What Is It That I do? - A Personal Introduction

As we get to the end of summer 25, after taking a little pause from social media over the past few months, I think it is a good time to re-introduce myself.

My name is Kaye, which is a professional name I use. I like it a lot, and it is easier to pronounce. I am called Ksenia in my passports (oh yes, I have more than one!).

I’ve come into this line of work through my own past severe struggles to improve my health, rebuilding myself from a very low point both physically and mentally. Having turned things around for myself, I was fired up with a deep passion to bring the same healing to the others.

I left my career in finance and project management and retrained as a therapist, bodyworker, pain specialist, core and pelvic floor rehabilitation... to help people find support like when I needed support back in the earlier years.

People like you, who are on a quest to get better not necessarily through a quick gym-style fix (there is nothing wrong with that, it just does not work for everybody)...

...but through seeking the answers to the questions, like - WHY am I like that?

WHY do I have persistent pain and tension that a massage or an chiropractic adjustment does not fix?

WHY do I feel worse when life gets overwhelming?

Am I broken, or can I be helped?

Yes, almost certainly. I have learned that there are no dead ends, only ones that are self-perceived by our minds clouded by stress and worry.

There are answers for everything, we just need to look hard enough, have clarity of vision, good support, and we often need to question things that might otherwise be seen as “common wisdom”.

So, what is it that I actually do?

I am a functional health rehabilitation specialist, utilising not just exercises and movement such as Pilates or restorative yoga, but also applied neurology and mind-body techniques to help people with pain, core, and pelvic floor problems.

No, I am not just a Pilates instructor - again, it is a great job, and it is definitely a part of what I do.

However, a “movement therapist” is a somewhat better description, but a “mind-body therapist” is probably best.

Titles are difficult.

Does it really matter?

I help people with pain.

And together, we look for the true sources of their issues.

It is always there in the history. Not just habits (although they are relevant). But also, injuries and surgeries, past emotional overloads, and deep-set beliefs about the health that we can carry with us.

A lot of it is to do with our resilience and our trust in authority. I will give you an example. If we are given a diagnosis following an MRI scan for back pain, we can experience more pain as the result.

Because more often than not, they find something (everyone carries some “stuff” in their back, it is a normal part of ageing). And that diagnosis sounds scary, the label is frightening, and the doctors tend to be dismissive - “oh, so what do you expect, you are [insert age]”.

That fear can actually aggravate the existing pain.

But what of the original pain in the first place? Was that due to, let’s say, some age-related disc denegerative disease in the first place?

No - pain has multiple sources, for instance:

• lack of daily activity and oxygen in the tissues

• stress carried in tense muscles

• inflammation due another underlying condition, or diet-or digestive-related matters

• poor breathing patterns

• anxiety, including anxiety about ageing

• beliefs such as “my back is bad, it can “go out” any time, I best guard it by not moving”... and so forth.

It all adds up.

It can all be reversed.

The most powerful intersection of my work is between mind and body matters. Where we hold memories of a bad past injury in our tissues, no amount of exercise is going to restore full function.

Because as soon as you activate or press on the past injury site, however long has passed, the brain re-assesses the site, finds it still problematic, and inhibits local structures to protect you from overworking this area.

Many of my clients found this with our work together

• a bad fall on the hip decades ago, causing years of persistent weakness of the whole leg

• a fall backwards onto the lower back hitting a metal bar with ensuing severe bruising - causing decades' long subsequent chronic background pain (remember, tissues heal within 3-6 months!)

• head injuries, including forceps deliveries at birth causing downstream neck and arm problems

• falls off horses…. Being kicked by a horse….

The list goes on and on.

I have had my fair share of those too, personally, and had them identified and resolved with my own bodyworker. Like the aftermath of slipping on the floor in a hall where I was teaching a group class and nearly breaking my wrist and severely bruising my thigh.

Weeks later, my arm and leg still did not feel right, and were found to be inhibited, and treated very simply, with immediate results to restore full function.

So, yes, that is what I do. I investigate, question, assess, and work with the nervous system to restore better funtion, safety, awareness... and then we overlay this with exercises, such as Pilates reformer, Restore Your Core, or Hypopressives.

I have a lovely garden studio in Corfe Mullen where I run 1-1's, two-person Pilates reformer sessions, NeuroKinetic therapy, or Hypopressives, and see people with my skills as a hypnotherapist and an Integrated Eye Movement specialist. I would love to welcome you there.

If you would like to find out more, please get in touch on 07768 135481 or kaye@move-beyond.co.uk.

To your health

Kaye