About Sophie
My path to teaching wasn't a straight line — and I think that's my strength.
I hold a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et Métiers, one of France's leading engineering schools, and began my career as an ERP consultant. Then life took me around the world.
In 2004, living in Beijing as a mother of four boys, I discovered Pilates — and knew almost immediately that it would become central to my life. I trained at Isofit in Hong Kong and qualified as a Polestar Pilates instructor in 2006, teaching in Beijing, then in Singapore where I founded and ran my own studio, [Pink] Pilates. Back in Paris in 2012, I taught mat and Reformer at Qee Studio and discovered vinyasa yoga.
My family settled in the Boston area in 2014. I taught for eighteen months in a rented space in Cambridge before opening my own studio here in Arlington in 2016.
Why I teach the way I teach
In 2014 I was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a genetic condition that inflames the joints — a genetic condition that runs in my family. In the hardest stretches, I discovered something simple: the more I moved, the less I suffered.
That lived experience shapes everything. I know from the inside what it is to work with a body that hurts, and what precise, patient movement can give back. As a mother of four, I also understand first-hand how pregnancy and birth reshape a body — something not every teacher can offer.
Yoga therapy also gave me something deeply personal. Working with my teacher Brandt Passalacqua, I found freedom from a weight I had carried for decades — and a way to be fully present in my own life. It is why I now offer this work to others: not as theory, but as something I have lived.
The studio
SPR Studio is a bright, welcoming space with hardwood floors, tall windows, and a fireplace. On warmer days, classes move outdoors to the deck, surrounded by the garden. Both spaces invite you to slow down and find some stillness.
Groups stay small — never more than ten — and parking is free and easy.
Training and certifications
Pilates — Certified Polestar Pilates instructor (Isofit, Hong Kong, 2006), mat and Reformer.
Yoga — 500-hour trained teacher through Down Under Yoga, Boston, including a 300-hour mentorship with Natasha Rizopoulos. Extensive study of hands-on work through Nicole Clark's Power of Touch mentorship.
Restorative yoga — Certified Relax and Renew® Level One teacher (2020), with further anatomy study under Judith Hanson Lasater.
Iyengar Yoga — Masterclasses with Patricia Walden until her retirement in June 2026; now practising weekly with Donna Gross Javel.
Yoga Therapy — 875-hour program at Breathing Deeply under founder Brandt Passalacqua, currently completing my practicum toward IAYT certification.
Meditation and breathwork — Breathing Deeply's three-part meditation model, and training with David Magone in Mangalam Yantra Yoga, a 10th-century Buddhist practice incorporating breathwork, stress inoculation and deep relaxation.
Outside the studio
I find my balance outdoors — trekking with my dogs, listening to the birds, and tending my garden. Nature's rhythms feed my practice and my teaching.
Keep breathing, keep moving!