Deborah Matthews, NCPT, Heritage Graduate (she/her)
Owner
Biography:
Master Teacher, Deborah Matthews, founded InsideOut Body Therapies in 2003 and is a highly sought-after Third Generation Pilates Teacher.
Training
Deborah began her Pilates training with The Pilates Center of Boulder (TPC) in 1998 with Amy Alpers and Rachel Segel. While living in Boulder, she both studied and worked at TPC while being mentored by many generous and gifted teachers including Cara Reeser, Debra Kowley, Kim Haroche, Leah Wecksler and so many more. She completed TPC’s Advanced training in 1999. She then joined Cara Reeser, a Kathleen Stanford Grant lineage holder, at Pilates Aligned in Denver and Back to Motion Physical Therapy. It was here that she continued to deepen her understanding and perspective of healing movement.
Deborah’s background is a blend of several movement modalities that feed her approach to teaching. Her studies include completing the TPC Master’s Program in 2007 and the The Heritage Training® with Cara in 2015. Along with her Pilates background, her teaching is strongly informed by her work and studies with Hubert Godard, Dean of Dance and Movement Analysis at the University of Paris, and Rolf Movement® Instructor at The Rolf® Institute of Structural Integration. She is a graduate of Blue Point Gentle Yoga program with Sara Doyle and she continues to study and practice GYROTONIC®. She and her husband (Toby Matthews, Advanced Rolfer®) also trained together in Rolf Movement® with Pedro Padro.
Before moving to Durham and opening InsideOut Body Therapies, she worked at The Pilates Center, Boulder (TPC), managed and taught GYROTONIC® at White Cloud Boulder, and was a Senior Teacher for Cara Reeser at Pilates Aligned in Denver.
Deborah currently serves on the Faculty of The Pilates Center. She is the Co-Director of the InsideOut Body Therapies Pilates Teacher Training and is a Nationally Certified Pilates Instructor.
Approach
“I have been teaching Pilates since 1998. The opportunity to study and work with such powerful, insightful, and generous teachers help to shape the foundation of my teaching and sparked a curiosity that continues to nourishes me to this day. Cara Reeser inspired trust, play, and creativity. Rachel Segel Taylor fostered precision, confidence, and refinement. Amy Alpers deepened my appreciation for the history, depth, and empowering potential of Pilates to expand what is possible. Deborah Kolwey has been a steady voice of encouragement, belief, and gentle discipline. I have been blessed by many other remarkable teachers and mentors along the way. Their voices, lessons, and presence continue to stay with me, reminding me each day that movement can reach into the deepest layers of healing, strength, and transformation.
My approach is classical, yet innovative. Teaching Pilates offers me a way to help people experience movement that may bring healing, strength and possibility and my practice has attracted students of all fitness levels. I have worked closely with professional athletes, coaches, and teams to increase performance and endurance. I have mentored Pilates trainees since 2001 and I have been gifted the chance to help those living with chronic pain, disease, or injury to find more ease in their body. My teaching is influenced by my ongoing study of therapeutic Pilates, Rolf Movement® Integration, yoga, © Movement Science Made Simple, Suzanne Martin of Pilates Therapeutics, along with endlessly discussing anatomy and fascia with Toby. We both love nerding out about the miracles of the human body!”
Present Day
“My movement and teaching practice have supported me through my own physical issues. Through all the surgeries, testing, setbacks, and medical challenges, I kept returning to the truth that movement comes in all forms, including breathing. With baby steps, discipline and compassion I regained strength through two kidney transplants – one in 1996 in which my mom donated her kidney and another in 2022 in which my nephew, Paul, donated his kidney. Anyone living in chronic pain knows the rollercoaster that your mind and body is put through. My hope is that I might be a resource through part of the journey.
On the rare chance that you know anyone going through a kidney transplant, I currently volunteer with transplant recipients and donors. Please pass my name along to anyone you feel could use support – de*****@********************es.com.
When not working, I garden, cook, draw, and spoil three very needy cats – Marcel, Hazel, and Olive. Toby and I our caretakers of our elderly parents and although life can feel chaotic, we see the many blessings of this opportunity.”