My mission is to help you regain mobility, flexibility, strength and hope using movement as medicine.

I’m here to help you get back on the mat and on your feet.

Doctors go on and on about how great movement is for cancer recovery and still there are no tried and true regimens they can recommend wholeheartedly.

You can’t bend like a pretzel anymore , do sit ups and have lost all your muscles and endurance. I’ve been there and it is my passion and purpose to help you.

The Heal & Thrive Membership incorporates my own personal rehab recovery program that I designed as I was recovering from Stage 3C ovarian cancer. I literally began creating it from the hospital bed post major surgery!

I had to do it on my own because no other medical professional knew how to help me–it was so frustrating! 

This is why I’m here to help you and also teach other movement educators who want to learn how to help their own students/ clients.

After my Stage 3C Ovarian cancer surgery, I was frustrated to find limited resources about how to exercise safely with an ostomy. Because I’ve taught Pilates and yoga and have been working as a movement educator for the past 25 years, I understand and respect the human body. At the time, I was aware that movement was essential for my rehabilitation and improving my quality of life. I knew movement would be my medicine–and today I am here to teach you my exact roadmap to recovery.

My intention for Heal & Thrive is to help you connect to a better quality of life while you are going through the cancer journey. Some people heal faster. While others take years to heal. There is no one way that is perfect and I can show you the right movement that I call medicine.

Once you hear those words, “You have cancer,” you become overwhelmed by the thought of, “What do I need to do?” I can remember the feeling of being outside of my body … and I can still recall the panic deep in my chest and hardly being able to breathe through the fear. I remember feeling so alone.

No one should have to go through cancer alone, yet so often that’s how it shakes out. 

With my Heal & Thrive Membership Program you won’t have to.

Imagine … getting your body back in shape safely and gently, without overwhelm or fear of the unknown!

Plus, you don’t need any prior experience doing yoga or pilates.

I’ve had too many women come to me in tears telling me that their own yoga and pilates teachers don’t know how to help them post surgery!

From the moment you find out you have cancer, you can begin your Prehab Recovery. This program will prepare your body for the physical fight so you can recover faster and with less pain.

Research shows that for most people exercise is safe and helpful before, during and after cancer treatment. It can help improve your quality of life. 

Exercise and stretching may help you cope with those nasty side effects of chemo and radiation (I know it did for me).

Here are some of the benefits you will experience:

• More energy
  
• Less Pain
  
• Less anxiety & depression
  
• More Flexibility
  
• Better CORE function and strength
  
• Better Balance
  
• Better Posture
• Increase Upper Body Strength
• Increase Lower Body Strength
• Less Back Pain
• More Self-Confidence
  
• Improved Self-Worth
• Decrease Lower Limb Lymphedema post surgery
• Less Scar Tissue Pain
• Safe exercises for an Ileostomy surgery and post reversal

Note: Heal & Thrive is specifically designed for women recovering from Abdominal and Pelvic cancers, but all are welcome.

Your recovery begins in the hospital. The sooner you start moving, the sooner you will get out of the hospital and back to your life. Your nurses will have you up and walking ASAP. If you are working with a Physical Therapist you can pull up the exercises on your Ipad or phone and show it to your doctor or PT. Medical clearance is NECESSARY BEFORE you start any physical exercise program. 

If you’re starting this program after coming home from the hospital, I recommend you still start with Phase 1 when you feel ready.

The exercises in Phase 1 include very gentle stretches and movements that stimulate blood flow and help reduce low back pain, pelvic pain and scar tissue that is forming. There are NO abdominal exercises involved. 

Phase 1 includes simple exercises in bed where you bend your knees and stretch your feet. At the end of this phase, you’ll be on your way to sitting in a chair. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t have the energy to do all of Phase 1 in the hospital. You can start after you return home and feel ready. 

You can pick and choose the gentle exercises that feel right for you.

In Phase 2, you will begin your exercises at home. I’ve tried to make it as simple as possible for you. What you’ll be doing is not traditional yoga or Pilates; it’s my own recipe for rehabilitating your core in the safest way possible and this doesn’t include sit ups!

The gentle movements in this phase will help prevent something your doctor may not have told you about–lower limb lymphedema. Basically, this means swelling of the legs. It’s now known that it can occur many years after your original surgery—up to ten years later! 

In Phase 2, you’ll work on rebuilding your strength, balance and flexibility … and not the traditional way you might think of balance, like standing on one leg. None of that in this phase. It is important to work on the flexibility part first, because after you’ve had surgery, your body has been traumatized and there’s a lot of inflammation. It’s best for your recovery not to return to your former, strenuous workout routine right away.

Or if you have never really had a movement routine or are new to all of this, this is the PERFECT place for you. I love teaching beginners how to realign and strengthen their bodies from past injuries and surgery. 

In Phase 2 you will also learn simple exercises to do that will help stretch your internal pelvic floor muscles and surrounding hip muscles. These movements are extremely helpful for anyone who has ever had pelvic radiation or trauma to the pelvis from surgery.  You will learn that no muscle works alone and no system works alone. This is a full body recovery program.

Phase 3 is the central pillar of the entire program because it’s all about rebuilding your core strength. 

This is my favorite phase. I created these safe exercises for myself because of my ileostomy. I found the area around the surgical site to be weak. When I tried normal core exercises it would pull on my internal scar tissue causing severe pain.  I got frustrated. 

After radiation damaged and weakened the tissues in my abdomen and pelvis, I lost sensation inside my core. I also had nerves cut through my sacrum and bladder region making it challenging for me to feel my deep core muscles. These muscles are important to you. 

The problem when you have a weak core is that you are at a higher risk for a hernia! This is a common problem for anyone who has had abdominal surgery. If you have an ileostomy or an ileostomy reversal you are at an even higher risk for developing a hernia. This is why you DO NOT strain or go beyond where your body is ready to.

The good news is that I know how to help you. I know how to support and strengthen your deep core muscles in a safe way. I myself have to be careful and mindful of this today even seven years after my surgeries. 

I will teach you how to be mindful and concentrate on timing and micro-mini movements to strengthen your body on a deeper level. You’ll be amazed at how the slower and smaller your movements are, the more you will feel your insides working on a deeper level and NOT be in pain. The best!

In this phase you will learn how to regain your balance and strength. Learn the foundational body mechanics for better walking which is the FIRST step in your recovery for years and beyond.

The focus in this phase is rebuilding back your hip and lower body strength.

In Phase 4, you will also learn how to safely do a modified plank and

side plank exercise, which is essential to strengthen your core and

overall body.

Phase 5 is one of my favorites. I provide over 40 tried and tested stretches for you to choose from, to help relieve your back, pelvic and hip pain.

The timeline for each of the phases completely depends on your body’s recovery needs and you can customize how you move through each phase of the program.