Jen Gillean- traditional yoga in Ottawa — Femade

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Jen Gillean, Y

oga Therapist

I spent my twenties living, studying, volunteering and working in Montreal until moving back to the Ottawa Area in 2005. In Mtl, I completed a B.Ed in Physical Education with concentrations in Gender, Religious Studies, and Psychology at McGill University. I worked as a personal trainer and volunteered as an outreach facilitator, coordinator, then board member for the Sexual Assault Centre of McGill Student Society (SACOMSS) It was also during this time that I began my studies, then work, as a Yoga Teacher. My original YTT arrived in my life at a busy time and also alongside when I was integrating some experiences with sexual trauma, layered with unnamed anxiety and depression. 

Even though I had always been physically active, practicing yoga opened up possibilities and ways of feeling more connected between my body, mind and among many of my other relationships in life.  Through life’s shatterings, yoga has remained a continual learning process in being grounded and permeable to the elements while remembering ways of coming home to my body After the YTT, I took my first steps into teaching yoga- in yoga studios, YMCAs, Health Clubs (kind of a thing in Mtl), and in schools for teachers.  

I can also say that I’ve seen how yoga culture and the industry of yoga took root then thrived in these parts over two decades. For years, I’ve had this nagging feeling about who isn’t making it to yoga classes and how might yoga serve in diverse ways with more kinds of folks?

This is about the time that I discovered Yoga Therapy and how this training can work well alongside other therapies.  My focus is supporting people through their sexual, birth, or pelvic related trauma and/or persistent pain experiences-moving towards wholeness and wellness in our daily rhythms and routines.  I am also entering my last year of studies to become a Registered Clinical Herbalist, so I am looking forward to weaving all these learnings together in my offerings!