Understanding the Pelvic Floor

by Carolyne Anthony

Carolyne began her professional career as a dancer in London having completed her Diploma in Dance at The Stella Mann College in 1982.She went on to dance in companies in the UK, Europe and Africa. Along with dancing, Carolyne has always had an interest in movement, she has swum competitively and was a keen runner in her younger days.

While attending company class in London in 1983, she was referred to Alan Herdman for Pilates and thus began her love affair with this amazing method. Carolyne has gone on to certify with Polestar, BASI, The PhysicalMind Institute and the Pilates Method Alliance.

Upon her relocation to the USA in the mid 80’s Carolyne became involved in the Fitness industry and went on to certify in group exercise, personal training and aquatics. She was also a professor of Dance at The Hartford Conservatory of Music and Dance and the Artistic Director of the Enfield Civic Ballet Company.

Carolyne’s journey into women’s health began with the birth of her first daughter in 1988. Dismayed by the lack of information available for women during the childbearing years, she went on to complete her Birth Doula training as well as studying under well know Midwives such as Patty Brennan and Pat Kramer. The illustrations for her pre and postnatal teacher training manual are the product of midwife Amanda Smith in Ann Arbor MI.

Being a birth doula has informed her program design for the pre and postnatal work that she does. Her philosophy is about preparing the body for birth and repairing the body after birth with exercises that truly address the changes that are taking place in the pregnant body.

This desire to work according to the female anatomy and physiology has led Carolyne to study other modalities such as myofascial release (she is a John Barnes practitioner) Esoteric Healing and in-depth anatomy with Khita Whyatt. Together Khita and Carolyne are developing a Women’s Anatomy and Physiology book.

Learning from her own life’s experiences Carolyne has developed her Moving through Menopause™ course, Support your Floor™ (Pelvic Floor Function course) and the very successful The Center Method for Diastasis Recti Recovery™ program. Her work has taken her all over the world, training the trainers to be able to help their female clients through all stages of their lives. She currently has over 2000 teachers in 41 countries plus 34 faculty teaching her methods.

Carolyne has also developed the Women’s Health and Exercise Certification™ which is a collaboration between her and other top educators in the field. The certification offers programs in Rebekah Rotstein’s Buff Bones™, Doreen Puglisi’s Pink Ribbon Program™, Dr Suzanne Martin’s Pregnancy and Scoliosis, Anne Bishop, Mariska Breland, Kelly Hale and Khita Whyatt to name a few.

Carolyne continues to develop her own curriculum for women that incorporates all her studies in myofascial release, esoteric healing, anatomy, ballet, fitness, Pilates and lifelong moving.