Why learn from Melanie?
In 1999 after moving to the Pacific Northwest, Melanie was introduced to STOTT PILATES. Having worked for 10 years as a physiotherapist, STOTT PILATES inspired her to think differently about how movement could influence her clinical practice and help restore her client’s confidence and capacity. She loved the way it could blend principles of optimal movement with exercise and was excited by its therapeutic possibilities.
In 2001, she co-founded Pacific Northwest Pilates in Portland, Oregon. Melanie wanted to develop a practice that could use her specialized therapeutic skills and education to work with a range of clients, especially those with complex issues. The Pilates studio setting enabled her to work with clients throughout their entire rehabilitation process—resolving immediate pain and/or underlying issues—through building strength and awareness, and progressing a client as they returned to life activities and sports. The PIlates studio environment enabled Melanie to increase the speed of her pattern recognition and accuracy of her evaluation skills.
Initially, Melanie had to figure out how to integrate her physiotherapy and her Pilates knowledge independently. Being curious and a researcher by nature, she used her critical reasoning skills to help each individual client, and developed her unique systems over time. She created workshops to help her colleagues and students learn to think 3-dimensionally, and to have a dexterous mind for working with complex clients.
In 2007, Melanie was honored to become a Master Instructor Trainer of Rehabilitation for STOTT PILATES, and in 2007, Merrithew Health & Fitness invited Melanie to co-create a six-part Rehabilitation Course series for licensed healthcare professionals worldwide. She has created a library of 25+ workshops and courses, Master Classes, case-study based learning workshops, and has traveled and taught globally. She continues to see clients, do injury consultations, mentor movement professionals, and teach courses and workshops.
Melanie believes strongly that it is a privilege to work with people, and that movement professionals can be powerful partners in the process of restoring physical and mental strength and confidence for their clients by continually learning and developing skills within their scope of practice.
Teaching hotspots across the globe
Melanie has taught movement education programming at privately-owned, studios in over ten countries.
- Toronto, Calgary, Nova Scotia, Vancouver BC, Canada
- Seattle, Portland, Jacksonville, Detroit and Boston, USA
- Sao Paulo, Brazil
- Nicosia, Cyprus
- Aarhus, Denmark
- United Arab Emirates, Dubai
- Osaka, Japan
- The Hague, Netherlands
- Jakarta, Indonesia
- Perth & Melbourne, Australia
Melanie Byford-Young Education makes optimal movement possible, probable, repeatable, and permanent.
MBY Education is a systematic approach to help Movement Professionals evaluate and work with injured and complex clients: to understand WHAT is going on, WHY it is going on, and HOW to help unwind and restore better movement quality and movement confidence. It is a system that provides the building blocks for assessing movement, and focuses on the critical reasoning skills that guide exercise selection, progression and regression—in other words, a system to help movement professionals be excellent problem solvers.
Movement Professionals need inspiration and help with clients throughout their careers. The longer we are in this profession, the more complex clients we see. It can be challenging to help complex clients, and it takes creativity to partner with these clients as they progress. This is exactly why Melanie has created this new learning platform.
The foundational aspects of anatomy, physiology and biomechanics are common in every individual and are also the building blocks for understanding the aspects that make every individual unique.
MBY Education has four tiers of learning:
Foundational Skills
The foundation of your understanding begins with anatomy and biomechanics. The collection of lessons in this tier helps you gain insight into what is elemental for optimal movement, stability, understanding pain and so much more.
Critical Reasoning
This second tier highlights concepts that enable you to actively and skillfully conceptualize, analyze, question and evaluate better. Learning principles of exercise programming, recognizing how and when to isolate or integrate movement, and developing observation skills to see optimal versus non-optimal patterns are important topics in this tier.
Regional Movement Analysis & Problem Solving
Building on the concepts already presented in the prior tiers, you’ll take a closer look at specific areas of the body, injuries and/or conditions such as hypermobility, hip or knee replacements, scoliosis and many others.
Advanced Movement Assessment & Integrative Thinking
Progress to this final tier to understand how to conduct dynamic movement assessments, build specific programs and learn from case studies.
We know that wild variety abounds in the body. Everyone doesn't benefit from rote exercise routines. Melanie's workshop content presents solutions to cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all teaching methods and philosophies. And, because you have access to online material forever, you can develop the skills over time—like Melanie—to recognize the dynamic relationships each component of the body has to each other.
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