What Pilates CPD Should I Do Next?
Or have we been asking the wrong question all along?
Many Pilates instructors search for CPD courses that improve their teaching, deepen specialist knowledge or strengthen their professional development beyond the Pilates Method.
Every week, Pilates Instructors receive emails promoting another Continuing Professional Development course. A new piece of apparatus. Advanced repertoire. Another accessory. More Continuing Education Credits. There is nothing wrong with any of that. In fact, Continuing Pilates Education is one of the great strengths of our profession.
The realisation I have come to over the years is that :
Pilates Instructors and their training schools regularly confuse ‘Continuing Pilates Education’ with ‘Continuing Professional Development?’
They are not the same thing. One develops our understanding of the Pilates Method. The other develops us as professionals.
That distinction may sound subtle, but I believe it has profound implications for the careers we eventually build. A course on Osteoporosis may contain remarkably little Pilates, yet completely transform the way you teach your clients. Learning about Breast Cancer Rehabilitation, Pelvic Floor Dysfunction or behaviour change may do more for your professional development than another twenty advanced Reformer exercises.
Equally, understanding business strategy, communication or artificial intelligence may influence the success of your career far more than expanding your Pilates repertoire. None of this diminishes the importance of learning more Pilates. It simply asks a different question.
What knowledge, skills or understanding will make me more valuable to the people I most want to help?
In my latest Pilates Consultant Perspective, I explore why I believe the profession has unintentionally blurred the distinction between Continuing Pilates Education and Continuing Professional Development, and introduce a simple three-pillar framework that has helped shape my own thinking about professional growth over the past three decades.
If you are planning your next CPD investment, considering a career change or simply reflecting on where your professional journey is taking you, I hope it gives you a different way of looking at the question.
The full Perspective explores why the next course you attend may have remarkably little to do with Pilates—and why that could be one of the best career decisions you ever make.