Lauren Thompson is the owner of Thrive Pilates & Movement Studio in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. She has been teaching Pilates and yoga since 2007 and holds an MA in Counseling and Guidance from the University of Missouri Kansas City. She received her comprehensive Pilates certification through Team Pilates and is PMA certified. She is also RYT-200 through Yoga Alliance. With her extensive background in both how the body moves and how our minds work, Lauren brings a unique perspective to her clients. Her use of techniques from both worlds helps her clients to improve both physically and mentally to achieve total health.
Through Pilates and yoga, Lauren has worked with professional athletes on cross-training to improve technique. She also works with clients who have serious medical conditions, such as scoliosis, hip replacements, neuropathy, ataxia, cancer, and Parkinson’s disease, to regain mobility and ease pain.
Through counseling, Lauren has worked with clients on stress management, pain management, eating disorders, improving body image and self-esteem, diet adherence, weight loss, and substance abuse. She enjoys introducing others to mindfulness through movement and knows how to keep clients motivated and achieve their fitness goals.
A firm believer in the importance of women’s health, Lauren has received additional training through The Center for Women’s Fitness and is a certified Women’s Health Pilates Specialist. With this training Lauren has helped women with healing exercises for prenatal needs, postpartum recovery, diastasis recti, C-section recovery, symphysis pubis dysfunction, sensitivities during fertility treatment, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, breast cancer recovery, menopause, and pelvic floor health. Lauren is also a Practitioner of The Gentle Birth Project which provides an alternative and holistic approach to health care for pregnant and postpartum clients.
Lauren holds a BFA in dance and a BA in psychology with a minor in women and gender studies from the University of Missouri – Kansas City. She is active in the Kansas City arts community and continues to perform and create.