Port Williams woman offers trauma-informed yoga classes
Lisa Quintin of Port Williams specialises in knowing how the parts make up the whole, whether in terms of machinery, our bodies, or our mental health.
Having grown up in Cole Harbour, Quintin had her sights set on being a physiotherapist, and even completed a job co-op at a physio clinic in Grade 12 to gain experience. She loved learning about the body and how it moves.
But life sometimes takes us on a different path than planned.
In her first year of studying biology at Dalhousie University, Quintin became pregnant with her daughter.
“I didn’t feel choosing to finish a BSc and then a physiotherapy degree was a good decision when I knew I had to support a child in the near future,” she says.
So, instead of breaking down human movements, on the advice of a friend, Quintin signed up for the two-year Mechanical Engineering Technology diploma at NSCC, and later returned on a part-time basis to earn a degree in applied science and technology from Memorial University.
Quintin says she does not regret her decision and she’s had many interesting jobs over the years.
“I’ve designed organizers for cars; I’ve managed the design of a rock crusher in Fort MacMurray, I was responsible for an automation line, which made DNA collection kits and now (I) get to be part of the process of making truck tires for Michelin,” she says.
As a process engineer at Michelin’s plant in Waterville, Quintin spends her days making sure that the processes in her department create quality parts in an efficient way.
ACTIVE IN COMMUNITY
Many of her afternoons are spent coaching a First Lego League robotics team in Port Williams, with her daughter, Hayly, who is now 25 and has a degree in computer science. Not only is her oldest daughter a co-leader, but her youngest son, 11, is a team member.
“Since my son is the right age and has an interest in programming, I wanted him to have the opportunity to participate and for him and some friends to enjoy experiencing learning,” she says.
Quintin admits she also just wanted to play with the robots, too.
The team, known as the Mechanical Mauraders, is self-described as being serious sometimes and goofy sometimes. The aim is to balance fun and learning.
And when not working with robots and machinery, large and small, Quintin can be found in front of a group of people teaching yoga.
Again, Quintin did not set out to become a teacher, but fell into rhythm as a natural teacher, based on her personal response and self-healing during her own practice.
In her early 20s, she discovered Iyengar yoga, which focuses on detail, precision and alignment. She says her logical brain loved it because of the detail in the methodology. It reminded her of why she had originally wanted to be a physiotherapist.
HEALING WITH TRAUMA
Although she started taking yoga for the physical benefits, Quintin says she soon realized how much it also changed her mood and made her feel good in her body. She said it made her "feel aware and alive."
Over the years, Quintin continued to practice yoga, and found whenever she had any stress in her life, she always came back to yoga to help her feel better.
Then, a few years ago, when her family was experiencing a lot of stress, she decided to sign up for yoga teacher training. Since then, besides teaching regular yoga classes, including a weekly drop-in at the Port Williams Community Centre on Monday nights, Quintin has started focusing on trauma-informed yoga.
Yoga and body awareness exercises can be very therapeutic for someone who has experienced trauma, she says.
“A traumatic experience can cause us to become uncomfortable in our body and the reaction to trauma can remain trapped in our nervous system,” says Quintin. “It’s not always just the type of event that causes a posttraumatic stress injury, but it can depend on the conditions around our experience.”
Trauma in the body may look like sensation, emotion, tension or pain or the experience of feeling nothing at all. A traumainformed yoga class is designed to make participants comfortable in order to safely explore the connection with themselves, she says.
Quintin’s interest in traumainformed yoga stems her family’s personal experience.
Her husband is a first responder who developed PTSD several years ago, and she says the years just before and after he was diagnosed were very hard. Post-traumatic stress disorder doesn’t just affect the individual, it affects the whole family.
POSITIVE RESULTS
Because of the stress in her family, Quintin says she was very reactive and overwhelmed. Her husband’s behaviours were triggering her own post-traumatic stress injuries that she wasn’t acknowledging.
“I had three young kids at a very young age (Hayly when I was 19, Kelci when I was 21, Kenneth was born when I was 24). My boyfriend at the time was an alcoholic and it was not a healthy situation,” she says.
This led to anxiety attacks. And, with the recent family stress, Quintin could feel herself reverting to those earlier times.
Now, with trauma-informed yoga, she can start healing through the body.
“For me, talking to others helped but I wasn’t able to ‘feel better’ by talking alone. I could easily say what events bothered me, but I wasn’t connected to my experience. This is an alternative to just talking. I feel like I am better able to handle life’s challenges.”
Currently, Quintin is teaching some Yoga for Resilience (trauma informed) classes to a couple private groups. She is interested in providing these classes to other groups or individuals and would consider offering a single free Resilience Yoga class to interested first responder, military or at-risk groups.
Quintin’s regular all-levels yoga classes incorporate general trauma-informed language, understanding that a lot of people have had challenging life experiences and need a chance to experience emotions, not just push them away.
“I do work to create a safe space,” she says.
More about Quntin’s yoga classes can be found at lisaquintinyoga.com, where she has also written a few blog posts about yoga and trauma. Alternatively, she can be found at Lisa Quintin Yoga on Facebook or atlisaquintinyoga@gmail.com.