Cari Riis Stemmler, NCPT, BBMI, ISTT

Cari is the Founder/ Director of Paragon Pilates & Physical Therapy in Minneapolis, MN, and has been a practitioner in the Pilates & Movement Science industry since 1997. Her professional focus is on Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) recovery, Integrated Somatic Therapy, & neuroscience concentrating on how those fit into the Pilates teachings. She trained in Integrated Somatic Therapy in 2022 through The Embody Lab.

Cari has been teaching Pilates since 1997, and educating Pilates teachers since 2001.
She holds a B.A. degree in Cross-cultural Communication from the University of Minnesota, has attended countless hours of continuing education coursework, and trained with many Pilates elders. She is an experiential student of neuroscience born out of her personal experience of living with TBI symptoms for 10+ years while navigating a healing path largely on her own.  Cari enjoys helping those individuals with involved and complex movement issues, taking a whole-body myofascial approach to healing.

Cari has an extensive background in Pilates, dance, integrated movement science & rehabilitation, anatomy and yoga.  She is a PMA Gold certified Master Teacher and has been teaching comprehensive Pilates teacher training courses and continuing education as a Senior Master Instructor for Balanced Body Education since its inception.

Her professional dance career began in 1991, and she performed both company and commercial work in MN, CA, CO and South America.  Company work included Ballet of the Dolls, Winifred Harris’ Between Lines, and Cirque Productions among many others.  She has been a practitioner of Ashtanga and Anusara yoga since 1996 and started teaching Pilates while dancing professionally in Los Angeles. In 2002, she earned her ACE & NASM certifications.

Cari trained in Dance Medicine with the prestigious Harkness Center for Dance and has lectured at national dance summits at the Edge Performing Arts Center in CA, and for the Minnesota Dance Medicine Foundation, where she served as Education Chair and started their “Ask the Experts” outreach program.

She was part of the original movement that pioneered the idea of combining Pilates and physical therapy at Core Conditioning in Los Angeles.  In 2009, she moved back to her home state and opened Paragon Pilates & Physical Therapy, which was the first fully integrated Pilates and physical therapy studio in the region.

Cari has taught continuing education courses on integrating Pilates with physical therapy and special conditions, and has presented at national Pilates conferences since 2005, including Pilates on Tour and Pilates Method Alliance. You can find her educational videos on the Balanced Body site, FusionEdu, and Paragon.