This was the beginning of a journey toward the pursuit of true balance and ease in inhabiting her body and her life. These experiences have formed the lens through which Shirah teaches, whether in one-to-one coaching, group fitness, teacher training, workshops, lectures, and beyond.

As a qualified Pilates and barre instructor and teacher trainer, Shirah encourages her students to develop a biomechanically sound movement practice that is both pragmatic and exciting for the unique individual. She offers technical, anatomically-informed, and decidedly non-dogmatic movement practice that realigns the body, encourages functional breath, and cultivates proprioceptive and interoceptive skills. While facilitating the development of mind-body awareness, she emphasizes the importance of thinking and language that is precise — but also compassionate toward oneself. 

This integrative approach to movement practice draws from many somatic influences to help students cultivate smarter, more efficient movement patterns and to understand the how and why of movement training. She shares mindful movement practice a tool to empower stability, freedom, and positive self-image through the discovery of the incredible capacity of the human body.

Shirah trained as a health coach at Georgetown University. Her coaching approach is influenced by evidence-based positive psychology, and centers on the clients’ inherent knowledge of themselves to facilitate the changing of health behaviors in a realistic, incremental, and sustainable way.

Shirah hails from the United States and taught in New York before relocating to Berlin in 2016. She regularly makes guest contributions and has taught in Switzerland, Spain, Kenya, and Portugal, Germany, and the United States. She has studied with luminaries such as Tom Myers, Irene Dowd, Mary Bowen, Madeline Black, and Leslie Kaminoff, among many other influences. Shirah has worked extensively with people addressing chronic back pain and spinal injury such as disc herniation, and also specializes in movement for pregnancy and postpartum restoration. She has completed a qualification in movement for patients with breast cancer and chest wall surgery, and is currently completing certification as a Postpartum Corrective Exercise Specialist. Shirah is also the co-founder of re:form — regarding form movement education — a community that promotes evidence-based and inclusive movement training, and creates intelligent and empowering instructor certification programs, as well as continuing education and mentorships for passionate, conscientious teachers and curious students.

Qualifications

• 600 hour Comprehensive Contemporary Pilates Certification: Reformer, Cadillac, Chair, Ladder Barrel, Props, and Mat; Brooklyn, NY, USA

• Health & Wellness Coaching Certificate from Georgetown University; Washington, DC, USA

• 200 hour RYT - Functional Hatha & Vinyasa Yoga with YOGAMAZÉ; Berlin, DE

• BFA Dance - Ballet Pedagogy, Magna Cum Laude; The Hartt School at the University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT, USA

Selected Additional training

• 35 hour Integrative Movement — the Madeline Black Method with Madeline Black; Paris, FR

• 60 hour Yin Yoga Teacher Training (Chinese Medicine & Hip Anatomy Emphasis) with Jo Phee (in process)

• Postpartum Corrective Exercise Specialist (PCES) Training with Sarah Duvall DPT (in process)

• Breast Cancer & Chest Wall Surgery Specialization with Joy Puleo of BodyWise Connection; New York, NY, USA

• 10 hour Restorative Katonah Yoga with Mary Dana Abbott; New York, NY, USA

• Implementing Connective Tissue Research into Practice with Robert Schleip & Tom Myers; Boston, MA, USA

• The Female Pelvis & Cycles of Life with Tom Myers & Sophia Cannonier; Cambridge, UK

• Biomechanics of Movement & Kinesthetic Anatomy with Irene Dowd; New York, NY, USA

• Prenatal and Postnatal Protocols with Progressive Pilates; Brooklyn, NY, USA