Your favorite Pilates studio has a new location in West Chester. Now at 300 East Gay Street, Symmetry Pilates includes the same great deals on lessons with the same great instructor. The studio originated on North Church Street, and then moved to Gay Street Plaza. After roughly 8 years in each location, Joey McLaughlin, Symmetry Pilates’ instructor and owner, is thrilled to own her own space. She divulged secrets about the history of her studio and on her mid-March move.
“It’s been fun to find old buildings for a new studio location,” she said. “This one was built in the late 1800s. I wanted to be more solidified with West Chester.”
Having grown up in Media and having studied communications at Philadelphia’s Temple University, Joey hadn’t spent much time in West Chester before. It wasn’t until her high school and college friend, Liz Smutko, suggested starting a Pilates studio 
in West Chester that Joey’s passion took off.
“I had studied dance when I was a kid and my friend, as a basketball player, was throwing out her back a lot. We read about Pilates, but we just couldn’t find it around us. So we took up power yoga.”
Different from regular yoga, this form of yoga requires a complete alignment of the body and mind, as well as constant motion. Joey fell in love with this yoga because of her previous training as a dancer. But her heart still belonged to pilates. When she and Liz became trained in yoga, her friend suggested a West Chester pilates studio.
Was she like a catalyst? I asked Joey.
“She absolutely was,” Joey stated. “I completely blame her.”
Though Liz never started the business with her, Joey loves the mind-body workouts pilates brings her and the rehabilitative nature of it.
“One of my favorite things is to teach [my students] that they’re not broken,” she said. “It’s very rehabilitative for everyone. You strengthen and stretch muscles and increase your flexibility. You feel better no matter how you walk in.”
Joey recognizes the complementary nature of both yoga and pilates, and stated that it was because of her training in yoga that 
made her a better pilates instructor and student, and visa versa.
“I was aware of what I should feel in every movement,” she said, “and I could express it to my students, as well as feel it myself.”
But one of the most important aspects of her job is being able to connect with her clients.
“It’s been a real joy to meet the clients that I’ve had. Two of my clients met here and are now married. I feel very honored to have known them.”
