Fitness

The Art of Communication

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As a society, our daily practice of emailing, texting and small-talk requires us to make room for focused intention and study of how we communicate as movement instructors. As health care professionals we are tasked with speaking with very diverse clients concerning intimate subjects, their bodies.

 Polestar’s communication model is based on neuro-linguistics, and we are fortunate to work with two physical therapists who are also NLP practitioners, Alastair Greetham in London and Dr. Helen Masin in Miami. We recently invited Dr. Masin to discuss how best to connect to your clients through meaningful communication during our monthly webinar series, Pilates Hour.
Naturally, you modulate your speech differently when speaking with friends versus colleagues in the workplace. Reflect on the last time you visited your doctor. Whether a good or bad exchange, think of the language your doctor used to understand your reason for visiting. What, besides language, did he use to connect with you? Do you feel like he listened to you?
Connections require that you build rapport with your client, ensuring a smooth, respectful conversation. Certain non-verbal forms of communication are best utilized here. Posture, tonality, speed, pacing, and use of silence help establish a relationship with the client. Let the client know that a nonjudgmental, patient audience is hearing them. This then lays a better foundation for two-way communication. If a patient tells you he is having “trouble with back pain,” you may want to use that same language when you confirm what they said: “so you’re here because you have trouble with back pain?”. Allow them to go deeper in detail with how they are experiencing it. Ask for clarification when you need to.
“listen with three ears”
Dr. Masin says to “listen with three ears” when you are with a client. This skill, active listening, calls for attention not only to what is being said, but also to what is not. The inflection in someone’s voice, their gestures while speaking, and their manner of speaking all factor into building rapport. If your client is soft spoken, it may help ease them to adjust your volume to theirs. If they are sitting, you should sit. By empathizing with the client in this manner, you are also showing the client that you understand their ailment as they experience it.
Creating a meaningful connection with someone could be tricky depending on his or her background, which is why active listening and rapport building is crucial to effective communication.
Another way to ensure rapport is understanding cultural diversity. This runs the gambit from ethnicity, to sexual orientation, to religious beliefs, and so forth. Above all, avoid assumptions! The simplest way to assure you’re addressing your client appropriately is with an introduction.  You can play with what you say so long as you provide them the space to answer and then to confide in you. Remember not to negate what your patients say, listen and build rapport with them. Done correctly, these methods help break down some of the walls people instinctively place between each other. You may make mistakes, but you will get better at it with practice.
Have you tuned in to Pilates Hour yet? Be sure to bookmark this page to stay up to date for the next webinar to gain more insights on professional development, research, and much more.

How do we Know we’re Teaching a Great Class?

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A great class starts with identifying goals.  What message do we wish to convey to a group or an individual that will be under our guidance for at least an hour at a time?  As movement instructors, whether we are teaching yoga, Pilates, dance, GYROTONIC®, etc. a critical part of delivering a memorable experience is identifying the needs and wants of our students.  So the question becomes: How do we identify goals for an individual or a group class that are both aligned with our experience as professionals and the students’ desires?

As teachers, we tend to spend a lot time developing our technique and performance skills through dedicated practicing of the craft we share with others, namely, meditation, Pilates, yoga, etc.   While this commitment is extremely important, as I am a firm believer in ‘walking the talk,’ it should not be our only focus.  Through deep introspection during our practice hours we are able to develop the capacity to empathize with others as we can reference what our minds, bodies and spirits feel like during different movements and at different times in our lives.  Without also developing assessment skills it becomes very challenging to prescribe movement in a way that will speak to an individual’s needs.  Assessment affects decisions about sequencing, verbal and tactile cueing, breath patterns and how to evolve the practice.   Assessment inspire us to ask these hard questions: “Are we teaching what we think we are teaching?”  “Are students learning what we set out to teach?”  “Is there a better way to guide the practice, thereby promoting better learning?”

Many times what our students would like to focus on and work towards is not necessarily what we as movement professionals think should be their area of focus.  If we simply dictate what we think they should be working on, rather than first listening to what their desires are, we are conveying a message of disinterest and many times students feel as if they are not being listened to.  So how do we balance out the fact that many times individuals show up to a yoga class because they heard it will make their legs and triceps look great, while what the instructor thinks is important is alignment and breath?  If a student says, ‘I want my arms to look like yours,’ and my response is, ‘well how about some rounds of diaphragmatic breathing?’ they probably won’t come back for another session.  Cultivating the ability to quickly assess a group or an individual, coupled with years of self-practice, give us the ability to meet people where they are with integrity.  I would never spend 60 minutes working on someone’s legs or triceps, as it is not functional nor in accordance with my personal values, but I could choose a couple of poses or exercises that quickly fatigue these areas while comprehensively moving someone through a holistic practice of coordinating the mind, body and spirit, which is exactly what these modalities I’ve listed above all share as a common goal.

At this year’s Pilates Method Alliance conference we performed Polestar’s Postural Assessment on many of the conference delegates and were reminded of how important critical thinking and analytical skills are for what we do as instructors.  Assessment is an essential part of instruction, as it determines whether or not the goals of a program are being met.  While this is something I do as a Polestar Educator all of the time, performing parts of the assessment at the conference with colleagues was really different!   Having the opportunity to witness their ‘aha’ moments after just some minor feedback and adjustments was refreshing and reinforced what I already knew intuitively.  The more we develop our capacity of observation and active listening, the better we are able to communicate in a simple way that promotes deep change in others and ourselves.

 You can find Christi on social media at: 

@christiidavoy