INVENTIVE STYLE, UNTRADITIONAL SKILLSET
Hey there, I'm Paula, a Holistic Wellness Coach.

I use movement, pelvic floor support, and herbal medicine to work inside and out with my clients, who are mostly women and people assigned female at birth, but everybody has a pelvic floor so I can really work with everyone!

Are you just over you bodies falling apart? I help people get more:
  • strength
  • control
  • mobility
while helping it feel natural and familiar, not complex or effortful. 

I've got 20+ years in the fitness and wellness industry; glowing accolades from Claire Mockridge and her Your Pelvic Matters training program; a passion for herbal medicine too, since movement medicine and plant medicine are absolutely consistent with each other; and a long history of developing innovative and engaging wellness programs. 
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And when I'm not teaching and drawing movements via stick figures (they're amazing btw), I can be found reading- usually fantasy or history or historical fantasy, knitting squishy things, and getting as close to or into any body of water I can find.

If you're dying to know more, here are 5 things you don't know about me:
  1. I've got a store of interesting facts just waiting to be shared. My dad called it a "vast reservoir of semi-useless knowledge". I think that's a compliment.
  2. I'm an unabashed morning person. I have to work to tone down the chipper. No apologies.
  3. Natural fibers are my favorite, and I'm slowly creating a capsule wardrobe of mostly thrifted linen, cotton, wool, silk, and cashmere.
  4. It's pretty impossible to walk anywhere with me without me pointing out and sharing the uses of what you used to call 'weeds'. If you're lucky you'll be tasting them too!
  5. I'm often reading multiple books at the same time, and only sometimes mix them up.
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Work With Me Online:
💪 1:1 in private sessions, focusing on pelvic floor dysfunction symptoms
💪 Take my herbal wellness workshops that are about super simple ways to start working with herbal remedies you can buy in a grocery store
💪 ​Join my small group program that blends it all together in a hybrid program
 
I serve people who struggle to integrate wellness into their whole selves. I give them the tools to get more strength and resilience, while making it feel like a life-long habit. The toe bone is connected to the neck bone, and it all goes through your pelvis and core, so this is a foot-to-forehead approach to holistic health.
 
I’ve got an eclectic background- 16 years reformer pilates studio owner and instructor, 10 years herbalist and wellness educator, interactive children’s theater storytelling princess, EMT, B.A. in Human Biology, and certified in the Your Pelvic Matters full body posture program.  It all comes together in a unique and exceptional experience for my clients!
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Still Curious?

​Here’s how I see it:
 
Every choice we make, everything we do or don’t do, adds onto everything else. It’s all inputs.
It just so happens that my dual fascinations, physical movement and plant chemistry, are HUGE sources of potentially positive inputs! And together they are exponentially more powerful (this just means that 2+2= something much, much bigger than 4)
 
Let me tell you a secret- some of this just happened by happy accident.
 
When I was very young, my mom shifted our family to a regimen of herbal supplements and what you’d now call a low-inflammation diet. She was at her wit’s end with her twin toddler’s constant ear infections and let me tell you, it worked.
 
I’ve known herbal medicine was my destiny since elementary school. (I have a cousin who remembers me giving her a tour of my herb garden when I was 9 years old. What a nerd! Me, not her.)
 
At some point I finally made the connection between that tall plant by the side of the road, its picture in a book we had, and the Mullein capsules we took.
 
I don’t know if I can explain how profound this was for little me- these pills we took weren’t just replacements for the medicines that we used to take that made me crazy hyper and sick. They were PLANTS. That I could GROW. And get to KNOW. 
We lived way far out in rural Pennsylvania, and suddenly the land around me morphed from “home” into “potential”
But how does a girl get from 1980’s rural life (more insulated and isolated than you can imagine!) to today’s roaring online life?

​There were a few twists and turns:
  • Many a summer spent working as a princess with an interactive children’s theater (dramatics, not drama, is my thing.)
  • Years working with the Conflict Education and Resource Team while getting my BA in Human Biology at Temple University
    • ​and my EMT certification, too
  • A dreadful stint as a full-time housekeeper (it was no Downton Abbey, I assure you)
  • A Craigslist ad that led to me buying a pilates studio in my mid 20’s, mere months before the crash of ‘08
  • And a fateful workshop with Maia Toll, who became my first formal herbal teacher and opened my eyes to the reality that it wasn’t too late to live my destiny
    • I just had to figure out how, since there was no pre-ordained educational path to follow- and I loved that ​
And now here it is, the future, and here I am- a hybrid of herbalism, fitness, independence, community, logic, intuition, nourishment, alignment and movement (literally & figuratively).

​My philosophy is simple- if it helps you be well, it’s fair game to include in my whole body approach to wellness. 
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Other things clients have said about being in my classes:

PictureA pre-wedding pilates party
"​Paula is so dedicated to helping people improve their lives, not out of her own ego, but because she really cares about others."
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"I've been trying to figure out how to describe her super power as an explainer-of-things. She's really excellent at that. And I think what it boils down to is that she's really skilled at figuring out how someone needs something explained, which is where her intuition really comes into play."

"Paula always has a smile on her face and a gentle way about her.  She is approachable and trustworthy. She won’t judge. I know that I can be vulnerable with her, share the not-so-nice parts of my life, and she always make me feel better about myself. She paints a picture of a brighter, more hopeful tomorrow that keeps me going."

"She manages to balance a practical, no-nonsense approach to life, teaching, and learning with a whimsical nature. She sees the beauty and magic in everyday life and the knowledge she seeks and dispenses, even if at first blush it appears mundane to others."

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Paula's Education

Places I've Learned:
  • ​Herbiary's Community Herbalism, Maia Toll, 2011-2012
  • Advanced Holistic Herbalism, Maia Toll, with Denise Straiges, Jill Hoffman, Lynn Roberts, 2012-2013
  • Sage School Clinical Herbalism, Maia Toll, with Jill Hoffman, Dory Ellen Fish, 2013-2014
  • Farm at Coventry Homestead Herbalism, Susan Hess, 2012
  • Barefoot Botanicals Farm Herbal Intensive, Linda Shanahan, 2014
  • Heartstone Transition Zones Advanced Physiology for Herbalists, Tammy Sweet, 2018
  • Daoist Stone Medicine​, Dory Ellen Fish, 2018
  • Mid Atlantic Women's Herbal Conference 2014, 2015
  • Allies for Plants and People Conference ​2018
  • Your Pelvic Matters Teacher Training, Claire Mockridge, 2020
Places I've Taught:
  • Swarthmore College Environmental Studies Program guest instructor 2021
  • 9 Month DIY Herbalism series, West Chester PA 2019-2024
  • DIY Bitters class, Victory Brewing 2020
  • Barefoot Botanicals, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2023, 2024
  • Glenside Community Acupuncture, 2019, 2020
  • Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine, 2018
  • Tamanend Herb Club, 2016
  • Sage School, 2015
  • Morris Arboretum, 2015
  • House Parties, 2015-present
  • Wild Weed Walks, 2014-present
  • Private Workshops, 2012-present
  • Reformer Pilates, 2006-present