Louisa was born in Watford as the only child of two only children. Her father had his own garage where he did both mechanical and bodywork repair on cars and her mother dealt with all the administration. When she went to secondary school her mother went to work in a solicitor’s office. Louisa loved school and especially enjoyed Music and English. Outside school she played, “any woodwind instrument I could get my hands on” but especially the clarinet and saxophone in she has a grade 8 qualification. Surprisingly, (her words) she was not especially good at sports or PE. Following A levels in Music, English and Theatre Studies Louisa went to Lancaster University to study English Literature with Linguistics and Music. In 1999 she graduated with a 2:1.

On leaving university Louisa worked in publishing; she was intending taking a PGCE and going into teaching but then discovered Human Resources ( HR) and went on to become an HR manager completing the professional qualifications and becoming a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). During that career Louisa worked for CreoScitex, a printing company, Cable and Wireless and Rhodia, a French manufacturing company now known as Solvay since its purchase by a Belgian organisation. The last position involved travelling every week to different sites across the UK as well as to Paris, the company’s corporate headquarters. As a result of a stressful business life Louisa started to suffer from neck and shoulder pain. Despite seeing a number of practitioners Louisa found that as soon as she slipped back into old movement habits the aches and pains returned. Then she discovered Pilates and found it made an amazing difference because it helped her to move better all of the time rather than returning to her old bad habits and so she continued her Pilates practice for a number of years. Unfortunately work continued not only to be stressful but also to become increasingly negative as she had to manage restructuring and site closures as manufacturing continued to suffer in the UK. Feeling she needed something to counterbalance the negative aspects of her work Louisa decided to train to teach Pilates both to further her own interest and to share with others so that they could benefit as she has done from what she describes as this incredible method of staying active. 

In 2008 Louisa began to train part-time with Body Control Pilates completing the course in 2009 to become a Level 3 Matwork teacher. Initially she taught a few classes around her work schedule during evenings and weekends as well as teaching her work colleagues at lunchtimes. Then in 2011 she took a period of maternity leave during which her son Alex was born. A return to HR work on a part-time basis together with teaching some Pilates proved too much to juggle when combined with the needs of a very young child. Eventually Louisa was fortunate to have the opportunity to leave corporate life in 2016. Since then she has focused on her own Pilates business which she fits around family life. Louisa commented that she counts herself very lucky to be able to turn her passion into her own small business and to have had the opportunity to meet many more people locally than she otherwise would have done. Following a request by Donna Page and a “bit of a false start” – ie pregnancy and the birth of Alex - the classes properly started on Sunday mornings in November 2012. Louisa is very pleased that most of those who started with her then at the Community Centre are still attending now either at the Monday morning or evening Intermediate classes. From starting with that one Stoke Hammond class in 2012 Louisa now has five on a Monday (three daytime and two evening classes!” She also teaches at studios in Aspley Guise and Dunstable and at a dance studio in Berkhamsted as well as offering private induction and rehab sessions. As well as matwork Louisa is now qualified to teach exercises on the Reformer, an amazing piece of equipment developed by Joseph Pilates. Louisa has done an extensive amount of continuing professional development over the years. Her portfolio now includes: small equipment such as overballs, toning circles, bands and the foam roller. She also teaches antenatal and postnatal pregnancy classes, children, and people with osteoporosis, scoliosis, low back pain and golf related ailments. Although she enjoys working in a variety of locations Louisa admits that she would love, one day, to have her own studio.Before leaving corporate life Louisa completed qualifications in Sports Massage Therapy. She doesn’t have much time to use it now as the Pilates work keeps her so busy but she says that the training really helped expand her knowledge and enhance her approach to Pilates. As if all that wasn’t enough Louisa also let slip that she is now also a Supervising teacher for Body Control Pilates so students spend time with her at her classes to complete their teaching practice hours as part of their training.