RETURN ~ Classical Pilates Teacher Trainings
with Brooke Bergdahl of CoreSelf
RETURN is the Teacher Training branch of Brooke's business, Core Self. There are currently two paths:
A one-year group Mentorship Program
A custom Classical Pilates Teacher Certification Program
RETURN Mentorship Program — a collective group study of Classical Pilates material through the lens of Chinese Medicine 5 Element theory. Intended to be a journey of creative, meaningful growth in both workout and teaching, offered to a group of 10–20 teachers of various backgrounds who all want to deepen their understanding and build connection through community. It's a year-long study of the Classical Pilates system through a truly unique lens, where Chinese Medicine themes offer new insight into movement, freedom, pain, integration, and refinement. This program is fully available online, with the opportunity for in-person weekend workshops for those who can travel to Western NC. The current cohort runs April '26 – April '27.
The Mentorship Program is more like a master's program — geared toward teachers who are already proficient in their workout but wanting to both deepen and expand. Throughout the year, you have steady connection and contact with Brooke and others in the program. The experience is creative, collaborative, meaningful, and supportive — wholly unique through the lens of 5 Element Daoist Philosophy (Brooke is a practicing acupuncturist) — and designed to offer true, personalized support within this intimate group setting.
RETURN Classical Pilates Teacher Certification Program — a fully customized, private training program for teachers seeking their Classical Pilates Teaching Certification.
Since 2009, Brooke trained apprentices to become highly skilled Classical Pilates teachers through nearly two years of close, in-person, in-studio study. After years in that format, she shifted from apprenticeship to mentorship training. Now, with the ease of online learning and a fully equipped home studio for both in-person and on-demand content, deep customization in teacher training is possible.
In the Pilates industry, teacher training programs are vast and unregulated — ranging from excellent to terrible, highly authentic to fully diluted, spanning anywhere from a single day to several years. The group fitness industry established various abbreviated training systems, and what often follows is that teachers realize they have gaps — they want more. They want full Classical. They want to understand the complete system in a fully equipped studio, to be skilled at 1:1 sessions, to have a greater impact on their clients' whole lives, to open a studio and define it, or simply to teach with depth and comprehensiveness rather than at surface level. So here we are.
Get ready — Brooke holds the bar high. She has a standard of completion you will be asked to meet and own: in your self-practice, your teaching, and your understanding of the system as a whole.