Our Team
Risa Mathews, MA, Owner & Director
Risa Mathews has owned and operated Boditree Pilates & Healing in Vancouver since 1999. Prior to this time Risa was residing in Sydney, Australia, where she was attending grad school and also operating her first Boditree Pilates studio in Sydney’s Eastern suburbs. Risa sold her Sydney studio in late 1999, and opened Boditree in Vancouver soon after returning home. Risa has successfully integrated a number of healing modalities into the Pilates environment, which has shown to assist participants in managing pain and better prepare them for physical exercise.
Risa has created, published, and trademarked a number of protocols that are now being shared via online course offerings. Risa has researched and created these protocols to help manage the following, but not limited to: chronic pain, injury, rehabilitation from surgery, plus a multitude of conditions such as but not limited to scoliosis, Parkinson’s disease, MS, learning disabilities, joint replacement, emotional trauma, post-surgical rehabilitation, and pre and post-natal conditioning. These online courses are meant to give fellow instructors and movement therapists an opportunity to study with Risa, without having to travel to Vancouver.
Risa holds a BA from Simon Fraser University (1990) and an MA from Macquarie University (1995), and has a background in dance, aquatics, teaching, publishing, and public speaking. Since creating the online workshops, Risa has presented workshops in Honolulu, New York, Toronto, and Vancouver. Boditree Releasework is now approved for PMA CEC points for all students who download these online workshops!
Throughout 2017, 2018 and 2019, Risa traveled to a number of cities in North America to present Boditree Releasework TM, a unique approach to pre-Pilates developed by Risa over the last 20 years she has owned and operated Boditree Pilates and Healing. Mid 2019 Risa was invited to be featured in Darien Gold’s radio program, “All Things Pilates”. A few months later, Risa was invited back for a second interview, where she discussed her views on the late Ron Fletcher’s enormous contribution to the Pilates Method.
Beth Bynoe
Beth’s bio is coming soon!
Diana Vezhel
Diana is a local Pilates Instructor who originally moved from Kazakhstan and has been teaching in Vancouver for 3 years. Diana has been attending Boditree’s Classical Pilates Mentorship and joined our team of dedicated Instructors in 2024. We are thrilled to welcome Diana to the Boditree teaching roster!
Pawel Ruminski
Pawel is a boxing pro from Poland who moved to Vancouver in 2025 to teach Pilates and continue coaching Boxing. Pawel started studing Pilates in 2017 after sustaining a motorcycle accident that fractured an ankle. After experiencing the power of Pilates as a healing source, Pawel quickly grew fascinated with the repertoire and accompanying apparatus, and proceeded to certify in Basi Pilates studies. After relocating to Canada, Pawel attended Boditree’s Classical Pilates Mentorship program, to increase his skills in the formal and authentic Pilates methodology, and work alongside the Boditree team in serving our valued clientele. Pawel is thrilled to be sharing his expertise with the Boditree community, and has brought sets of boxing gloves into the studio, to add an extra dimension of training to our client’s workouts. It’s been a huge success, everyone is greatly enjoying learning combat skills with Pawel, and next up sees upcoming new Group-Led classes at Boditree being led by Pawel, a fusion of Pilates Matwork, Magic Circle reperotoire, and Archival Pilate standing drills, incorporated with shadow boxing.
Karen Sager
Karen has completed her training in Classical Pilates at Boditree Pilates plus additional workshops with Risa. Prior to teaching, Karen was a dedicated Boditree client for many years. After a massive cycling accident requiring surgical bolts and screws, Karen transitioned from a fitness client to a post surgical healing client with the studio. Having experiencied the powers of Boditree strengthening for such a massive injury, Karen joined Boditree’s teacher training, and dedicated her professional life to helping others heal with Pilates. Karen is living proof of the power of classical Pilates at overcoming injury!
Olga Voropaeva
Olga is an advanced Classical Pilates instructor having graduated from The Pilates Centre, Colorado, one of the most respected and thorough training programs in the world. She completed more than 950 hours of mat and equipment training at Kalijo Studio on the beautiful Sunshine Coast with Katherine Denham and Ali Denham as her host advisers. Olga has attended continuing education Classical Pilates training with Kathi Ross Nash in workshop format over the past several years.