Meet Our HAES Aligned Team
Britt McGrath, Owner of My Health Matters Fitness
Pronouns: she/her/they
Identify as Female
Proudly Bisexual
I remember a time when I didn’t really over analyze my body. Of course, growing up in a society that plagues the minds of us all to act, eat, and look a certain way to be deemed societally acceptable, I felt some pressure as a CIS, white, young woman to “fit in”. However, now, I am learning just how privileged I am to be in the body I have. I had felt empowered and confident in who I was, in the purpose of my body, and what I needed from it. To perform. My relationship with food consisted of ways I could fuel my body to perform optimally for each game. My body felt like a well oiled machine. Sleep. Eat. Soccer. I didn’t need to second guess who I was or what was required of my body. Until one day, it started.
When I reached the collegiate level, I was met head on with chronic knee injuries as well as a loss of sense of self. Like for most of us, friend groups shattered, our foundations of security crack, and stress comes in like a wave. When I needed to get surgery for one of my knees, I soon realized that I no longer felt like I fit in. I lost my sense of self and with it, my passion for my sport. So I retired from playing. Little did I know I would soon be faced with years of eating disorders, anxiety and depression, and a lot of societal pressure. What was my body and food good for if I didn’t need it for sport? What do I do with myself now? Who am I?
When I found personal training, my healing process with my body and mind began. Where I once used food and exercise as a way to control my weight, I now found a path that worked for me and my body. I no longer spent hours doing cardio and lifting heavy weights so I could look like some fitness influencer I found on Instagram. I no longer felt the need to weigh myself or take my measurements religiously. My frustration with my body when I looked at myself in the mirror, the endless hours of being consumed by diets, as well as the guilt associated with “failing” those said diets and exercise programs, started to lessen. I started to learn about intuitive eating. I began listening to what my body was telling me and stopped abusing myself. I found a profession that started my journey towards learning to look at my body for everything it is, rather than everything it is not. And through years of certifications, training, and actual hands on work, I’ve found my purpose. I’ve found my worth again. And that my friends, is to help other people who have had similar histories as mine, give diet culture and all of it’s toxic friends a huge middle finger. To finally start living our lives in ways that do not revolve around how our bodies look, but rather everything else life has to offer.
Britt does primarily personal training and fitness workshop sessions. She is no longer accepting new clients at this time. Please reach out to Mary Howell at Mary_howell@mhmfitwell.com to get in touch with a personal trainer in Massachusetts.
Britt’s Certifications
NASM Personal Trainer
Corrective Exercise Specialist
Certified Functional Strength Coach (CFSC)
HAES (Health at Every Size) Alignment
SITA (Size Inclusive Training Academy) Certified
Weight Inclusive and Anti Diet Trainer
Disordered Eating and Eating Disorder Focus w/ Emphasis on Introduction into Movement
Mary Howell
Mary Howell (she/her). I became a personal trainer to try to help others find a joy in movement that I struggled for so long to find myself. I never felt like I belonged in regular gyms and had too long suffered the consequences of "no pain, no gain." I want movement and exercise to be a celebration of what our bodies can do, both today and in our potential for greater strength and mobility and resilience.
NASM-CPT
Certifications/specializations in Corrective Exercise, TRX, Spinning, Pilates, Senior Fitness, Kettlebells, Boxing and Barbells
Jo Glading-DiLorenzo
Since 2010, Jo (she/her) has channeled her lifelong love of play into a part-time hustle as a group fitness instructor here in the valley. She teaches with a “challenge by choice” approach that encourages people to move to their own level of challenge and exertion. Jo models various levels, challenges, and choices throughout group fitness classes while focusing closely on helping participants visualize, feel and maintain solid technique and form. Oh, and music is the answer in Jo’s classes. She’s been a fitness and spin instructor at the Hampshire Regional YMCA for nearly 15 years and, formerly, Smith College, where she directed Project Coach, a sports-based youth development and social justice program. Jo was honored to lead several Northampton youth sports leagues while her children were growing up and was a Div. 1 catcher back in the day. She still finds great joy in playing and competing - now in New England bicycle hill climbs. She lives in Northampton with her wife, Lise. She holds certifications from AFAA, the American Red Cross, the NSCAA and other coaching organizations.
Tiffany Kreps
Tiffany (she/her) is the Client Coordinator/ Studio Manager at the studio. She meets with clients for consultations, offers studio tours, and manages client information. Tiff also does a lot of the “behind the scenes” work like scheduling, creating and posting to social media, sending out emails, and all that other administrative stuff that Type A people like her LOVE to do!
Recently, Tiff has become a certified NASM personal trainer and is working with clients 1-on-1 as well as instructing a variety of classes from Total Body Triad to Rhythmic Cardio, and many more! Tiff pulls from her dance background to create fun and creative profiles to meet the needs of all clients.
Certified NASM Personal Trainer
Ryan Ambuter
Ryan (he/him) is an educator and a potter; a white, trans gestational parent; a lover of lumberjacks and all things plaid; a fat person who thinks a whole lot about bodies and access; a reader; an introvert; and someone who knows what it feels like to struggle with movement and/or be uncomfortable in gym settings. He has a complicated relationship with movement spaces, but when done right loves the community and relationship to ourselves that they can offer.
Ryan began instructing spin in 2016 and is also a certified personal trainer. He is passionate about supporting others in building movement practices that feel powerful and good and embodied, particularly for those who have bodies and identities that are often marginalized in gym settings.
Alyssa Diamond
Alyssa (she/her) is your go-to Body Movement Professional, who brings a unique blend of expertise and a down-to-earth vibe to her work. Her journey started on the basketball courts in high school, leading her to a love for a range of activities from softball to weightlifting. But it's not all about physical strength for Alyssa. She's on a personal growth journey, embracing improv as a tool to boost her creativity, especially when engaging with groups. This self-development quest adds an extra layer of depth to her personal training sessions, making them not just about fitness but also about building a positive, can-do spirit.
With degrees in Kinesiology and Athletic Training, Alyssa has the smarts, but it's her approachable manner and newfound improv skills that make her classes stand out. She brings a sense of ease and fun to each session, encouraging her participants to not only stretch their bodies but also their comfort zones.
Geve Mollins
Geve (they/them) is a queer non-binary cyclist, riverside treasure hunter, and urban design nerd. They started personal training after feeling the power of movement as a tool to ground themselves in their body and celebrate what it could do, and because of how difficult it was to find conventional gyms that felt comfortable for them. They believe that everyone deserves access to movement spaces that feel safe and joyful.
Geve’s coaching style is HAES aligned and grounded in celebrating one another’s various strengths, and they are grateful that they get to be a step in their clients’ strength building journeys! Geve is certified through CFSC and ACE, as well as a Certified Trauma Informed Fitness Professional.
Ellen Morbyrne
Ellen (she&they) has been a student of yoga since she was 13, and began teaching yoga to people of all ages in 2009. Ellen's experience with a lifelong chronic illness has taught them how to love their body wherever it is in each moment, and she loves nothing more than to help others feel empowered in themselves and to rediscover their own wholeness. Yoga has always been a home of healing and healthy challenge for Ellen, a practice that invites endless connection to ourselves and to each other. Their teaching is rooted in honoring yoga's deep and diverse lineages from India and around the world, in weaving practical philosophy for our real lives through physical and breathing practices, and in offering classes filled with care and humor.
Ellen completed a 200 hour Anusara Yoga Training in 2011, is a registered yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance (E-RYT 200 and Continuing Ed Provider), is certified in CPR & First Aid, and brings over 25 years of experience as a multi-disciplinary theatre artist and over 20 years as a youth educator and mentor to her yoga teaching. They're also a mom of two wondrous kids, and specialize in supporting pregnant and birthing people at all stages of prenatal and postpartum experience. She also likes to nerd out about our bodies and their functional anatomy, the cosmology of the universe, social justice, the natural sciences, and any fascinating thing that comes up.
Come play and explore in the awesome body that you have, right now, just as you are!
Jordan Dedrick
Jordan Dedrick (She/They) is a fitness instructor who previously lived in a fat body. Through their experiences at gyms and in doctors' offices, they learned firsthand what isolation could feel like and how discouraging it can be when first starting off on a fitness journey. Jordan creates programs designed for everybody and every body in mind, making sure all folx can participate and find a community where they belong.
Jenn Therk
Coming Soon!
Katie Lipsmeyer
Katie Lipsmeyer (she/her) is a connector, experience designer, explorer, community weaver, writer, and storyteller. As former co-owner and award-winning trainer at 50/50 Fitness/Nutrition, she has taught 20,000 hours of mindful movement through fitness. In 2019, she founded Camp Glow It Up, a women's summer camp promoting fitness, whimsy, self-celebration, intentional groups, and intergenerational relationships.
Outside of the studio, she contributes her professional talents toward advocacy for conscious eating as ‘Vision Steward’ for internationally renowned Food Educator & Activist, Charles x Michel. In this role, she has worked with global organizations such as the United Nations, World Food Programme, and Rainforest Alliance. She believes access to local, fresh, nutrient-rich food is a basic human right and food education for all is key to a more equitable future.
Jamie Salacup
Jamie Salacup (she/her) is currently transitioning into the role of Client Coordinator here at MHM. A member since the beginning, you may see her at the front desk or in a class. She is strongly rooted in Health at Every Size, Fat Liberation, and the fact that ALL bodies deserve to have spaces where they can explore movement. When not working, she’s chasing sunsets, dancing to whatever’s on, or bumping into something, or adding to her TBR pile.
Jesse Freiden
Jesse (he/him) grew up a highly competitive athlete in New England, spending his formative years at the hockey rink or in the gym. He left the consuming, stressful world of sports for a long award-winning career in music and arts while maintaining a consistent presence in typical big box gym settings and CrossFit communities (disliking the attitudes that came with that crowd). Now, having made a career pivot to personal training, he is very passionate about teaching men of all kinds that working out and building functional muscle can come with thoughtfulness, kindness and true inner strength. He’s been an educator for decades, and has taught group fitness classes for the past five years. He loves trucks, radical social justice and reading about healing inter-generational trauma.
Employment Opportunities
My Health Matters Fitness is a growing Health At Every Size (HAES) aligned, fat-positive, weight-neutral, anti-diet personal training and group movement company in Western Mass. We are looking for another personal trainer (and potential group movement instructor) to join our team to provide continued support to clients who are looking to navigate away from weight loss/diet talk and toxic diet/fitness standards put in place by society. We work closely with other providers such as dieticians, therapists, PCPs, and Body Work providers who assist clients who are learning how to re-engage with movement, have been finding movement but are trying to get away from disordered habits, clients in active eating disorders/in recovery from an eating disorder, and clients who have a traumatic relationship with compulsive exercising. Potential candidates will be employed under My Health Matters Fitness or potential for contracted work.
The trainer will be responsible for 1-1 Virtual/In Person Private Personal Training, Semi Private Virtual/In Person Personal Training, and teaching small group classes. There is potential for teaching large group movement classes, leading workshops that are topic focused, and other opportunities to explore ways we can support clients further.
At My Health Matters Fitness, we treat all bodies of all sizes, shapes, genders, sexual orientations, races, ethnicities, and backgrounds. We pride ourselves on being an inclusive and safe space for all. We are looking for a team member who is similarly passionate about providing evidence-based, weight-inclusive care to every body. In order to best serve our clients, Personal Trainers with identities historically underrepresented in the Fitness industry are encouraged to apply-including but not limited to those from BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and/or fat-positive communities.
All candidates applying should be CPT certified and up to date with certification.
Requirements
Certified Personal Trainer License (Any organization welcome (ie NASM, ISSA, ACE, etc)
CPR/AED Certified (Up to date)
Health At Every Size Aligned (Also willingness to learn and adopt this alignment if not totally aware at this moment)
Do not promote or practice weight loss or diet standards. We are Anti Diet and weight neutral so we do not discuss or advocate for weight loss or diets.
Part time availability with potential for full time employment (hours will vary with client load)
Space to provide virtual sessions with a reliable internet connection (we use Zoom currently)
Benefits
Insured under My Health Matters Fitness (if not contracted)
Workman’s Comp and Paid Family Medical Leave (PFML) (if not contracted)
Collaborative opportunities with other HAES aligned providers that we are in collaboration with
Access to equipment and resources via MHM Fitness’s studio.
Support from our lovely, badass team!
*Other benefits may become available with time.
To be Considered…
Please send Britt an email at info@mhmfitwell.com with your resume and two references that can speak to the work that you do.
*Britt will send you an email for follow up shortly after sending.
