I look beyond the exercise.
I combine specialist Pilates, the full studio apparatus and detailed movement analysis to understand the person, the pattern and what may help next. I work with people recovering from pain or injury, living with long-term conditions, wanting to move well as they age or seeking better performance.
Why does the same movement feel entirely different in two bodies? Why can a change at the feet alter balance, breath or strength? What allows someone not simply to recover, but to move with greater confidence and possibility? That curiosity has shaped the way I teach.
Sarah | The Movement Architect
I learned another kind of intelligence.
Before becoming a Pilates teacher, I was a Chartered Accountant. That work trained me to analyse complexity, recognise patterns and question what did not add up. It also demanded a great deal from me. During those years, psoriatic arthritis changed my relationship with my body. Movement became more difficult, my confidence diminished and my world gradually became smaller.
My return to movement began quietly: swimming, then the gym, followed by the considerable step of walking into a beginners’ Pilates class. The physical changes mattered, but something more fundamental was happening. I had been trained to make sense of complexity through numbers, structure and evidence. Pilates asked me to develop another kind of intelligence—to notice, feel, test, adapt and understand relationships that could not be reduced to a single answer.
Experience has changed what I notice.
A teacher eventually encouraged me to train. What began as a way to deepen my own understanding became a new professional direction. I qualified through Body Control Pilates and continued into full studio and specialist training.
Study gave me knowledge; teaching gave that knowledge context. Working with different bodies, histories and ambitions showed me that expertise is not the ability to apply the same answer more confidently. It is the ability to observe more precisely, ask better questions and choose more intelligently.
I now notice when effort is being misplaced, when a local difficulty belongs to a wider pattern and when the most useful next step is not the most obvious one. I also understand that people come to movement for very different reasons—from pain and recovery to strength, performance, confidence and curiosity.
My earlier career has not disappeared from my work. Its discipline, analysis and respect for evidence remain. They now sit alongside attentiveness, adaptability and embodied understanding. That combination is central to Architecture of Movement.
Architecture of Movement evolved from my earlier practice, Sarah Sykes Pilates.
Training and professional practice
My training spans matwork, the full Pilates studio and specialist work across different ages, needs and performance goals. Continuing study remains an essential part of my professional practice.
Pilates foundations
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Body Control Pilates Matwork, Level 3
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Balanced Body Studio Instructor Reformer, Trapeze Table/Cadillac/Tower, Chair and Barrels
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Body Control Pilates Supervising Teacher
Specialist practice
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Body Control Pilates Back4Good® Practitioner and Low Back Pain Specialist
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Bone health and movement for older adults
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Pre- and postnatal Pilates
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Pelvic floor–informed movement
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Neurological conditions
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Sport-specific movement for equestrians, triathletes, runners, cyclists, swimmers and golfers
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Body Control Pilates for Golfers Instructor
Continuing inquiry
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Somatics and sensory awareness
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Breathing mechanics and movement efficiency
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Posture, gait, spirals and whole-body organisation
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Embodied anatomy and Franklin Method workshops
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The relationship between movement, confidence and performance
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Ongoing professional education
Member of the Society for the Pilates Method
Outside the studio
I don’t have a great deal of free time, but my three Labradors need walking however busy the day is—and that is probably a good thing. Their sheer joy at being outdoors is infectious, and walking in the woods gives me one of the few opportunities to step away from work, screens and the constant pull of what needs doing.
The open air, changing seasons and rhythm of walking help everything come down a gear. That quieter headspace gives me room to clear my mind, think and notice. Often, something I have observed during a client’s session becomes clearer here: a connection falls into place or a possible way forward emerges.
My care for my clients does not stop when the lesson ends. I continue to think about their movement, what we have discovered and what might help them next. That curiosity and attention are central to the way I teach Pilates—not as a fixed sequence of exercises, but as a way of understanding the whole person and helping them move through life with greater ease, confidence and possibility.
This connection between movement, wellbeing and the natural world is also shaping Movement for Life—Rooted in Place, a Pilates, movement and wellbeing experience being developed for the Arboretum at Castle Howard.
The person comes before the programme.
If you are looking for movement shaped around your body, your questions and your goals, explore individual sessions, classes, workshops and experiences.