Where can I use my Muse Pilates Certification?
BY: KERI O’MEARA
Will I be able to use my Pilates Teacher Training Certification anywhere in the world?
This was my fundamental question when I applied for my first Pilates Teacher Training many many many moons ago. Knowing in my heart that my second love was traveling, I needed to know that being a Pilates teacher was something I could put in my suitcase and do anywhere.
I cannot actually remember what I was told, but clearly I was assuaged because I did the training - and look at me now folks - currently running the behind the scenes of Muse Movement from Lisbon (for now).
I get this question a lot when I interview prospects for our Muse Pilates Teacher Training and it's not as straightforward an answer as I think I was fed back in the day.
Here is the thing - Pilates is not trademarked.
It is a system of exercises crested by a man named Joseph Pilates that has been passed down, to the side, up and around and reinterpreted many, many times over, all around the world and for over one hundred years.
There are hundreds of different Pilates methods. Muse is just one of them in a small studio in a big city in one corner of the world.
I would ask this: where do you want to take your teaching journey? Are you going to teach in a Shala on a beach in Thailand to classes of 5 people or are you going to teach in a heavily air conditioned studio to a group class of 30 people in the downtown core of Dubai?
What does internationally recognized mean to you?
Is it the standards of the US? Is it Europe? Is it simply a corporate Pilates organization that has a big marketing team so a lot of people know their name? Oh the places Muse would go if we had investors with deep pockets. Teacher training in Bali anyone?
There are professional associations in different countries, such as The Pilates Method alliance in the United States, that have certain standards by which they rate a Teacher Training Program and can give a studio a stamp of approval which some people think is important.
To be clear, there is no actual international or even national accreditation board whose standards must be adhered to in order for you to be a teacher or to have a training program - as is the case with chiropractors or physiotherapists.
At Muse, we are so down with this as we believe it means we can do our jobs better and be curious and think outside the lines. In transparency, I don't know that Muse would be approved (nor do we want to) by an organization that has strict guidelines. Our teacher training program asks you to be critical of the practice, the man, the language, the alignment and more. In the Muse teacher training program we create creative, critical movement teachers that are certainly inspired by Pilates, but don't stick to a Pilates doctrine. Rather, we do what’s best for our clients. The issue with being a Basi teacher or a Polstar Teacher or a Stott teacher, for example, is that you are going to be a Basi, Polestar or Stott teacher.
Listen, I am not knocking on any teacher training programs. Truly. I believe we all work hard and no matter what gets someone in the door and on the floor that makes me happy because I want people moving their bodies and living their passions. What I am saying is that just because a program is internationally recognised does not make it the right one for YOU. If I had stuck to the method in which I was trained I would have bailed on teaching a long time ago - it wasn't for me, but I didn't know any better.
Thankfully, I had a mentor who showed me how to take what I had learned and shake it up so that I wasn't a “insert internationally recognized Pilates school name that I went to here” Pilates teacher, I was a Pilates Teacher.
Try not to be discouraged because the really good news is that you are about to be given the best piece of advice ever…
Worry less about the name of the place you train, but focus more on the values of the place you train.
Are they aligned with yours? If yes, then all you have to truly work at now is being a good teacher. The rest will follow.
In my opinion, as someone who has been hiring Pilates teachers at Muse and elsewhere for 12 years, how well you teach, how you engage with the clients and how you present yourself to your employers and the community is more important than which school certified you. What’s important is: will you get insured with that particular certification? Be sure to ask that when doing your research. And yes, the Muse Movement Pilates Certification is recognized by insurance companies here in Canada. And no, when I have taught at studios here in Lisbon no one has asked me for my certification.
Perhaps you want to go work at a studio where that is not enough. Perhaps it's a studio/school which requires that their trainees do a certain dollar amount in continuing education a year to remain certified with them. Ask about a bridging course to get on board with their particular method. Sit for the Pilates Method Alliance exam. There is always a way. Your teaching will always change. If my students who did their first Pilates Teacher training program with me are still teaching the same way 5 years after graduating from our program, then I did not do my job properly.
My advice: Listen to your heart and your body about where you want to train and ultimately, be certified. Whatever you choose, try to be present in the moment and fully engaged in the material. Try not to worry about what's next and where you will teach etc etc etc, just enjoy the ride because once you graduate you will have to work hard to build clientele whether that is on your own, online or in a studio and no particular certification will magically give you a career. Being a skilled, informed, passionate teacher will.