Exhibit: We Can Begin Again: Moving Through Trauma

Mon, October 7, 2019 - Wed, November 27, 2019 at RCAH LookOut Gallery

Co-curators: Kintla Striker of Kintla Yoga Therapy and RCAH Director of Exhibition Spaces Tessa Paneth-Pollak

Exhibit Runs: October 7 - November 27, 2019, Monday to Friday, noon to 3 p.m.

Opening Reception: Thursday, October 10, 5-8 p.m.; Remarks at 6:30 p.m.

Related Programming: RCAH Wednesday Night Live (WNL): Break the Chain screening and discussion with filmmakers Kirk Mason and Laura Swanson, as well as Kintla Striker, Wednesday, October 23, RCAH Theater

We Can Begin Again: Moving Through Trauma #BeginAgainMSU transforms the RCAH LookOut Gallery into a choice-driven space for befriending the body and healing. The exhibition is co-curated by Kintla Striker who has been developing and teaching the trauma-informed Kintla Yoga Therapy® method since 2009, and Dr. Tessa Paneth-Pollak, RCAH’s Director of Exhibition Spaces. In addition, the exhibition provides information about chronic and post-traumatic stress and highlights resources in the greater Lansing area dedicated to trauma-informed care and healing.

The tools on offer in this exhibition can benefit anyone, but are proven to be particularly effective in the healing of chronic and post-traumatic stress. The evidence-based Kintla Yoga Therapy® method guides participants in refining a connection between the mind and the body, which can begin to operate separately in the wake of a single traumatic event or complex trauma. A traumatic event is an experience that is too overwhelming for the mind to hold—a psychic wound that causes an initially protective mind-body disconnect that later may cloud our ability to live life more purposefully. Through learning and practicing healing tools as well as building a trusting relationship with the attuned, responsive and compassionate yoga teacher or therapist, we can begin again to befriend what is arising, essentially creating a safe home within—one breath, one step at a time.

The title of the exhibition comes from a mantra that echoes through Kintla’s teaching: “Remembering that, in every moment, we can begin again.” We Can Begin Again is offered in light of the widespread epidemic of sexual violence centered on the MSU campus in recent years and in response to a widely acknowledged need for culture change at MSU.* Beginning again, in this context, does not refer to forgetting harm that has occurred nor to historical amnesia. Rather, the exhibition invites the participant to come more fully into the present moment: to breathe, to sense, to move, to notice the physical space they occupy, to notice themselves, to be curious, to begin to find meaning in what has occurred, to visualize what could be, and to take the next step forward, acknowledging the past, without letting it control the future.

This exhibition is offered with the understanding that, in order for any community to heal, individuals need access to building embodied resources to cope in healthy ways moment-to-moment. Learning and practicing mind-body tools can help us move through daily life with greater equanimity and assist us in becoming and remaining mindful and centered should we wish to participate in thoughtful conversations about what occurred, next steps, or other right actions.

We invite all members of the extended MSU community, if they like, to participate in asking and answering the question: How can we begin again? #BeginAgainMSU

Kintla Striker Bio

Kintla Striker is the Managing Director of Kintla Yoga LLC, and the creator of Kintla Yoga Therapy, a trauma-informed, primary evidence-based yoga therapy designed to empower healing in trauma survivors. She currently maintains a private practice at her studio in East Lansing, Michigan.

Kintla is a trauma survivor herself and has dedicated over 30 years of her life to understanding how the mind, body and spirit heal. She facilitates Kintla Yoga Therapy sessions at her studio and in the field with individuals and groups, provides education and consulting services on trauma-informed practices to both public and private entities, is an international lecturer, trauma researcher, and serves as a Program Author with the Integrative Medicine Division of Unitus Therapy Intelligence.  

*For a detailed, innovative, and survivor-led accounting of recent events at MSU, please see the MSU Museum’s ongoing exhibition, Finding Our Voice: Sister Survivors Speak. Telling and owning stories can play a vital role in healing for many survivors. We Can Begin Again highlights emerging understandings of the way, in the words of Dr. Apryl Pooley, “the brain and the body have separate reactions to trauma, and both need to be addressed for complete recovery.” The exhibition emphasizes the equally important role played by the body in trauma response and so, too, the importance of the body as a pathway to healing.   

RCAH LookOut Gallery

Hours
Monday to Friday from noon to 3 p.m.

Location

Residential College in the Arts and Humanities
Snyder-Phillips Hall, Second Floor
362 Bogue Street
East Lansing, Michigan 48825

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RCAH LookOut! Art Gallery

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