Why We Started This?
“I fell, but knew what to do!” is something Marisa’s clients are saying.
Marisa has spent more than 25 years as a personal trainer, Pilates instructor, yoga teacher, and movement specialist working primarily with older adults. In 2024, after completing an advanced fall safety skills training, she began teaching her private clients something most adults are never taught: how to fall safely. She introduced practical techniques for protecting the hips, spine, wrists, shoulders, and head; reducing momentum; and transitioning safely from the floor.
What surprised her wasn’t that clients stopped falling, it was what happened when they did. Several reported using the techniques they had practiced in real falls. They avoided serious injury. Instead of panic, they felt prepared. Capable. Like their bodies had known what to do.
Around the same time, Marisa’s own family was living the opposite experience. Her mother took a severe fall and spent a month moving between hospitals and rehabilitation facilities. The physical injury was only part of it. The loss of independence, the financial strain, and the emotional toll were devastating.
“The loss of independence for my parents and the strain this is putting on them financially is more than tragic. Especially if you knew my mom before her fall.”
That combination of client breakthroughs and personal heartbreak made something undeniable: strength and balance training matter! But they are not enough. People need the skill of falling itself.
Marisa felt a responsibility to bring these techniques beyond her private clients. When Christina joined as co-founder and business partner, FallRight became what it is today: a practical training program and a growing enterprise built around a simple, powerful idea.
Falling is a skill. With proper training, it can be learned.
We are building the program we wish had existed for Marisa’s mother. And for all of ours.
Our Philosophy
We believe adults deserve practical skills, not fear-based messaging. FallRight is grounded in how the nervous system actually learns – through movement, repetition, and respect for lived experience.
This work is about dignity as much as technique.
Who We Are
Marisa Pugliano
Founder & Movement Educator
Marisa Pugliano is a movement educator and somatic practitioner with over two decades of experience helping people develop balance, coordination, and confidence in their bodies. Her teaching integrates principles from dance, somatic awareness, and neuro-biodynamic movement to translate the science of the nervous system into accessible, embodied learning.
At FallRight, Marisa leads the development of programs that empower participants to move with greater ease, adaptability, and resilience. Her workshops bridge evidence-based research with over 20 years of experiential practice, guiding people to understand how awareness and movement work together to prevent injury and restore trust in the body.
Marisa’s approach is rooted in compassion and curiosity. She believes that learning how to fall, literally and metaphorically, is an essential life skill that fosters strength, connection, and personal freedom. Through her work with FallRight, she continues to redefine what it means to move safely, confidently, and fully alive.
