Curvy friend, this is me. Wonky spine and all.
I'm Claudia. Scoliosis coach, lifelong scoliosis-haver, and your new favourite source of "actually, yes you can."
About Me
Hi, I'm Claudia. I have scoliosis, two 50-degree curves, right thoracic, left lumbar. And honestly? For a long time, it wrecked me.
I was 13 when I was diagnosed. I didn't tell a single friend. Not one. I was so embarrassed I just… pretended it wasn't happening. The doctor offered me a brace and I said no. My parents said no. We all said no. And then I got told the magic words every scoliosis kid hears: "It's not bad enough for surgery. Just wait and see. Maybe get some massages when you're older."
So I waited. And I did absolutely nothing. And it got worse. (Massages, it turns out, were not the answer. Shocker.)
The boyfriends were a special chapter of hell. "What's that hump on your back?" "You'd be so much hotter if your posture was better." "Stop slouching." I have been called a hunchback to my face. I have cried in more bathrooms than I can count over my own body. At the time I couldn't tell anyone what was actually going on, because saying the word scoliosis out loud felt like admitting something was wrong with me. So I just took the comments and kept the secret.
(Now I show my curves to thousands of people on the internet and talk about scoliosis with literally anyone who asks. Funny how that works.)
My baby-faced personal trainer days. I started as a pre and postnatal trainer going to women's homes around London, UK. Before moving to Canada and entering the corporate gym world of Equinox!
In 2019, I broke. I'd noticed my back getting worse. More rotated, more painful, more there. I was working as a personal trainer, deep in the bodybuilding world, lifting heavy and isolating muscles like a textbook, fully convinced that being strong would save my spine. It did not save my spine. One morning I did good-mornings at the gym and couldn't get out of bed the next day. Another time I tweaked my hip walking the dog and could barely walk for days. Walking. The dog. That was the moment I decided I was actually going to do something about this.
I completed my 200-hour yoga teacher training in India. Whilst I have learnt yoga can be beneficial for scoliosis, our spines need more than just stretches!
I'd already tried the usual suspects, physios, chiros, the lot. Some made things worse. Some shrugged. None of them really got it. Bodybuilding was making me strong but lopsided. Nothing was working and I was, gaaaah, exhausted.
Then I found scoliosis-specific movement. Schroth. Yoga for scoliosis. Breath work. Real alignment. I trained with brilliant scoli mentors like Elise Browning-Miller, Martha Carter, Erin Myers, Karena Thek, and for the first time I was in rooms with other people who actually had this. I stopped trying to force my spine into being something it's never going to be and started learning how to work with it. I connected to my diaphragm (turns out that little thing is kind of a big deal). I sorted through the mental stuff too. The trauma, the shame, the years of hiding. And slowly started actually liking the body I'd been at war with since I was 13.
I put myself in rooms with people who actually get it. Mentors-turned-friends Elise Browning-Miller, Martha Carter, Kat Kusyszyn. Game-changers, all.
Here's where I am now, and I want you to take this in: I still have a severe, 50-something, three-curve scoliosis. I have barely any pain. I ski. I hike. I lift. I'm avoiding surgery and I intend to keep avoiding it. My curves are stable. My rotation is better than it was. My confidence is, frankly, unrecognisable from the kid who couldn't tell her best friend.
I love to travel, hike and see the world. I refuse to let scoliosis stop me from doing the things I love.
Do I still have moments where I think why me? Constantly. Could I have just had a nice, non-wonky spine? Sure would have been nice. It hasn't been easy and I'm not going to pretend it has. But honestly, weirdly, almost embarrassingly, I'm grateful for it now. It gave me this job. And this job is the best thing in my life.
I coach adult women navigating life with scoliosis, the ones who are tired of waiting and watching, and ready to actually move. Some of you are trying to avoid surgery. Some of you have already had surgery and want to stop progression. Most of you have done some kind of movement before, yoga, pilates, the gym, and want to learn how to make all of it work for your curve instead of against it.
If that's you, I want you to know: it can get so much better. I'm proof. So are my clients. Your spine isn't a flaw, it's just yours. And I would love to help you stop fighting it and start moving with it.
Big virtual scoli hug. Whenever you're ready, I'm here.
Now I teach others how to look after and love their curvy bodies, working with scoliosis sisters from all around the world, at retreats, workshops and online.
My Approach
Most scoliosis "experts" fall into one of two camps. There are the generic physios and PTs who treat your spine like it's a perfectly symmetrical column (it isn't, and pretending it is just makes things worse). And there are the Schroth-only therapists doing brilliant, scoliosis-specific work but kind of forgetting you're a whole person with a gym membership, a yoga mat, a desk job, and a life that involves picking up children/groceries/skis.
I sit in the middle. On purpose.
I'm a certified personal trainer and yoga teacher with scoliosis-specific training stacked on top. Specifically Scolio-Pilates Part 1 and 2, Yoga for Scoliosis 1 and 2, plus years of mentorship and continuing education with some of the best Schroth therapists and scoliosis specialists in the world. I co-host scoliosis and fusion retreats with the brilliant Martha Carter through her Twisted Outreach Project. I read the new research as it comes out and take new courses constantly. Translation: I am an enormous nerd about this stuff. Happily.
Hanging-out with other practitioners and clients at a Pilates for Scoliosis Workshop in New York.
But the certifications are not the reason this works. The reason it works is that I'm not guessing. I'm a 50-something, three-curve woman who has done every single thing I'm asking you to do, on my own very wonky spine, first. I know which cues actually land in your body when your ribs are rotated. I know which yoga poses make a curvy spine worse (sorry, fellow yogis). I know what it feels like to be told to "just stretch" by someone who has clearly never tried to stretch a scoliosis.
So when we work together, you don't get a generic "scoliosis program" off a shelf. You get a plan built around your curve, your life and your goals. That means real scoliosis-specific movement (Schroth-informed, postural cues, the works). Real strength training, because we want bones, muscle and a body that can ski and hike and lift and dance into your eighties. Scoliosis-friendly yoga and pilates that actually respects your asymmetry instead of trying to flatten it. Breath work that changes how your ribcage moves (your diaphragm is doing more than you think). And the mental side, because the trauma of being told to "just wait and see" while your body changed shape doesn't unwind itself in a single Pilates class. We work on all of it. Because you are not just a curve.
The result is a plan as unique as your spine, and a coach who actually, properly, gets it.
