Nora St. John, L.Ac. - Pilates

Nora, Co-director has been teaching Pilates since 1989. She has worked with clients of all kinds from injured office workers to Olympic athletes. Her training in Pilates began with 10 years at St. Francis Memorial Hospital's Dancemedicine division where she worked primarily with clients with sports related orthopedic injuries. She has continued her training with Pilates master teachers Eve Gentry, Michele Larsson, Carola Trier, Alan Herdman and Romana Kryzanowska. Nora was a professional modern dancer for 10 years before she began teaching Pilates. She also holds a Master's degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and is a certified massage therapist. Nora co-founded Body Mind Spirit, the largest educational conference for Pilates, Gyrotonic and Nia instructors in the country and is the Program Director of Pilates on Tour which offers Innovative Education for Pilates Professionals in cities across the country.
 

Naomi Leiserson - Pilates

Naomi, Co-director taught Pilates-based rehabilitation and conditioning at Saint Francis Memorial Hospital's Center for Sports Medicine for 7 years before opening Turning Point Studios in January 2000. She began her training with Nora St. John using Pilates for everything from athletic performance enhancement to rehabilitation and post surgical recovery.  She has continued her studies with master teachers such as Michele Larsson, Jean Claude West, and Karen Clippinger.  After dancing professionally for several years Naomi took her love of ballet and modern into the realm of partner dancing with Argentine Tango and Salsa-Cubana. Naomi has completed her level 1 certification in Gyrotonic, is a certified Hendrickson Method Practitioner and is a Franklin Methode level 2 educator.  She currently teaches Anatomy in Clay nationally with Pilates on Tour and around the world.

Julie Lushington - Pilates

Julie has been teaching Pilates since 1990. She received her training in the Dancemedicine department at St. Francis Memorial Hospital's Center for Sports Medicine where she taught for 11 years before starting at Turning Point Studios in 2002. Julie was a professional modern dancer in New York for 10 years before earning her Master Degree in Movement Education from NYU. She has taught Dance Kinesiology at San Jose State University and Mills College in Oakland as well as for young dancers at San Ramon Valley Dance Academy. Julie also co-instructs the Pilates instructor training program here at Turning Point Studios.

Diana Herold - Pilates

Diana developed the Pilates-based Dancemedicine program at Saint Francis Memorial Hospital's Center for Sports Medicine in Walnut Creek, CA. Since 1987 she has used Pilates principals and movements to rehabilitate orthopedic injuries and relieve chronic pain. She specializes in specific core understanding, releasing inhibiting patterns and restoring balance. Her work is influenced by many master teachers but especially Eve Gentry who modeled creative care designed for each person. Diana danced and taught Ballet for 20 years before beginning her Pilates career.

Marshia Beck - Pilates

 Marshia is a registered somatic movement therapist and is a certified Body-Mind Centering Practitioner. She has been practicing Pilates since 1989, coming to this work from a variety of dance and life related injuries. She is certified in Pilates and Movement Medicine through Turning Point Studios and Long Beach Dance Conditioning. She has studied with Jean Claude-West, Marie-Jose Blom and Joerg Chabowski among others and is also certified in the Yamuna foot therapy program as well as the Franklin Methode. Marshia comes to us from the Dancemedicine department of the Center for Sports Medicine where she was an instructor and supervisor at the Walnut Creek location. Her passion is to help people live within their bodies with strength and ease and to move effortlessly and efficiently in their lives.

Certified Instructors

Susan Gray - Pilates and Gyrotonic®

Susan has been involved in Pilates training since as 1992, first as a conditioning client at St. Francis Memorial Hospital’s Center for Sports Medicine and now as certified instructor through Turning Point Studios instructor training program. She is also a graduate of Movement Medicine, a course focused on using Pilates as a rehabilitative tool taught by Turning Point Studios. Susan is also a certified Gyrotonic® and Gyrokinesis® instructor. She is certified in the Leg Extension Unit, Jumping Stretching Board and completed Paul Horvath’s classes in Scoliosis, the Shoulder Girdle and Pelvic Stabilization. Susan is Turning Point Studios resident Gyrotonic® expert. She is also an avid practitioner of internal Chinese martial arts including Tai Ji, Qi Gong, Tai Ji Sword, Stick and Fan. She truly believes that movement heals.
 

Kate Canova - Pilates

Kate completed her Pilates Certification through the instructor training program at Turning Point Studios.  She has also completed additional coursework with Balanced Body University.  Kate has taught Pilates both at Club One Fitness in Oakland and Turning Point Studios.  In addition to Pilates Kate enjoys travel, the great outdoors and her two little girls.

Kristy Miller - Pilates

Kristy has been teaching group fitness classes since 2004. She is a recent graduate of Turning Point Studios mat program, and is working towards completing the reformer and apparatus training this fall. Kristy enjoys running, boxing, traveling, and spending time with her husband and their 3 sons.

Jami Hearn  - Pilates

Jami’s lifetime love of sports and being active led to her love of working out, and exploring everything the human body is capable of in motion and movement. From ballet, soccer, softball, track, gymnastics and swimming, she inevitably had some injuries, and she discovered several years ago that Pilates cured her chronic knee, lower back and neck pain when other methods did not. She has learned the highly effective methods of Stott Pilates, and has been teaching matwork, reformer, cadillac, chair and barrel Pilates work since 2009. Pilates has become a way of life for Jami, and she feels inspired to share with others the amazing benefits of this strengthening, therapeutic and healing work.

Gyrotonic Instructor