Elvyne Caelbaln Von Blaack
Dishonest and insensitive! Stole money from youth in care support program.
I took pole fitness to gain more confidence & hopefully adopt a healthier, active lifestyle. I thought this would be a great way to learn to care for, have pride in, & appreciate myself, eventually learning to love/value my own sensuality and form.
I was a disadvantaged youth for all of my life & was raised in foster homes, so when my worker approved pole fitness classes as my last eligible paid extracurricular activity before aging out of their support services, I was excited beyond belief.
I was approved for 2 six week courses + a 70$ open pole practise membership which wouldve allowed me to attend the studio to practise so i could use their professionally mounted poles to improve my skills safely.
Unfortunately, I was never allowed to use the 70$ practise membership. I'd been dealing with alot of personal issues (mental health, custody court, etc) that greatly affected my ability to find transportation to come practice during the 12 weeks of class, but still managed to attend regularly. I finished the 12 weeks & could not afford to pay for the third level classes due to losing my financial support from to my transition out of CAS & into my 1st apartment. I inquired into when i could come in to use the membership for continuing to develop my skills until I could afford more classes.
I was informed that i waited too long & the membership was not being offered, even though my worker had allocated government funds for me to recieve this service as a disadvantaged youth so it was ALREADY PAID in full, was not informed of any expiration date for the membership or use by date/policy, & the website STILL showed the SAME services being offered.
The owner was very rude in emails when i addressed this & lashed out at me when i suggested that this was less than ethical & mentioned that professional studios are clear on how long their services are offered to avoid LEGAL ISSUES from clients not being provided with the services they PAY FOR nor any knowledge of its limited usability.
The owner responded by belittling me in her emails (happy to show you her true colors, email me) saying I was always dirty & stinky & would never follow my teachers instructions. Which was BS as I felt i had a good relationship with the class instructor(very welcoming, this review is not about you Mandy) & had never been disciplined for anything in class.
That said, I am a very sweaty person naturally, deodorant doesnt help much in an excersize oriented setting where people are apt to sweat and stink. Also as I said, one of the reasons I took pole class to begin with was to BUILD self esteem so i could Improve self care habits. After being spoke down to like this & degraded, my self esteem & confidence fell so low that for a while I didn't even leave my house. I had felt great while taking pole and built some confidence which I was happy about, but that was all taken from me & destroyed with how I was treated. I still feel insecure because I can't think of anything I did wrong in regards to "not following orders" & it hurts to think that people who I thought were encouraging me, mightve actually been annoyed by my presence.
Ive struggled with self loathing & self hatred for alot of my life. Being built up so much with such high expectations & hopes, JUST to be torn down again because of a financial/service provisional discrepancy on the owners part, rly did a heavy blow to my mental health. I've become so embarrassed I don't think I will purse any more social activities such as this for a long time.
To my knowledge, i did my best to pay attention & manage my own mental issues in class so i could follow the moves & directions. I tried to learn from & help my classmates. I began to maintain my appearance more, with a sense of pride taken from feeling part of something. I did my best to be a good student. Obv, the problem was that she didnt want to let me use the practise membership she recieved payment for, even though it didnt require any extra labor on her part....