Alma didn’t plan her journey so much as live her way into it. The Army first, then Kinesiology, then years teaching Pilates, and now training as a Clinical Psychologist. “I don’t think we discover who we are by thinking about it. I think we discover ourselves by taking action”, she says. She doesn’t see those chapters as separate careers. She sees them as the same person, arriving. Today, movement means something bigger to her than exercise. “It’s a way to reconnect with ourselves, regulate our nervous system, and build a healthier relationship with our bodies”, she says.
Leaving the military wasn’t easy. She’d joined looking for stability, and it gave her exactly that: security, structure, opportunities she’d never imagined. “The stability the military gave me is what eventually gave me the freedom to choose a life that felt more aligned with who I was becoming”, she explains. Doubt still shows up. She’s made peace with what it means. “Fear doesn’t always mean you’re on the wrong path. Sometimes it simply means you’re growing”, she says.
Seven years in, and just getting started
Today Alma works independently, with two and a half years of Pilates instruction behind her. Her practice moves across formats: private sessions, group classes, brand collaborations, and content creation for her growing community online. But she’s already building past the label of instructor. “I’m building something that goes beyond Pilates. I want to create spaces where movement, education, and mental health come together to help people reconnect with themselves”, she says. As her Clinical Psychology training advances, she sees those worlds folding into one, maybe even a therapy group down the line. “I don’t see myself just teaching Pilates. I see movement as the starting point for helping people build a healthier relationship with themselves”, she adds.
Alma teaches from a place she had to earn. “As a society, we’re rarely taught how to truly live in our bodies. We’re taught to achieve, push through, and stay busy, but not how to understand our sensations or listen to what our bodies are telling us”, she reflects, a perspective drawn straight from her own healing. For years, she was disconnected from her own body, and rebuilding that connection changed the way she works with people. “In my classes, I don’t just want people to complete the exercises. I want them to understand what they’re feeling, become curious about their bodies, and trust what they’re experiencing”, she says.
A community, not a class
What Alma is building around Pilates has less to do with a workout and more to do with a room where people feel safe enough to be themselves. Her Miami community has gathered for reunions that look more like family than fitness (balloons, portraits, a wall reading “Reencuentro de Almas”), proof that what happens on the mat keeps living outside of it. “Community is everything. Healing happens in spaces where we feel seen, supported, and safe enough to be ourselves”, she says. When someone walks into one of her classes for the first time, she wants them to feel like they belong, and to leave “stronger, more grounded, and, above all, like someone truly saw them”, she concludes.
Follow the movement. www.instagram.com/almararias
