Sean Kemp Waldie is a certified Pilates mat and equipment teacher, and an ELDOA Practitioner in Toronto, Canada

I was able to steal him away from his busy practice to sit down for an interview series on how he got started in ELDOA, and how the ELDOA training course helped round out his rehab practice.

Sean’s Story

In Spring 2011, Sean suffered six disc herniation caused by a simple sneeze during a push up. This debilitating episode caused him to have to re-learn to sit, stand and walk over an 18-month period. Through this experience, he developed an insight into the actions that allow the body to move without restriction – and it helped shape his practice.

How Sean and I got connected through ELDOA

Sean came into contact with ELDOA through one of his earlier mentors, Myriam Pelletier who runs a rehabilitative studio in Toronto called, The Loft Pilates. ELDOA had been something that he wanted to weave into his practice, so when I started to offer the training in Toronto – Sean was one of the first people to sign up right away!

Here’s some insight into Sean’s story:

What is it that fascinated you about ELDOA?

I found that ELDOA gave me an acute insight into what works to help to deal with significant injuries and the steps that are needed to migrate someone from a very debilitative state back to an ability to participate fully in their life.

I quickly learned that it allowed me to have a good cause and effect understanding of alternatives modalities that help someone to take ownership of their own well-being.

The biggest delivery of the ELDOA method to my clients is helping to make them non-reliant on a particular practitioner – and giving them the skills through these exercise modalities so they can become in tune with what their body needs, where, when, why and for how long so they can return back to their normal function.

Who are my clients?

Typically the majority of my clientele are in their late 40’s and wanting to start to address back injuries and general things that are mitigating their quality of life. But now over the past 18 months, I’ve seen a drastic increase in people that are in their mid 30’s that want to start with this, and might have the same sort of injuries of people older.

As I run numerous group classes teaching ELDOA for 40 hours a week, I’ve consistently noticed a shift where clients are asking, “what can I do so that my body actually feels good, feels relaxed and is at ease in its skin?”

From a personal perspective, ELDOA quickly became a way to address acute pain for my clients – which is what I learned first-hand during my own road to recovery. ELDOA was an effective tool because it helped strengthen my body’s mechanisms to heal itself.

ELDOA works for my clients who would come with an injury that has a diminishing effect of their ability to participate and they needed help.

Why I LOVE ELDOA!

I am in love with this method because you’re encouraging promotion of blood circulation in all areas of the body and it helps to move it better!

ELDOA is like a conductor that works to help your lungs open up in order to breathe better, or help your heart pump better. It’s just such an effective regime to address a number of things that typically people in the health and fitness community don’t observe as part of what it means to be “healthy and fit.”

Why did you take Petra’s ELDOA course?

I took Petra’s course, not only because she is highly regarded in the industry as a leading ELDOA practitioner, but also she is someone that is very passionate about her practice and the ELDOA method – and you can see it every time she teaches a class or talks about it. She is so easy to learn from, so it made for an enjoyable journey and discovery process when working with her.

ELDOA is a by-product of manual Osteopathic studies. It was from my working with ELDOA that had me undertake study in manual Osteopathy. As ELDOA and every therapeutic modality can only take a person so far, there are times when manual care is needed to fully realize the benefits of ELDOA for someone to be self reliant in their care.

How has it benefitted your practice and your clients?

ELDOA helped bring clarity to things I was already doing intuitively, just as a by-product of my own injury experience - and it’s a good way to package things together.

My clients all love it, because with each time you use an ELDOA, its rate of holding in the body exponentially increases!

So maybe the first time you work with a posture it might have 24 hours giving the resulting benefits that you’re looking for, and that might take an hour the first time but the next time you’re working with it for 30 minutes, it gives you 3 days. See what I mean? The positive feedback that I get from clients that can take complete ownership of their health and rehab is so fulfilling!

My therapeutic plans have delivered effective exercise programs for individuals with:

Back and neck pain,
Injury recovery,
Degenerative joints,
Concussions,
Multiple sclerosis,
Vertebral fractures,
Disc herniation and so much more.

I’m able to provide my clients these tools to add to their kit for their home routine and practice, while diversifying my business with the expanded service offerings I can provide to help them on their road to recovery.

This is a must method for each person to learn as it specifically counters the stress that all actions put on the body – and you end up absolutely craving it after just one class!

Would you recommend others in your field to take this course?

I would 100% recommend it!

Within the last year I have gotten at least 12 other trainers to be certified in ELDOA. With that being said, I would also recommend taking the time to think about where you see yourself on the spectrum of the health, wellness and fitness field – and how this valuable piece of knowledge fits into that for you.

The ELDOA method bridges athleticism and wellness to efficiently address and remove whole body pains and restrictions from long time misalignment.

That’s how I felt when I learned about ELDOA. And that’s why I’m constantly trying to improve my toolkit so that I can pay that knowledge forward.

It comes down to what you see yourself doing, and how you want to service your clientele.

You can check out Sean’s website right here!

Q+A with Sean Kemp Waldie: How ELDOA™ intertwined with his rehabilitative practice