Meet Kate Gregory Richey

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kate Gregory Richey a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kate , thank you so much for opening up with us about some important, but sometimes personal topics. One that really matters to us is overcoming Imposter Syndrome because we’ve seen how so many people are held back in life because of this and so we’d really appreciate hearing about how you overcame Imposter Syndrome.

I’ve been teaching pilates for fifteen years and still sometimes feel like I don’t belong. I was never a dancer, athlete or body worker. I was and am just a normal person. I spend too much time on the couch and I definitely don’t count my calories or make sure I get my work out in every day.

I was intimidated by pilates when I first found out about it. My first mat class was a nightmare. I spent the entire hour with a red face and pained look. The magic circle was my enemy as were any toe touches. At the end of the class the instructor walked over to me, which was the first time during the entire class that she had acknowledged my presence. She asked if I was all right, since my face was bright red and I seemed to have a hard time. This made me feel horrible and embarrassed since I was with a group of co-workers. More importantly she made me feel like I was wrong, like this was not for me, that I was out of my depth. Her attitude didn’t stop me from finding pilates fascinating, but it did stop me from taking a group class again until teacher training.

I found more security when I started taking private sessions through my chiropractor. I had some neck pain and had recently been rear ended. A colleague had suggested pilates to help stretch and strengthen my body. And honestly, I still wanted to prove that initial instructor wrong.

In a private one on one environment I flourished. I no longer felt embarrassed that I wasn’t super flexible, like I believed all young women should be. I enjoyed learning how to listen to my body and work with it. The mind body connection is real and powerful. People at work started asking me what I was doing since I was walking taller and carrying myself with more confidence. I started feeling better and found myself looking forward to my bi-weekly session. Before too long my instructor convinced me that I should enroll in teacher training myself. She was impressed with my understanding of movement and my thirst for more knowledge.

Teacher training at Long Beach Dance Conditioning was challenging, intimidating and utterly satisfying. I’ve certainly never been in better shape in my life. I spent six months studying, training, and working with practice students. I knew I was ready to teach by the time I received my certification. I started teaching at my chiropractor’s office (where I had initially taken sessions). I felt confident and comfortable in this environment. It was just me and my client. I wasn’t required to share space or equipment. It was teaching nirvana. But I knew I needed to spread my wings and try a proper pilates studio. This is where my imposter syndrome really kicked in.

I had to start teaching in front of other instructors. Instructors who had been or still were dancers. Instructors who had been teaching for years. Instructors who had been working with their bodies since they were children. And here I came from corporate america with no experience other than what I had been learning from my own body. I was so afraid of being judged or worse being found out to be the fraud I knew I had to be. There was no way I could actually do this work that I loved so much. When I had to teach my first group class I was terrified that all the students would know I wasn’t good enough. I just knew any day the owner would walk up to me and ask me to leave. I knew the other instructors would recognize that I wasn’t one of them.

The funny thing was, no one rejected me. The other instructors were kind and generous with their time. The owner was a joy to work for and always there when I needed advice. And the clients, well the clients were the best part. I started learning that what I viewed as limitations were actually strengths. People felt comfortable with me and were happy to hear I understood. That I wasn’t a super athlete or dancer, that I liked to watch tv and hang out with my cats. That I understood their neck pain or hip ache. That I’m able to explain their issues in laymen’s terms. That I’m normal and not judgy. That they could get a good workout, understand their body a little better and talk about the latest season of True Detective.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

A client once asked me to paint him a word picture to describe what I wanted him to do. This one request changed the way I looked at teaching and lead me to seek out finding my voice.

I have a pilates and wellness focused instagram account, @kateknowspilates, where I share stretches, explain how to activate your transverse abdominis, and share a bit about my life in rural Montana. I also teach private sessions through zoom or facetime. I have been very lucky to be able to continue working with several of my clients in Los Angeles.

I find an additional creative outlet in creative writing. Specifically a weekly prompt night hosted by a friend of mine. This helps me build community and confidence. The better I am at finding my voice and learning to express myself, the better listener and instructor I am.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Patience is possibly the most important tool in my tool box. You have to meet a client where they are and be willing to work at their speed. Whether I’m working with an older client who has mobility issues or a client who’s perpetually late, patience is paramount. Sometimes I think I’m being crystal clear when explaining a movement, but for that client I am speaking another language, which requires patience for myself as well as the client. I used to plan my sessions with clients ahead of time. Soon enough I realized this was a waste of time and energy and often led to me being frustrated with my client. I needed to learn the patience not to get ahead of myself or my client.

Which leads me to going with the flow. As much as I want to follow a clear path in my teaching, what you really need to follow is your client’s body. I may walk into a session excited to focus on strengthening my client’s rhomboids only to find out they twisted their ankle. I have had clients come in telling me they can’t lay down or they can’t stand up or they can’t lift anything or use their legs. They come in knowing that they will leave feeling a little bit better, which is all I want. I would much rather have a client come in with limited movement than stay at home feeling awful. There’s always something that can help. Even if it’s just a walk around the neighborhood, which I did with a client once.

Experience itself is hugely important. What I mean by that, is for me, I need to experience something to truly understand it. I need to feel my hamstring stretch to truly explain to my client how to stretch theirs. This is why you’ll often hear pilates instructors say that their injuries are their best quality. We learn so much from how our body feels when it’s injured and how we can heal ourselves. It gives us a better understanding of our clients and their plight. I learn so much every time I pull a muscle, or more recently when I pinched my sciatic nerve. When I spoke to my doctor she was impressed with my ability to explain what I was experiencing. And luckily, I was able to mostly rehabilitate myself.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

Like so many people, I struggle with anxiety. My feelings also tend to express themselves in my body in the form of hives, stomach aches, headaches and jaw pain. So finding time and space for self care is essential for me to be comfortable in my body. I can’t tell you how exhausting hives truly are. With that in mind, I endeavor to meditate, journal and exercise daily. This does not happen every day. Some days I exercise (either a walk or a bike ride), some days I journal for twenty minutes about my childhood, and some days I just sit for 10 minutes focused, as much as I can be, on my breath. I use the Calm App, which I’m a big fan of. It’s made meditation more accessible and less intimidating. I remind myself to breath, look out the window, pet one of the cats. I always feel better when I get in my body by stretching or actually doing pilates. But sometimes I don’t want to feel anything and when that happens I can at least sit with myself for five minutes or write down that everything sucks.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @kateknowspilates

Image Credits

Kevin Richey