Hey guys, what’s up? Welcome. My name is Steven Dunn. I’m a physical therapist with CORE Therapy and Pilates.
I want to welcome all the core family, our new physical therapist occupational therapists, Mr. Andy. Andy is going to be new to our studio.
He’s going to be working with us starting next month, November, because we got the last one of the last day of September still. He’s going to be here working with us full time moving here from New York City.
Andy, tell us a little bit about your background, and what brings you to Austin.
Andy: Hello, everyone. I’m Andy, and I’m originally from Taiwan, but I moved to Florida in 2014 for school. I graduated from the University of St. Augustine in Florida, with both a PT and OT degree, and I’ve been practicing New York City for about two years.
During that time, I also got trained to become a teacher, so it will be a great niche. I will be coming here to join Stephen and his team to work with you guys, not only as a PT/OT.
They also bring a lot of things that are relevant to Pilates, and utilize a lot of these principles in helping my clients in general.
One of the big things that we get frequently asked about with our bodies is where we’re trained and how we’re trained, so I want to just go through that. Cheryl and I were trained in Los Angeles when we lived out there in something that’s called contemporary place.
Andy was trained in New York City, and a style of Pilates is called classical or authentic Pilates. They’re both philosophies, but they’re a little different, and I wanted to go over that a little bit, because a question people ask us all the time.
Now, I’ve never known how to answer the question for the authentic side, because I’ve never done one of their programs, whereas Andy has.
As a contemporary therapist, the way we look at the Pilates repertoire is based on the current model of research of what we know about biomechanics and what we know about certain conditions.
We’ve adapted the work that Joseph Pilates presented back in the early 1920s, 1930s, 40s, 50s, and so on, so forth. That’s what I know about the class, contemporary style, because that’s what we do.
Now, my question is, coming from a classical style in New York City, could you explain a little bit about about what that philosophy is, and what that looks like as a training?
I think the main difference is from the fundamental principles. The classical world focuses more around the principles of precision and flow. They want the actual choreography of the many joints, not just the proximal core engagement.
During the same time, they have more specific focus during a lot of the techniques and the flow, even the transitioning from technique to technique, how you are transitioning.
It’s a big focus in the classical world, because the classical Pilates world also view that as part of the exercise that can help to build up the client stronger.
A lot of the people in the classical world are dancers and performers. They need that flow transition and and how they move from one movement to the other movements, so that’s a big focus. I feel like that’s the most different part.
It’s really something, I love it because now we have two different styles of Pilates in one facility. The way I teach and the way he teaches is going to be a little different, and that’s okay. It’s going to be just fine.
Certain people are going to respond to the way I teach, and certain people gonna respond to the way he teaches. Certain bodies are going to need the way I teach them, and certain bodies in the way he teaches. It’s not a competition between him and I or anything like that.
I just wanted to talk about that, because everyone wants to make it competitive. This way or that way? We’re open to having what’s right for the patient and what’s right for the client.
It’s really not a big deal, but to some people in the Pilates world it is. So I just wanted to go over that, and people that are inquiring about our training, and the style of Pilates that we teach.
Not only do we have a classical trainer, but we also have a classical trainer that is a physical therapist, and occupational therapist.
Now one more question, and then we’ll wrap this up. I’ve been a PT for 21 years, and I was in school with occupational therapist.
I’ve worked with occupational therapists back in ‘92, ‘01. I have worked with them inpatient setting, but I haven’t worked with an occupational therapist since 2001.
Tell our core family a little bit about what’s the difference between what physical therapy is, and what’s an occupational therapist.
Andy: The main difference is the focus, I would say. OTs focus more on how to improve the functional performance of the person, if they can perform certain activities throughout their daily life. That’s very important to them.
Whereas, PTs focus more on the actual root cause that’s causing some movement impairment, or movement dysfunction. So OT focuses more on activity performance, and PT is more on solving the problem that’s causing movement dysfunction.
In this setting, everybody is focusing on helping you guys, helping other clients to eventually do what you love to do. I feel like that’s the thing from my OT background, and then what Stephen has already been doing as a PT – we are pretty much the same.
I was just gonna say that, because I am a PT by training, but I was forced into this world slowly but surely. I say it was almost forced, I chose it, but it found me. I felt, as I got interested in it, as you answer that, it made me say “no, that’s kind of how I approached the body already.”
That’s an interesting concept that as a training. They learn something that I did not learn in my training at all. I’m a PT that thinks more like an OT. I’s a whole big picture, but it’s cool.
I just wanted to introduce Andy. He will be here in a month, in the beginning of November, moving to Austin from New York City. We’re super happy to have him.
Thank you all for your time. We’ll see you all soon, and you’ll be seeing Andy around the studio real soon.
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