Sometimes it takes a difficult situation to remind us what an industry is capable of when we choose to come together.
The recent liquidation of Breathe Education left a group of Pilates students facing uncertainty about their education, their investment and, importantly, their future careers. These were students who had made a decision to invest in Pilates education and suddenly found themselves asking: What happens now? Where do I go? Who can I trust?
As President of the Pilates Association Australia (PAA), I believe moments such as these are when the role of a professional association becomes particularly important.
We cannot undo what has happened. We cannot make decisions for students. But we can provide support, knowledge, transparency and choice.
And that is exactly what we set out to do.
Inclusion matters
Breathe Education was not a PAA-approved training course, and therefore its students would not ordinarily have been eligible for PAA student membership.
But we also recognised the people behind the situation.
The students who came to us were passionate about Pilates. They were invested in becoming part of this profession, willing to learn and evolve, and incredibly grateful simply to be included, listened to and given an opportunity to understand what their options might be.
That mattered to us.
As a gesture of inclusion and support, the PAA offered affected Breathe students complimentary student membership. This then gave them access to the members-only platform.
For me, this was an important distinction. Having standards does not mean we stop seeing the individual.
In fact, I believe a strong professional association should be capable of doing both, upholding meaningful standards while extending a hand to people who want to meet the standards we believe will have our industry continue to grow and develop.
We weren’t changing our standards or retrospectively recognising a course that had not been approved by the PAA. We were recognising the students’ commitment to Pilates and giving them an opportunity to become connected with a professional community that could support them as they determined their next steps.
There is a big difference between lowering a standard and creating a pathway towards one.
Turning uncertainty into informed choice
From there, we wanted to give students something equally important: access to information.
We created an opportunity for them to hear directly from PAA-approved training organisations about possible pathways forward.
We had 50 Breathe students register, and nine PAA-approved training providers generously gave their time to present their courses, explain potential pathways and, where applicable, outline discounts or additional assistance they were prepared to offer affected students.
Each provider was given their own dedicated presentation time so students could hear directly from them, ask questions openly and understand what each organisation could offer.
It may, at moments, have felt a little like Pilates training “speed dating”, but what I witnessed was something much more important.
I saw collaboration.
I saw professionalism.
I saw knowledge being shared openly.
And, most importantly, I saw genuine concern for students who were trying to work out what to do next.
As President of the PAA, I was smiling very broadly.
Standards are not about creating barriers
This experience has reinforced why we need to continue the conversation around education and professional standards within Pilates.
Standards can sometimes be interpreted as restrictions, something designed to exclude people or dictate how Pilates must be taught.
That is not how I see them.
Good standards create trust.
They give students greater clarity about the education they are investing in. They give practitioners a professional framework from which to develop. They give participants greater confidence in the people they entrust with their bodies and movement. And they give quality training organisations a benchmark that demonstrates the depth and integrity of the education they provide.
Standards should not remove choice.
Good standards help people make informed choices.
And there is an important difference.
Australia has a diverse Pilates community, and that diversity should be valued. Different schools, methodologies, teaching approaches and philosophies contribute to the richness of our profession.
We do not all have to be the same.
But if we want Pilates to continue to grow as a respected profession, we do need to be able to have conversations about what appropriate education, competency, professional conduct and ongoing development look like.
Those conversations require respect.
They require communication.
They require knowledge.
And sometimes they require us to listen to perspectives different from our own.
An association should connect, not simply regulate
For me, this also speaks to the role I want the PAA to continue developing.
A professional association should not simply be an organisation that people join to place some letters after their name.
It should have purpose.
We have a responsibility to support students entering the profession, practitioners already working within it, the people participating in Pilates every day, and the education providers responsible for preparing the next generation of teachers.
Those groups are interconnected.
When students have access to quality information, they can make better educational choices.
When educators work to strong standards, practitioners enter the profession better prepared.
When practitioners have access to professional development, evidence, support and community, they can continue to grow.
And ultimately, the people who benefit are the participants who place their trust in us every day.
That is the ecosystem of a healthy profession.
Trust is earned
If we want greater recognition and respect for Pilates, we also have to be prepared to earn it.
We earn it through the quality of our education.
We earn it through our professional behaviour.
We earn it by continuing to learn.
We earn it by being willing to ask difficult questions and have respectful conversations.
And we earn it through what we do when things don’t go according to plan.
The response to the Breathe students was one small but powerful example of what can happen when we put those principles into practice.
Our approved training organisations could simply have focused on their individual businesses. Instead, they gave their time, knowledge and empathy to a group of students who needed direction.
Every provider presented professionally and with genuine intention. What stood out to me was not competition between organisations, but the collective passion for Pilates education and for the future of the people entering our profession.
That is something the PAA is incredibly grateful for—and, quite frankly, something I am damn proud of.
Where we go from here
I don’t believe the future of our profession will be strengthened by one organisation, one training provider or one voice deciding what Pilates should be.
It will be strengthened by bringing knowledgeable people together.
By developing meaningful standards.
By sharing information.
By respecting different perspectives while being prepared to stand behind quality.
And by giving people the knowledge they need to make informed choices.
Trust. Knowledge. Choice.
For me, those three words capture much of what a professional association should strive to provide.
There is still work to be done. There will be challenging conversations ahead, and there should be. A profession that is growing and maturing should be willing to examine itself.
But what I witnessed through the response to the Breathe students made me incredibly optimistic about what is possible.
When we communicate rather than operate in isolation, when we collaborate rather than protect our individual corners, and when we place education and professional standards at the centre of the conversation, the entire Pilates community becomes stronger.
Standards give us something to stand for. Inclusion gives people something to belong to. And education gives them the opportunity to grow.
Students deserve that.
Practitioners deserve that.
Our training organisations deserve that.
And most importantly, every person who chooses to put their trust in a Pilates professional deserves that.
This is how we move our profession forward together.
Kimberley Galick, President, Pilates Association Australia
image credit: @SeaSewell
Comments are closed.