Testimonials

My name is Hannah and I am the newly appointed Client Coordinator. I help you with anything admin based and support in the studio. More importantly I am your biggest supporter! 

I share my story so you can see I get it! The ups and downs of life. The challenge to care for yourself. The wins and losses. The journey to self love and love of others.

I found the wellness path after my first child was born with lots of physical and mental health complications. I remember a spark in my brain thinking you were allergic to dairy as a child perhaps start there and the journey started.  Where I just kept looking and looking and testing possibilities and I promised myself I would leave no stone unturned to help him. I was determined to change his reality.

This led me to specialist after specialist and expensive doctor after expensive doctor seeking desperately for the answers. However, when I appeared in front of the doctors I seem to understand more about my son‘s condition and more about my own body and what was happening than they did since I spent so many night up studying medical books and researching in libraries (pre internet availability). They charged me $600 gave me a whole lot of supplements and expensive things with no true help of what to do. I left even more depleted than when I came into there offices. So I started studying nutrition and herbalism and a little bit of Naturopathy and the energetic system of the body and brain connection.

How we can change our own lives. Initially just to understand my own body because at the time I had developed cancer through the stress and in a deep depression, I was allergic to everything and in chronic fatigue and pain. Then I had my second child 17 months later. Both births were incredibly challenging. I don’t think my body has ever been the same since. Although with using Pilates and walking I am pretty determined! 

So people kept asking what I had been doing, as I had lost a lot of weight and our son was improving and our lifestyle changed dramatically. Our second child was born with physical and hearing difficulties and I managed to overcome these with nutrition and lifestyle changes and a lot of will power for their futures to be different. I had to make mindset shifts and choose another paths. It was challenging as I lost friends because of my lifestyle choices. Ie not drinking or staying up late ect. However I was seeing the changes in front of me. It was helping. 

Therefore I kind of fell into coaching others in what had worked for me because people asked. Then I kept getting qualifications as I felt not qualified enough to be teaching others. Until it lead me to a variety of healing methods and tools to serve my clients and family. I was running a successful coaching business, I had a Salt Rooms and Wellness centre for a few years too. Then out of what seemed nowhere living this clean extremely healthy life, reducing our stress and lifestyle. I had a heart attack and TIA stroke. Within a week I found out I was born with a hole in my heart (PFO) and I was at risk of another stroke. Well while debating whether to have the surgery I had another heart attack and only after many tests they showed I had actually had x2 TIA strokes.

At the time we had fires, then massive floods in NSW when we were living, we were under crippling medical debts. Oh the stress, panic and fear was intense and it was lockdowns and we lost half our business. I had the surgery and some symptoms like my migraines stopped. However they had to resuscitate me after my operation and I didn’t react well to the anaesthesia. So my body went into complete shut down for months. Plus because I had lived such a clean lifestyle and did what I felt “was everything right”? I got very angry. In rebellion against health. I started eating whatever I wanted, so angry and upset that I’ve done “everything right” and ended up in this place. The weight piled on quite quickly and so did the depression and anger. Causing mobility issues because I also at that time found out that not only had I had all of that going on since childhood. I also had Elhers Danlos Syndrome (hyper mobility) Lipeodema and Lymphedema since childhood too. I just thought I had heavy legs and heavy arms and I was constantly fasting and restricting my eating to lose the weight, always on one diet or another or over exercising. It all made sense why I didn’t change my body shape.

The lightbulb moment happened and I started to understand what I needed to do. I went back to my training. Doing what I had taught so many with great results. Baby steps. With love not anger or fear or force. Eventually I got my diet back on track… not from force but from love of self, from desire to help myself and I started to feel a bit better mentally, a bit more determined. However my body was in extreme pain and movement was challenging. For a while I could only walk with walking sticks. That’s when I sort out PT’s and gym classes and each one I left injured, defeated and lost with no one to understand how to help me and me not understanding it was for me to help me. Was this my future I felt. A wheel chair?!  I felt such shame, I closed my coaching business and started pottery to recover my mental health. 

A few more floods and traumas, more debt. However my mindset had been reprogrammed again and I was determined to change my situation. I had done it before I can do it again. I finally found a one-on-one Pilates teacher. Gosh she is so dear to me. She and Pilates saved my life. I went to her utterly broken. Physically, emotionally, spiritually and mentally. The first few months I just cried on the reformer as she held space for me. Encouraging me. Then we would try gentle movements. She would show me what the move would eventually look like. I would think “you are crazy I can never do that”. You know what?! 6 months later I did it! It took consistent weekly visits and months to see any progression. Then 6 months after that I am doing poses I never ever thought I could do. I felt strong and I could get up without a 20 point turn and extreme pain. I could drive without pain. Lift my leg up with my hips going out. Pick up shopping bags without my neck inflaming. These may seem small wins. However they were massive to me. And witnessed and supported by my instructor with such excitement and faith she made me believe in myself. As I said I will be eternally grateful to her. 

The other part that plays a massive part was she encouraged me to come consistently to grow the neurons in my brain. At first I didn’t see the point. It was just more pain to feel. I was just suffering and getting nowhere. But once I realised I’m getting a few gains, my brain and desire started developing and understanding that when I attended Pilates or walked I was going to get relief from my pain and I was going to get stronger. This maybe common sense however it took me till my mid 40’d to learn moving my body helps with physical and emotional pain. I started to be more present in life. To feel my emotions more. 

This neuron growing belief kept growing and eventually my belief was “Pilates makes me stronger” and then my body started becoming stronger. I understood the importance of belief and mindset as well as physical action. 

All of my experience has given me so much more compassion and understanding for others. And so much more wisdom to share with others. And so much belief in the body recovering itself if the desire is there. The action is simply the last bit. When I arrived in Kingaroy 2 months ago, I was so upset to leave my Pilates instructor. I was so hoping that there would be a studio that could support me like she had. I went to other studios and was utterly disappointed and actually injured myself in both experiences. And then my husband and I came to ‘My Wellness Bar’ we were greeted by the instructors in such a lovely welcoming way. The environment felt warm and welcoming. I relaxed and felt I found my place. This is good. After a class one day I heard Belinda say that she was looking for someone to help her with admin and support her clients as Phoebe had just left. Perfect I thought I love Pilates. I am an advocate for Pilates. I have run wellness businesses before I’ve used a similar software before. I understand the journey that so many have gone through. And will need to go through. I feel like I could be a help here. And now I’m here to support you in your journey of health and to continue to keep growing my body stronger and stronger through the use of Pilates and the wonderful instructors wisdom and care. As my wish is for you too.

I am so looking forward to meeting all of you if I haven’t met you already. Or supporting you to start your journey. Or encouraging you to carry on in your journey, when you feel like giving up because I have experienced it is in those moments when we want to give up, or think this is not possible or too hard. That is when we turn up to class anyway and we make that neural pathway stronger in the brain and encourage more and more growth and more and more strength to come. We must understand that we are never too old, to unfit, too overweight, too unwell, too injured, too busy…. to ever give up on ourselves! It is so important to learn to love ourselves and to put into ourselves what we put into others or our work or families. We can still give to others and that is so important and needed in this world. However, so many of us have not given to ourselves, right?! … and I think Pilates gives a little bit of something to us whilst we are on the mat or reformer bed, a little bit of relaxation, a little bit of strength, a little bit of flexibility, a little bit of community, a little bit of fun! (Ladies you know who you are hahah!) a little bit of whatever is needed that day, maybe a cry. I am a big fan of feeling whatever comes up whilst on the reformer as our pain is our inner voice saying love me more, be aware of that, stop that, change that, you are not being loving here or modest or showing up as we are…it’s our guidance system if we let it come through. I am not talking about the beautiful burn of a good workout. I mean the long standing screams we so often ignore, or numb out from. These are our guides to self healing, self empowerment, self reliance, independence and love. Then we gift to others from a full, fit, fantastic place. 

Many blessings to all, 

I look forward to meeting you all and getting to know your important stories.