MEET OUR STAFF
Erin Myers
OWNER, PILATES EDUCATOR, INSTRUCTOR, VIRTUAL INSTRUCTOR
Erin Myers is an international presenter on scoliosis and founder of Spiral Spine, a company designed to enrich the lives of people with scoliosis. She owns the Spiral Spine Pilates studio in Brentwood, TN, which allows her to actively pursue her passion of helping those with scoliosis through the practice of Pilates.
Erin’s teaching philosophy is simple: enriching people’s lives through anatomically correct movement. Her unrelenting mission to find the root cause of movement dysfunction, combined with a light-hearted and accessible teaching style, draws in devoted clients of all ages.
Spiral Spine offers a growing set of scoliosis resources. Created exclusively by Erin, these include her books: I Have Scoliosis; Now What?, Analyzing Scoliosis (also available in Korean), The Beautiful Scoliotic Back, and My Scoli Journal, and online workouts: the Scoliosis Series and Hard Core Scoli. She has multiple continuing education workshops for scoliosis online including Analyzing Scoliosis, Scoliosis Spinal Fusion, Kids with Scoliosis, Initial Scoliosis Lesson, Scoliosis Leg Length, and Scoliosis & Fusion Choreography. Her scoliometer app, Scoliometer by Spiral Spine, allows practitioners and users to measure vertebral and rib cage rotation, helping to better manage one’s scoli.
Erin began her career as a professional dancer with the Radio City Rockettes and was trained in Pilates at the Kane School of Core Integration. She is a Balanced Body Master Instructor and is Level 2 Certified in the GYROTONIC® Method. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Managerial Entrepreneurship from Pace University in NYC (Cum Laude), along with Certifications by the American Council on Exercise and the National Pilates Certification Program.
Jackie Arnold
PILATES EDUCATOR, INSTRUCTOR
Jackie Arnold is a Balanced Body Master Instructor and has been teaching since 2010. While attending the University of Illinois, she discovered a need for Pilates to help build core strength, but her love grew while using it to rehabilitate and mobilize a shoulder impingement a few years later. She completed her training and certification near her hometown of Chicago through Body Evolve Physical Therapy and Pilates.
Jackie loves working with individuals to improve posture, strengthen muscles, and alleviate back and joint pain. Over the last ten years she has worked with individuals of all ages and body types. Her journey in Pilates started with clients who wanted to alleviate pain or “get in shape without going to a gym.” Most recently, she has worked more with pre- and post-natal women. Jackie experienced the benefits of Pilates during and after both her of pregnancies. She loves being a part of women’s journeys as they progress through pregnancy as well as when they seek to regain their strength, pelvic floor, and energy postpartum.
Jackie and her husband live in Brentwood and have two adventurous children. In her free time, she loves to play tennis, waterski, bake and serves on the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center Ambassador team.
Larsen Buck
INSTRUCTOR
Larsen Buck is a comprehensively trained Balanced Body Pilates Instructor. She has an analytical mind, keen eye for correction, and is immensely creative.
After developing trauma induced scoliosis from a dance injury, she came to Spiral Spine, and after two years of intensely caring for her scoli, it now is pretty much gone, which is nothing short of miraculous.
While learning to care for her scoli, Larsen became aware of the muscle discrepancies and imbalances caused by her scoliosis, which ignited her deep love for Pilates. She is now passionate about teaching Pilates as a form of movement that promotes health, strength, and confidence.
She loves working with people of all ages and physical abilities, striving to help people learn to be comfortable moving their bodies, no matter their experience or ability level.
Larsen enjoys playing bass, dancing, and listening to music in her free time.
Sarah Case
PILATES EDUCATOR, INSTRUCTOR, VIRTUAL INSTRUCTOR
Sarah Case is a Certified Pilates Instructor, Balanced Body Master Instructor, and Certified Integrated Movement Specialist. Sarah originally came to Pilates years ago in hopes of alleviating low back pain. A formal nonpartisan political analyst, she quickly became enamored with the many benefits of a regular Pilates practice as it combatted the immobility and imbalances acquired from her desk job.
Little did she know that Pilates would play a new role in her life, years later, when it helped her recover from two abdominal surgeries for severe endometriosis. As she regained control of her post-surgical body, she rediscovered what Joseph Pilates called “the complete coordination of body, mind, and spirit” from the most fundamental exercises on up. Her passion for Pilates grew through this process of healing, as did her understanding of how the method offers so much for every body, at any stage, and an interest in teaching blossomed. Sarah’s sharp mind and keen eye for alignment roots her teaching style in aiding clients along their Pilates journey.
When Sarah is not in the studio, you can find her absorbed in a novel, cooking a new recipe, spoiling her cats, or taking a walk with her husband.
Lisa Chader
INSTRUCTOR
Lisa Chader is an entertainment PR professional with experience in a variety of athletics – dance, gymnastics and cheerleading – as a participant, competitor, coach and judge. Several years ago, she was introduced to Erin Myers who helped her discover Pilates as a way to help relieve her chronic hip and back pain. Lisa was inspired by Erin’s passion for Pilates and her commitment to helping those with scoliosis, so much so that the two began working together to launch Spiral Spine – a series of resources designed to educate and support the scoliosis community. After two books, a workout DVD, a website, a studio launch and countless Pilates lessons, Lisa woke up one morning and decided to be a Pilates teacher (Erin wasn’t surprised)! She soon thereafter went through Spiral Spine’s comprehensive Balanced Body Pilates teacher training program with Erin.
Lisa believes that Pilates is the perfect example of “mind, body awareness,” and aims to help others from all walks of life, feel their best.
Whitney Etheridge
PILATES EDUCATOR, INSTRUCTOR, VIRTUAL INSTRUCTOR
Whitney Etheridge is a Certified Pilates Instructor from the Kane School of Core Integration in NYC and Balanced Body Master Instructor. She holds a level 1 and 2 Reiki certification from MINKA School for Healing Arts and Sciences and is also a classically trained ballet dancer who received her BA in dance from Point Park University.
Previously, Whitney taught at Kinected in NYC under the tutelage of Matt McCullough and Kelly Kane and worked with clients with multiple sclerosis and other neurological disorders. She also taught at New York Pilates, Heather Andersen’s studio. Her study of anatomy, biomechanics, and touch therapy aided allows her to help any client, no matter what ailment they may have.
After living in NYC for over a decade, Whitney is back in her hometown of Nashville using Pilates to create a unique movement experience for each individual client to help them meet their fitness, health, and wellness goals.
Jessica Ingram
INSTRUCTOR
Alicia Ludwig
INSTRUCTOR
Alicia Ludwig is a comprehensively certified Pilates instructor by Balanced Body and a personal trainer through the American Council on Exercise. She has a deep passion for working with those with scoliosis, as she has scoli and has lived through three scoli surgeries, two of which failed. She desires to help others find pain free living without medical intervention.
Alicia was born with congenital lumbar scoliosis and had her first fusion in high school. In college, she had a surgery to remove the rods and metal hardware because her body was rejecting them. In her late 30s she had a third surgery, which left her in terrible pain and with a 45-degree listhesis of the vertebra directly above the fusion. After years of living in unbearable pain, doctors told her the only option was to fully fuse her entire spine.
Albeit not wanting a fourth surgery, she decided to schedule it having tried everything and not knowing what else to do. A friend recommended she see Erin Myers to help with her scoli and pain. She had such great results she ultimately canceled her fourth surgery and now lives pain free except for occasional discomfort, which she is thrilled about. Her life has been forever changed.
Alicia is a retired commercial airline pilot and is married with two beautiful daughters. Her hope is to use her personal experience and Pilates to help people with bodily pain and scoliosis to get back to living life fully. In her spare time, she loves to travel, walk her dog, relax with her family, and volunteer with Rescue 1 Global.
Heather Massie
INSTRUCTOR, CLIENT CARE COORDINATOR, STUDIO MANAGER
Heather Massie is a Balanced Body trained Pilates instructor and life-long devotee of fitness. She was diagnosed with scoliosis as a girl and has learned to care for her scoli through working with Erin Myers, the team at Spiral Spine, and her own efforts and loves to help others do the same. Heather also worked alongside Erin pulling together hundreds of scoliosis research articles and making sense of them for Erin’s book, I Have Scoliosis; Now What?.
Heather holds a Bachelor’s degree from Illinois Wesleyan University and an MBA from University of Phoenix. In her younger years she spent a year seeing the world as a singer on a cruise ship and has additionally worked on the business side of the entertainment industry, software sales for HR, and medical devise sales. Heather also has a passion for nutrition, gardening, traveling, and spending time with her husband and two children.
Gay Reaves
INSTRUCTOR
Gay is a comprehensively trained Balanced Body Pilates Teacher. Pilates became a big part of Gay’s life many years ago. She worked with several great Pilates teachers to create and grow her personal practice which kept her feeling healthy and balanced through the years. This personal experience is what lead Gay to pursue a second career teaching Pilates. She is now living the dream: helping people of all ages and fitness levels to achieve strength and flexibility. Her passion is to design a personal Pilates program for each client that will help them achieve their personal goals in a safe and fun environment.
After receiving a BS degree from the University of Tennessee, Gay spent her first career in medical equipment sales and traveling the world working
in Corporate Healthcare.
When not planning for or teaching Pilates you will find Gay trading stocks, gardening, or hiking at Radnor Lake.
Christie Schenk
INSTRUCTOR, VIRTUAL INSTRUCTOR
Christie Schenk is a native Nashvillian who has lived here all her life except for some time spent in Memphis, Tennessee during her college days at Rhodes College. That was back in the days when she was studying Political Science and English and thought she wanted to be an attorney. She came back to Nashville after graduation and decided to go to nursing school instead. She's spent over twenty years as a Registered Nurse, caring for a wide array of patients in specialties such as pediatrics, physical rehabilitation, and surgery, as well as doing nursing informatics and risk management duties. She is comprehensively trained in Pilates through Balanced Body and attended all of her training through Spiral Spine Pilates. Christie works with individuals who have spinal cord injuries or other neurological conditions that affect their movement, and enjoys hearing the goals- large and small- that her clients have set for themselves, then collaborating with them to achieve those goals by using Pilates as a foundation.
Jennifer Stark
INSTRUCTOR, VIRTUAL INSTRUCTOR
Jennifer Stark is a Nationally Certified Pilates Teacher, Certified Integrated Movement Specialist, and Certified Kinesiology Taping Practitioner. She grew up dancing and twirling batons, despite having scoliosis. Years after her childhood diagnosis, she found Erin Myers to work on her scoliosis and immediately fell in love with Pilates. As Jennifer learned to balance her strength and flexibility, the lifelong physical pains stemming from her scoliosis melted away—as did her scoliosis, which is barely noticeable now.
As her love of Pilates blossomed, Jennifer completed her comprehensive Pilates training through Balanced Body at Spiral Spine. Pilates has gifted Jennifer with a greater understanding of movement and the human body, which she shares with others so they can become empowered and take control of their bodies, just like she did.
Jennifer has worked alongside Erin on multiple scoliosis education endeavors including Analyzing Scoliosis, I Have Scoliosis; Now What?, and the Scoliosis Retreat which is held regularly at Spiral Spine Pilates Studio.
Prior to working at Spiral Spine, Jennifer graduated from Tennessee Wesleyan University and used her English and History degrees in private education, specializing in tailoring curriculum to students with learning differences and helping students with sensory regulation.
Tammy Wilson
INSTRUCTOR
Tammy is a Balanced Body comprehensively trained Pilates Instructor. After challenging postpartum issues following the delivery of her second child, Tammy found and used Pilates as a way to continue her physical therapy regimen and healing process. Pilates helped her improve her alignment and gave her a sense of freedom with her body that she had not felt since giving birth.
Tammy is certified in many other movement modalities including barre and Y12SR yoga, which aids in healing trauma and addiction. She is also a vinyasa yoga instructor and has studied yin yoga and the anatomy of breathing in yoga. Prior to pursuing a career as a movement professional she was an occupational therapy assistant.
Tammy's training and personal journey have given her a keen eye for alignment, a loving soul, and a deep desire to help all people live a more free and fulfilling life.
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