Veterans offered free yoga therapy

BY BRYAN DEAN bdean@opubco.com

Published: December 9, 2010

Jack McCallister rarely lets his guard down.

It's a curse that followed the former Marine lieutenant home from the Vietnam War. Although it took him 20 years to admit it, McCallister, 65, came home from the war with post-traumatic stress disorder. He's always on edge, easily startled and often depressed.

One of the few times McCallister has found when he feels comfortable letting his mind and body unwind is when he's practicing yoga. He is among the first participants in a new program a local yoga instructor is offering free to combat veterans.

Martha McQuaid is an instructor at Spirit House Yoga, 5107 N Shartel. She is offering the iRest form of yoga to veterans at 4 p.m. Mondays.

The technique is approved by the Army and Marines as a therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder and is used at Walter Reed Medical Center and other military health centers.

Father showed signs

McQuaid said her father was a 30-year Air Force veteran. Although he died some time ago, McQuaid found her thoughts turning to her father as media attention focused on the problem of post-traumatic stress in veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

She said she suspects her father had undiagnosed post-traumatic stress.

“I started thinking about issues my dad had,” McQuaid said. “I thought it would be such a great thing if he had the opportunity to work through some of the things he was feeling, and I thought yoga would be such a good thing for these guys.”

McQuaid later met Cynde Collins-Clark, an Edmond licensed counselor who started Veterans Family United after her son returned from Iraq in 2004 for post-traumatic stress. When McQuaid found out about the yoga program geared toward veterans, she sought out training.

She began offering classes last month. McCallister said one of the immediate benefits was just participating in the activity with other veterans.

“A vet can talk to a vet because we've been there,” he said.

McCallister said he has some of the most common symptoms of post-traumatic stress, the most extreme of which is a hyper-alertness that is impossible to turn off.

“You have an exaggerated startle response,” McCallister said. “If I'm at a grocery store and someone comes up and I don't see them, I jump. Then some little old lady apologizes for scaring me.”

McCallister said the symptoms make many veterans embarrassed, which causes them to withdraw.

“You can just wind your mind so tight that something's got to give,” he said.

Relaxing is focus

Yoga is intended to help mind and body unwind. What's special about the iRest program is that it includes a less intense program of stretching and puts a greater focus on relaxation and meditation.

McCallister said the physical program also helps with symptoms. Many yoga poses require participants to take a vulnerable physical posture. Such vulnerability could normally trigger panic for McCallister, but yoga allows him to physically relax in a way he normally can't.

During the first session, McCallister said many of his fellow veterans had the same reaction during the mental relaxation portion of the program.

“Two of them were snoring so loud, it was almost hard to hear the meditation,” McCallister said. “The nice thing is that told me they were there. They were relaxed.”

One of McQuaid's biggest hurdles is convincing veterans who have trained to be tough that yoga is a good option.

“Understandably, a lot of people are not sure about it,” she said. “They have something in their mind of what they think yoga is.”

McCallister said he carried that same apprehension until he gave yoga a try.

“Guys think of yoga and ballet as being the same thing,” he said. “It's generally not a guy thing, so you have to overcome that stigma.”

For those willing to give iRest yoga a try, McCallister said the benefits will be quickly apparent. He said every veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder needs to find some form of treatment that works for them.

“It's a situation that has more profound long-term effects than most people are aware of,” McAllister said. “Either you are going to manage it, or it is going to manage you.”