards, and in November 2011 she continued her education in Toronto where she became an Instructor Trainer for Merrithew^® specializing in STOTT PILATES, and then became an IT for Total Barre^® in 2013. Sandra was the first Portuguese certified Merrithew Instructor Trainer and now combines over 10 years of teaching experience with her knowledge of Pilates, sport therapy, personal training and massage to ensure that clients experience the best in mind-body exercise. Her clientele includes professional athletes, singers, dancers and actors.

Sara is a physical therapist and entrepreneur who has owned Inspire Health in Atlanta, leading integrative physical therapy and Pilates center, since 2005. Sara's love of science and sport led her to earn an Undergraduate Degree in cellular biology from the University of Georgia and a Masters of Science in physical therapy from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She has spent her physical therapy career in outpatient orthopedic settings, and is a Board Certified Orthopedic Specialist, seeing complex patients referred by some of Atlanta's top physicians. In creating her own practice, Sara has been a leader in integrating Pilates and physical therapy into a patient-centric, outcomes-driven, consumer-pay clinical model. Since 2003, Sara has utilized the STOTT PILATES^® method for neuromuscular re-education and therapeutic intervention in her practice. Sara has partnered with Merrithew^® since 2007 as the owner of a Licensed Training Center and became a STOTT PILATES Rehab IT to continue to promote the integration of STOTT PILATES into the practices of rehabilitation professionals.

Sara has a varied professional portfolio that includes osteopathy and massage as well as personal coaching for specialized sports. She is the Center Director and teaches Pilates and Personal Training at the Pilates Center Valladolid, in Valladolid, Spain. A sports devotee since 1995, she initiated incorporating the Pilates method with her clients after taking her first STOTT PILATES^® course in 2006. She began STOTT PILATES Rehab training in 2012 and became a Merrithew^® Instructor Trainer specializing in STOTT PILATES Matwork and Reformer in 2014.

Sarah has a passion for movement. Having been a competitive athlete, Pilates helped her overcome several injuries and fueled her desire to further understand movement. Sarah's enthusiastic and energetic nature can be seen in the clinic and classroom, helping others move better, studying how the nervous system controls movement and sharing this knowledge. Sarah is currently a teacher and researcher at the University of Saskatchewan, and carries a clinical load focusing on motor control in pediatrics, neurology and sport. She is a Merrithew^® Instructor Trainer specializing in STOTT PILATES^®. Interested in complex movement disorders, as well as injury prevention, Sarah loves Pilates for the mind body awareness it creates and the ability to use this to restore balance in the body.

Sarah is the founder of The Studio, a fully-equipped Pilates, dance and fitness studio in Cairo, Egypt. Her interest in movement blossomed at a very young age while learning ballet and gymnastics. She took up dance professionally and joined the Cairo Modern Dance Theater at the Cairo Opera House. Sarah's desire to understand the mechanics of movement sparked an expansive journey of learning. She pursued multiple certifications, including different Pilates methods, personal training, group fitness and spinning. Sarah delved into the world of STOTT PILATES^® in 2010 with a passion and vigor that allowed her to rapidly complete her courses in succession and become Fully Certified. In 2016, she successfully completed her Merrithew^® Instructor Trainer Course specializing in STOTT PILATES. She also became a CORE^™ and Total Barre^® Qualified Instructor.