One meeting - two different experiences
by Kateryna Smirnova and Iva Mazzoleni




Iva Mazzoleni:

If anyone would have tried to explain to me what I was to expect when I first met Mary Bowen, I would have never believed them. It really was, and still is up to this day, a one of kind life journey within my deep self!

My journey with Mary Bowen started three years ago in Zurich at a work shop on 'how to loosen up the spine' & 'Pilates Plus Psyche'. Her unconventional way of respecting the body's needs by giving it all the release it longs for, was a real revelation to me. I could see for the first time, how much we need to allow ourselves to LET GO, for the Pilates technique to do its wonders. In only a few minutes, Mary was able to change people's postures with the right word, the right touch or just the right intention. How she did that was a real enigma to me and got me that much more interested in knowing more!

A year after this first experience and my "love at first sight" moment with her, my dear Pilates friend Katya Smirnova, invited me to share a three day mentorship with Mary Bowen in her home in Northampton-USA. That was where my Pilates evolved into something I did not even believe existed.

We spend every day, morning and afternoon with her together or sometimes separately to work deeper on our psyche. Her "Yung approach" revealed things deep inside me that helped release my body like nothing had ever before. Nevertheless, the best part of these three days and her wonderful approach teaching us as individuals, is that her work keeps doing wonders even 12months after as your body integrates the work on a very subconscious level. Your body just knows without having to know it. A concept that was very new to me as always need to understand everything in my little brain 😉.



Why does her approach can do wonders? Because her work truly meets you where you are in life with your body and your Pilates. She teaches you to acknowledge your strengths and helps you grow from your weakness. This is so fundamental for us teacher to understand and to apply when we are with our clients. No school teaches you how to be good with WHO you are, but Mary does.

Mary also has a unique way to reconnects you to your own springs and tensions in your body so that you learn to balance and release tension in the right places. Her approach deeply touches you on a physical, mental and emotional level. Joseph called this the Body-mind-spirit connection.

Thanks to Mary this "body-mind-spirit" concept from Joseph's book "Return to Life" took a whole other meaning in my understanding of it.

No other Master Teacher was able to help me understand what Romana Kryzanowska once said: "if you are true to Pilates, Pilates will be true to you..."



Kateryna Smirnova:

Iva is like a sister to me, we understand each other by gestures and glances. However, Mary characterized us as two absolutely different persons. Iva’s words about her are so true, but my experience has a slightly different perspective.

My body does not accumulate tightness. On the contrary, it is free too much. That’s why the concept of spine release and “letting go” was of no current interest to me.  But Mary impressed me with her ability to get into the depths of each person in a room, even in a situation that was far from private, as it happened in the audience full of people. Mary’s ability “to see” a person seemed mysterious. It looked as if she didn’t do anything, just asked somebody to come closer, asked a few funny questions, let her answer with no provocation for frankness, told some stories about her “old clients”, and a person in front of her changed.
I wanted to know more about Mary and her method, so I decided to come see her for a personal practice. Iva accompanied me during one of those trips.

I had no expectations of my journey, no desire to learn anything specific and it wasn’t a cry for help. I just came to learn something about Mary. But she took me to a place where I had the most unexpected meeting – with myself.
My experience with Mary has no relation to the exercises or sensations directly connected to my body. Thanks to Mary I learned to accept a class with each client as an opportunity to see the world through his eyes.

It became easy to make no conclusions according to my own world view; our meeting revealed the importance of the ability to respond to an internal message from the client, rather than the form of the information transfer, taught me to act not only logically, but instinctively, taking into account client’s feelings and physical needs.
A startling discovery for me was an accidentally thrown phrase that feelings and emotions can be in spasm, just like muscles. I saw their physical expression. Pilates instructors can see compensations in a human body that have projection at other levels, which are qualitatively different. Body needs, such as yawning, should be respected, allowed and used as a way to communication with the rest of a person, as there is nothing more artless and organic than the manifestation of physicality. It is especially important for those who have little access to their own physicality.


Body functioning and well-being (like pain or discomfort) have no direct relationship. One’s body can be capable of great physical work, but a person will feel no pleasure of living in this beautiful body, and vice versa. There are people, who can make no stunning movements, but they feel good, they feel no pain. Therefore, body functioning, you feeling in it, and peace of mind are different areas to work with, however, Pilates can help you on each of those levels. It is only necessary to put correct accents.
Body, mind, senses and intuition are equal components. Their combinations and interaction with conscious and subconscious are a kind of code that determines the course of an individual's life, his way of interacting with the environment, the likelihood of personal change, body manifestations (diseases, pain, physical sensations, habits, posture), and spiritual development. I see this as tangible practical benefits that can be put into words, to share my experiences in form of verbal information.

The rest is yet inexpressible!