Sunni Almond

In this article Sunni Almond shares her story on ethics.

Last year I had a lot going on, my dad had just been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic and liver cancer, at that same time, I was involved innocently enough with a person who feigned cancer and I offered her free sessions trying to keep her moving and to have some sort of wellness in her remaining few weeks of life. But all that is another story that led into this one.

I had a fundraiser and did all sorts of things to help this woman and one of  things I did to help her was  (she was going on a bucket-list road trip, and the cancer had spread into her spine she said) get her some essential oils that help relieve pain. In order to get the oils, I contacted a very good friend of mine that still worked at the studio previously owned by the person I used to work for.

Now the studio had been bought out by an old client of mine that had started to do a teacher training with me and never finished. She had not wanted to test out and didn’t do well at all on a test that should have been easy had she chosen to go through her notes and practice and observe etc…her response was that she hadn’t done her matwork since we moved on to the next training module. Regardless, she had a major meltdown and I asked her to leave my studio.

I then found her another studio (my old one) to finish her hours and take the PMA etc…She bought the studio from the old owner, my friend, so when I went in to buy the oils, my friend was there, and the problem person (the new owner) was on vacation.

I had been hired to teach in her absence, but cancelled without notice and when I told my friend what had happened, she said if she was still in charge that would’ve never occurred, but that’s not the worst.

The worst was after the new owner got home from her vacation, found out I went to her studio while she was gone even though she had cancelled my subbing hours last minute, the fact that I entered her place of business really ticked her off, so she slandered me on social media, accused me falsely on Yelp of taking her money for teacher training and not finishing her education. It was a pay as you go situation so I had documentation to show her hours and payments matched up…she also sued me for the money she spent taking lessons at my studio (the charges were later dropped, because she knew she had lied).

Her website had all the old verbiage from when my friend owned it, and it said she was comprehensively trained and PMA certified and a master teacher, she has yet completed any comprehensive course, not sat for the PMA or any other test, and she still has on her website that she is a master teacher and she can certify and prepare new teachers to sit for the PMA. I brought all this to the attention of Elizabeth Anderson, and she wanted me to handle it myself, even though the website had the PMA logo that someone else had earned.

Finally after my insisting that the woman was a threat to my well being, did Elizabeth have the website gone over and had the offending material taken down, but it is all up there again, just not the PMA logo this time. This woman is unethical.

This is why I am no longer supporting the PMA, they did NOT come to my aid as a 9 year member, PMA conference volunteer for many years, and a CPT. The year ended badly; My dad died, the woman who said she had cancer was found to be a fraud. She did time and has to pay restitution but…wow! and the teacher who lied about being a PMA- CPT is still lying, she just isn’t trashing me on social media anymore.

I’m not sure if she is qualified to teach and she is part of the bigger problem brought on by weekend workshops and people who open studios thinking that anybody can teach anything on Pilates apparatus and call it Pilates.

©Sunni Almond