Our Staff

Deborah Matthews, PMA®-CPT

A Founding Partner of InsideOut Body Therapies, Deborah is a member of the Pilates Method Alliance® and a PMA® Certified Pilates Instructor. She trained at The Pilates Center of Boulder (TPC) whose owners, Amy Alpers and Rachel Segel, studied with Pilates Elder Romana Kryzanowska, a long-time student of Joseph Pilates. Deborah completed her initial Pilates training in 1999, the TPC Master's Program in 2008, and currently serves on the Faculty of The Pilates Center. She is the Director of the InsideOut Body Therapies Pilates Teacher Training, which is officially licensed from The Pilates Center.

Before moving to Durham, Deborah managed and taught GYROTONIC® at White Cloud Boulder and was Senior Teacher for Cara Reeser at Pilates Aligned in Denver. Deborah offers a classical, yet highly innovative approach to Pilates, with a deep understanding of the damaged body in need of rehabilitation and the everyday body in need of strength and flexibility. Her teaching has been influenced by her study of art, Rolfing® movement, and the process of her own rehabilitation from many challenging physical issues, including a kidney transplant.

In addition to ongoing training with Pilates masters, Deborah's teaching is continually informed by her work with Hubert Godard, Dean of Dance and Movement Analysis at the University of Paris and Rolf Movement Instructor at The Rolf Institute®. Deborah studied the Gyrotonic Method with Master Trainers Skye Shansby and Sebastian Plettenberg.

Mischa Decker, PT, DPT, OCS, PMA®-CPT

Mischa Decker, PT, DPT, OCS, PMA-CPT, a Partner at InsideOut Body Therapies, holds a Doctorate in Physical Therapy from the Duke University School of Medicine and a BS in Exercise and Sport Sciences from the University of Florida, and is an Orthopaedic Certified Specialist. Mischa is a PMA® Certified Pilates Instructor and trained at The Pilates Center of Boulder whose owners, Amy Alpers and Rachel Segel, studied with Pilates Elder Romana Kryzanowska, a long-time student of Joseph Pilates. She is a graduate of The Pilates Center Master's Program and is on the Faculty of The Pilates Center. She co-leads the InsideOut Body Therapies Pilates Teacher Training and is Director of the InsideOut Body Therapies Pilates-Based Physical Therapy Fellowship Program.

Mischa's love of movement began with her study of ballet, modern dance, and theater. After witnessing the effectiveness of Pilates in rehabilitating injuries during a ballet workshop, Mischa knew that she wanted to integrate Pilates into her physical therapy practice. She has since worked in many different settings including hospital-based acute care, inpatient rehabilitation, and outpatient orthopedics most notably at NovaCare Rehabilitation in Chapel Hill, The Durham Rehabilitation Institute, Jack D. Close and Associates in Las Vegas, and The American Dance Festival.

Amy Ginsburg, Ed.D., PMA®-CPT

Amy Ginsburg, Ed.D., is a PMA® Certified Pilates Instructor and Dance Educator with extensive training in contemporary dance techniques, ballet, Laban Movement Analysis, and Ideokinesis. She completed the Comprehensive Pilates Teacher Training Program at Body Precision Pilates Studio near Philadelphia. Amy holds a B.A. in Psychology from Duke University, an M.A. in Dance from the University of Illinois, and an Ed.D. in Dance from Temple University.

Before relocating to Durham with her husband, Amy developed and directed the Dance program at Dickinson College where she was Associate Professor and Director of Dance. Since then, Amy has taught at Meredith College, Duke University, the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and she continues to serve on the Executive Committee of the American College Dance Festival Association (ACDFA). Passionate about Pilates, Amy was delighted to begin teaching at InsideOut in 2005.

Amy's work is fueled by a deep appreciation of the transformative power of movement.

Ashley Smitherman, PMA®-CPT

Ashley Smitherman is a PMA® Certified Pilates Teacher and a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill. She began taking Pilates classes in 2005 while looking for something new to complement her regular cardio & weight training sessions. She quickly fell in love with the method and was fascinated by the changes in her body. Under the direction of Deborah Matthews & Mischa Decker, Ashley completed over 900 hours of intensive education through the Pilates Center Teacher Training at IOBT. A member of the Pilates Method Alliance®, Ashley teaches a variety of mat amp; equipment classes as well as private lessons. She is passionate about sharing the joy of movement through Pilates with her clients & mentoring teacher trainee students as an advisor. In addition to teaching Pilates, Ashley is a busy mom of 2 boys, Wyatt & Yates.

Crystal West, PMA®-CP

Crystal West, a Raleigh native, is a PMA® Certified Pilates instructor, dance teacher, and performer. She completed the 950+ hour Pilates Center Teacher Training program at IOBT after experiencing the transformative nature of pilates on her own body and movement quality. Crystal has been dancing, teaching, choreographing, and performing her entire life, and is honored to have studied with many well known and respected artists. She was a guest artist at the Boston Conservatory during during her four year stay in Boston, MA and currently teaches dance for CC & Co Dance Complex in North Raleigh. She holds a BA in Journalism and Mass Communication with a minor in English from UNC Chapel Hill and had a double-life as a software engineer and dancer for years until pilates simply won her over. Crystal is especially passionate about how pilates can both prevent injury and enhance performance for athletes and movement artists. When Crystal isn't in the dance studio or on the Reformer, you can find her spending time with her husband, Jeffrey, and their son, Owen, in Carrboro.

Dana Romanosky, PMA®-CPT

Dana Romanosky, a PMA® Certified Pilates Instructor was introduced to Pilates in 1999 while living and working in New York City. Whether snow skiing, cycling, hiking, or travelling, Dana has always pursued an active lifestyle. She was a certified fitness instructor who taught classes at the University of Delaware where she received a B.A. in History. Prior to teaching Pilates, Dana did Equity Marketing and Conference Planning for the Financial Community. While traveling abroad, Dana suffered a serious car accident that temporarily sidelined all her physical activity and left her in chronic pain. After trying many forms of therapeutic movement to rehabilitate her injuries Dana found her way back to Pilates and could not believe the effect. Dana's firsthand experience resonates in her Pilates practice and created a desire for her to share her knowledge with others through teaching. Dana was certified by The Pilates Center (TPC) through Grasshopper Pilates of Marin, a licensed TPC teacher-training studio.

Dana is passionate about the body's possibilities to move and heal through Pilates. She brings that passion to every class and private session and loves helping people achieve their fitness or rehabilitation goals. Having experienced pregnancy and life postpartum she is further inspired to help women stay healthy and centered during that time.

At the end of 2010 Dana moved to Morrisville from the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two daughters. She is thrilled to be a part of the InsideOut Body Therapies community.

Jenna Zaloom

Jenna Zaloom is a PMA® Certified Pilates Instructor and the Teacher Training Coordinator at InsideOut Body Therapies in Durham, an officially licensed studio of The Pilates Center in Boulder. She is currently completing the Master's program with The Pilates Center. Her awareness and eventual interest in Pilates arose from her disappointment due to a severe knee dislocation ending her lifelong goal to rock NYC stages as a ballerina. Jenna believes that if she had been able to study Pilates consistently, all those years ago, she would have gotten back en pointe. In 2003, she completed a 650 hr., comprehensive Pilates program with a graduate of The Pilates Center. However, because of the demands of her full-time job, she only taught for one year. Years later, after taking some classes at Studio Hargett in Raleigh, she was inspired to teach again. She discovered the program at InsideOut and began her journey to recertify. While her previous training enabled her to give people a good workout, she aspired to acquire the body reading skills of her mentors, Deborah Matthews and Mischa Abshire-Decker. Jenna finished the 950 hr. Advanced Teacher Training program at InsideOut in 2012. The program taught her that being a good teacher means being an active student. Jenna is a UNC grad, a dog lover, addicted to hot vinyasa and chips, a faerie godmother to her nephew Max, one half of the musical duet Mercurial and Evenkeel, and grateful to be a part of the Studio Hargett and InsideOut communities.

Jessica Satterlee, PMA®-CPT

Jessica is a Pilates Method Alliance® Certified Pilates Teacher and is InsideOut's Pilates Teacher Training Coordinator. Jessica fell in love with Pilates after her very first class. Pilates exceeded any expectation she had ever had for exercise and it became an addiction - an addiction to health, happiness, and balance. Jessica's passion for Pilates and her desire to share that passion with others led her to complete The Pilates Center Teacher Training at InsideOut. Pilates has changed Jessica both physically and mentally and she aspires for that change in her clients.

Jessica's other enduring passion is for baking. She loves to see the smiles of friends and family when she shares her creations with them. Visit her cookie kitchen for more information.

Lorien Armour, PMA®-CPT

Lorien Armour, PMA-CPT was certified to teach Pilates through The Pilates Center Teacher Training Program and is a Breast Cancer Post-Rehab Exercise Specialist certified through The Pink Ribbon Program, Inc. Although she has always been interested in exercise and movement, she was especially drawn to Pilates because of the therapeutic aspects that allowed her to stay active while healing a series of injuries in 2006. So, while she does enjoy teaching Pilates to those who just want a good workout, she also loves to help those who are working through injuries or other conditions keeping them from their full potential.