We were lucky to catch up with Kate Medley recently and have shared our conversation below.
Kate, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
THE MEDLEY METHOD
So, the honest answer is that this didn’t start as a business idea. It started as a realization.
I had been running PilateZENergy in Point Loma for over a decade. And I loved it – genuinely loved it. We just closed that chapter having been recognized as one of the Top 3 Pilates Studios in Point Loma for 2026, which felt like the most beautiful way to say goodbye. But,I already knew I had outgrown it. That award kind of confirmed it.
What I kept seeing, year after year, was that people were coming in for Pilates and leaving having worked through something so much deeper. A transition they were stuck in. A decision they couldn’t make. Tension in their body that had nothing to do with their spine and everything to do with their life, and I realized – I’m already doing something that doesn’t have a name yet.
The gap I saw was this: where does a thoughtful, self-aware person go when they need all of it at once? Not just a workout. Not just a coaching session. Not just intuitive guidance. All of it, together, in one intentional space with someone who can hold all of it. That place didn’t really exist. So I built it.
The rebrand was personal. Naming it The Medley Method – putting my own name on it – that took courage. Because it meant saying out loud that this work isn’t separate from who I am. It is who I am. My life’s work and purpose is to take everything I’ve learned and serve people in the most effective, inspiring, motivating way I possibly can. The rebrand was me finally being honest about that.
And what excites me most? When someone walks out of a session more like themselves than when they walked in. That’s the whole thing right there.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Hi, I’m Kate!.
I’m a certified Pilates instructor, holistic life coach, and intuitive guide based in San Diego’s Point Loma community. For over a decade – first under the name PilateZENergy, and now as The Medley Method – I’ve had the privilege of walking alongside people who are ready to feel better in their bodies, clearer in their minds, and more aligned with who they actually are.
My work lives at the intersection of three things I believe belong together: movement, mindset, and inner knowing.
On the movement side, I trained in Classical Pilates through the Romana Kryzanowska lineage – a deeply technical, body-intelligent tradition that goes far beyond “core work.” I bring over 15 years of teaching experience to every session, and I genuinely love working with the full spectrum – beginners finding their bodies for the first time, athletes refining performance, and people navigating injury or recovery. Pilates, done well, is one of the most honest and effective systems I know for building strength that actually lasts.
The coaching piece came naturally from years of noticing that what happens in the body doesn’t stay in the body. I’m a certified Health and Life Coach through an NBHWC-approved, ICF-recognized program, and my approach blends psychological awareness, holistic wellness, and the kind of honest, discerning conversation that helps people get out of their own way.
And then there’s the intuitive layer – the part that’s harder to put in a bio but often the most meaningful to clients. I completed professional training in intuitive tarot under Dr. Art Rosengarten, a licensed Jungian psychologist, and I use it as a tool for reflection, clarity, and decision-making – not fortune-telling, but a genuine framework for accessing insight you often already have.
I’m also a Manifesting Generator in Human Design, which I mention not as a buzzword, but because it genuinely shapes how I work: responsively, efficiently, and with a deep respect for the energy it takes to change.
What I’m most proud of isn’t a credential – it’s the relationships. The client who finally stopped bracing against her own body. The person who came in asking about Pilates and left with a completely different relationship to how they make decisions. The moment someone says I feel like myself again. That’s the work.
The Medley Method is a private practice by design – intentionally small, deeply personal, and built around you. I offer private sessions in Point Loma and work with clients nationwide via Zoom.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Building something from nothing – and sustaining it for over a decade – is its own act of resilience. No one tells you that when you open a business, you’re also signing up for one of the most humbling personal growth experiences of your life.
I believe Pilates is essential. Not optional, not a luxury – essential, and that conviction has carried me through the moments that could have broken me.
Because here’s what they don’t put in the business plan: you will pour yourself into people. You will learn their bodies, their histories, their fears, and their breakthroughs. You will celebrate with them, problem-solve with them, and sometimes hold space for things that go far beyond a Pilates session. And then one day, some of them will leave – often without warning, sometimes without a word beyond a text message.
That stings in a way that’s hard to explain to someone who hasn’t lived it. It’s not just losing a client. It’s losing a relationship you built in good faith, with real care, over real time.
I won’t pretend I mastered the art of not taking it personally overnight. I didn’t. But I’ve come back to a poem that reframes it beautifully – one by Brian A. “Drew” Chalker:
“People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. When you figure out which it is, you know exactly what to do.”
That poem gave me permission to stop measuring success by who stayed and start honoring what each connection was actually meant to be. Some clients came to heal something specific and moved on when it was complete. Some were season companions on a particular stretch of road, and some have become lifetime relationships I treasure deeply.
Resilience, in this business, isn’t about toughening up. It’s about staying soft enough to keep caring, while growing wise enough to hold it all a little more lightly.
That’s what over a decade of this work has taught me, and I wouldn’t trade a single hard lesson.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
The capital that launched The Medley Method came from the most painful and defining chapter of my life.
My father suffered a tragic hunting accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down. He was one of the most vibrant, active people in my world – and watching him navigate that loss was the most difficult thing our family has ever faced together. He spent time at Craig Hospital in Denver, Colorado, one of the most renowned spinal rehabilitation facilities in the country, and I was there with him during parts of his stay, sitting with him through physical therapy sessions.
What I didn’t expect was how profoundly that experience would shape my path. I was in the middle of my Pilates certification at the time, and being inside that rehab environment – witnessing the power of movement, presence, and healing – deepened something in me I couldn’t ignore.
My father passed away three years after his accident. When I received his inheritance, I knew exactly what I needed to do with it. I took a gamble on myself. I had no formal business plan – just conviction, love, and a willingness to learn the hard way. I made mistakes. The journey was a rollercoaster. But, that money was a gift, and honoring my father meant taking it all the way.
The studio became the foundation of everything The Medley Method is today.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.themedleymethod.com/
- Instagram: @themedleymethod
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathryn-medley-6291b869
Image Credits
Photographer: Jodi Harmes