Success Spotlight: Eastside Kettlebell Collective’s Eloise
We had the pleasure of sitting down with Eastside Kettlebell Collective co-owner Eloise Hoatlin to speak about her journey in recovery as a former F.S.R. client at Quest Center, how she chose to use her experience to help others as a Certified Drug & Alcohol Counselor, and how she now brings this lens into her mission to increase access to trauma-informed gym spaces.
At Eastside Kettlebell Collective (EKC), we believe in teaching to the highest standards of hardstyle kettlebelll for EVERYBODY. If getting stronger and discovering what your body is capable of is your goal, then EKC is for you. At EKC, we strive to create a safe and welcoming gym community, without the typical "bro" energy.
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Portland, OR 97215
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It was in 2017 that Eloise decided to seek help with substance abuse.
“I was at a place in my life where things had totally fallen apart. My parents had decided that I was no longer safe to be around my son, so that was a hugely motivating factor.”
A friend in recovery gave Eloise the name of a few places to look into for help with substance abuse, and Quest Center was among one of those listed.
Eloise ended up choosing Quest because of the integrative aspect of the programming. “I had never had acupuncture before so I was interested in that, and I liked that there were yoga classes and mindfulness. It felt like a really comprehensive approach to recovery. Plus, whoever answered the phone the day I made the first call was really nice. That stood out to me. I was so scared to make that call.”
Once in treatment at Quest, Eloise began to reflect on the previous times she had been in treatment and question why it hadn’t stuck.
“One of the things I realized is that I was always going back to the same life. The same job, same people, same things. I needed a change.”
“I had been in inpatient before and I didn’t even really know what was happening. I didn’t understand the methods. Nothing was explained or laid out as to why we were using the methods we were using. I just didn’t get it from that fundamental level. When I came to Quest I still didn’t get it, but as I spent more time there I started to understand okay this is the reason we have process group, or the reason why we have CBT, this is why I work with a substance abuse counselor. I was able to really identify all of the different areas of my life that I needed to work on and not just do things without understanding why I was there.”
Having access to so many different types of people at Quest Center, both peers in the program and providers, helped Eloise gain access so many different ways of skillbuilding for every little weird thing that happens when you’re trying to stay sober.
While Eloise was first starting treatment at Quest, she had been working at a job she really liked, a woman-owned choclatier business.
“Every time I was working someone would inevitably ask if it was my business, and every time I had to say no, even though I was proud to work for her, it kind of ate at me. I realized I needed something for me that felt like my own. When I was at Quest, there were a couple of people, Kim specifically, that helped me realize I wanted to go back to school. I needed something different, a career that felt like it was for me. So, I went back to school to become a drug and alcohol counselor.”
With support from her peers at Quest Center, as well as Project Independence through PCC’s Women’s Resource Center, Eloise began to rebuild skills for going back to school such as learning how to study, and getting information on financial aid.
“I went back to school to become a CADC. I knew I either wanted to work at Quest or a place exactly like Quest. When it was time to do my practicum this was right at the beginning of Covid. I emailed Kim and asked if it was possible to do my practicum at Quest. Since it had been two years since I’d been a client I was able to. From there everything happened really fast. I was hired on as an intern at Quest where I did my practicum and at the end I was hired on as a part-time counselor because at that time I was still working part-time at the gym that was formerly in the Eastside Kettlebell Collective Space.”
Though fitness wasn’t something Eloise had grown up prioritizing, when she first started getting sober she signed up for a couple of bootcamps and discovered how great she felt doing it.
“From there I just fell in love with it. I started taking fitness classes, started running, and went on from there. I started running to a home group meeting I was going to - it was about a mile and a half away from my house, so I’d run to the meeting, do the meeting, and then run home. It was a way to get exercise, my son was super young at the time and I was single parenting at that point. It was the way I was staying sober and I started working out at the gym that was previously in this space and I made a bunch of friends. They weren’t all sober but it was a community that I felt at home and safe with. One of the reasons I chose Quest too was because they offered movement classes. I really liked the idea of associating somatic therapies to go along with the other parts of recovery.”
Exactly a year ago now Eloise was a full time counselor at Quest found out that the gym formerly in the Eastside Kettlebell space was going to close very suddenly. Her now business partner Felecia and Eloise didn’t want to stop training- the loss of the gym was devastating to both of them.
“We weren’t only losing our jobs we were losing our community and our place to work out. That loss was the hardest thing in recovery that I’ve had to deal with. The loss of that space and everything it encompassed was really devastating.”
But in a hopeful turn of events, Eloise and Felecia were able to talk to the landlord and negotiate a deal.
“With his kindness and generosity we gave him this crazy offer and he accepted it. We couldn’t believe it but it was one of those things where everything just lined up.”
Within three weeks the two became business owners, and then Eloise had to make the decision about Quest.
“I really loved working there, I loved the community, the clients. It was so hard to leave that and I didn’t want to disappoint anyone, but my true dream was to work in sober fitness." I always wanted to get a sober fitness program going while I was at Quest but there was a lot going on with the move so it wasn’t quite the right time. When I did end up leaving Quest I was like ‘You are not seeing the end of me!’”
Through Jasper and Paul, peers in the WISH and FSR programs, Eloise started the ball rolling to work with Quest and began the Functional Fitness Group, a group for FSR, TRI, LINK, and WISH clients at Quest with all levels of gym experience and physical abilities. For Eloise personally to be fulfilled, she really wanted to be working with people in recovery and with people who may not have access to gym spaces.
“There’s an initial bond that I have with people in recovery - I’m someone who discloses my own personal recovery. For me it’s really important to be open. I need accountability and I want to be truthful, it helps me. I want to give people who are mothers like I was, hope that they can make those changes. When I first came to recovery there was so much shame that I had about being an addict.
I just want to be able to take that shame away and set it aside for people.
For me, I’m not ashamed of being an addict, I’m really really proud of the fact that I choose to not use anymore and reframe it that way. The shame is more along the lines of continuing to use if you have the resources to not.
Things aren’t perfect and they’re definitely not easy, but here I am living every day as a mom in recovery and making that choice for myself and my son, it’s possible.”
“We want people to feel like this is a safe space for them, primarily for people who don’t feel safe in most of the rest of the World, particularly in gyms. Gyms are historically pretty toxic environments, especially for people who are women, queer, trans*. Gyms can be a really scary and unsafe space for a lot of people. There can be fear of being judged, fear of being judged at the gym for people in larger bodies, people of color also don’t often get represented in gyms. We wanted a space here where you come in and see the big pink wall, our flag, you see our trainers all identify as women and you come in and see this is a space where I can feel safe. We want it to feel safe for people who’ve never even looked at gym equipment before. That’s okay, you’re here to learn. We try to make it an environment of openness.”
One of Eloise’s mission’s is to increase access to gym spaces.
“In terms of accessibility, we have a tiered payment plan - we have our regular payment plan but we don’t require any documentation, so we will honor sliding scale payments even if that means someone can’t afford to pay anything. We will also work with trade. We want to take the cultures of classism and colonization out of the gym. If you can’t do the movement I’ve got planned, that’s totally fine. I work with the person to figure out what we can do to get them moving. I want it to be collaborative. Sometimes I don’t always know what the best movement is for someone. I can give guidance on how to move in a safer way based on my knowledge but I want to meet people where they’re at - you’re the expert on you.”
Eastside Kettlebell Collective’s year anniversary is this November!