One shared purpose of conventional instructors and psychologists is to assist students in becoming perceptive of internal blockages toward growth and fulfillment. Over time, it is possible for students to increase understanding of how their faulty beliefs can obstruct overall health and well-being. As instructors, we start working with students from the “outside”, then move “inward,” because we must focus on the conscious before we attempt to tackle the subconscious. Individuals often demonstrate a degree of awareness of their problematic emotional conflicts. For instance, some students do not feel good about themselves due to a lack of adequate physical fitness or inadequate mental focus; as a consequence, they feel uncoordinated or unable to complete specific exercises.

After becoming more familiar with a particular student and establishing a good functioning relationship, traditional instructors slowly initiate stage-appropriate combinations of stability and instability to aid students’ growth, both physically and emotionally. Sometimes students seek a traditional instructor or psychologist when they are in a state of psychological deflation. Certain individuals have emotional or physical injuries and, as a consequence, may experience undercurrents of self-criticism, even failure. From the beginning, we need to be aware of the student’s wounded pride and hurt. Yet, we should hold firm to the structure and definitions of our professional role. By doing so, traditional instructors and psychologists enable students to work at making deep constructive individual change, while they grow beyond troubled feelings, conflicts or problematic character trends.

As we help students to increase their self-awareness, they begin working through and then resolving areas of inner struggle and conflict. Only then is it viable to develop higher levels of emotional-conceptual organization into a healthier equilibrium of selfhood. Sometimes, when a student is experiencing inner disturbance, there is increased motivation to constructively change behavior and difficult attitudes. This student is frequently more open and more able to decrease conflict and work towards improvement.

When students embark upon their initial psychotherapy session or Pure Classical Pilates lesson, they occasionally desire immediate relief from ache or a solution to an untenable situation. Both psychologists and instructors, however, help out students reclaim themselves in a larger, more general, way. Although we attend to particular problems as professionals, we also acknowledge our students’ positive attributes, their inherent abilities and natural endurance, in spite of all the difficulties. Naturally, we support these strengths, while attending to specific, contextual and immediate issues. This approach was directly paralleled by Joseph Pilates himself in his original New York City studio. When teaching students, initially he reinforced a student’s healthy physical aptitudes to strengthen the entire body, while concurrently protecting the negative or injured part of the body from worsening symptoms. Then Joseph Pilates gave stage-appropriate attention in treating someone’s particular injury or physical limitation. Because most people have rivulets of mild self-criticism, one of our imperative roles is to help students practice self-compassion, appreciation and love.

In order for more self-compassion to emerge, it is essential for the person to become conscious of disturbing or painful feelings. With respect to Pure Classical Pilates, obsessive feelings are sometimes associatively connected with compulsive movements, no matter how subtle or obvious. Students can gradually learn how they are emotionally driven-to one extent or another-by unconscious compulsions to assuage basic anxiety; how we are propelled to “live up to” unrealistic expectations of the idealized self; or how we strategize to evade painful realities of the rejected self. Either explicitly in the psychologist’s office or implicitly in the Pure Classical Pilates studio, helping students become conscious of unconscious compulsive feelings is a useful task with effective outcome.

Author Bio: Dr. Pete Fiasca is a licensed Psychology Doctor focusing on Health Psychology. Prior to his profession as a fitness consultant, Dr. Pete earned masters degrees in Developmental Psychology and Psychological Counseling from Columbia University.

Category: Wellness, Fitness and Diet
Keywords: Positive Psychology, health, fitness, exercise, pilates, classical, consultant, professional