Where Community Becomes the Medicine

What We Offer

Upcoming Events

Free COmmunity Events

Somatic Peer Support Group: Bi-Weekly on Wednesdays

Trauma Informed Care Circles: Bi-Weekly on Wednesdays

FOUNDATION OF CARE SERIES MONTHLY WORKSHOP

Upcoming Workshop Theme: What Trauma Teaches Us About Survival (and What It Doesn’t Teach Us About Safety)

Friday, December 26 from 12:00pm - 12:45pm

FIND MORE EVENTS HERE

Peer Support Certification Training

Saturday, January 24 - Sunday, January 25 (via Zoom)

Learn trauma-responsive, body-first approaches to Mental Health First Aid that strengthen safety, care, and community support.

MORE INFO & REGISTRATION HERE

Community Voices

This space held me when the world wouldn’t.

Fuel the Movement

@TEAO_CANADA

We love this! ♥️ #inspirational #collectiveconsciousness Repost from @man0namissi0n Speak Life #somatic #wellnessjourney #mindbodyconnection

Together, One Becomes Many. ♥️👥. #healingvibrations The power of one is never just one. One pause. One voice. One act of care—rippling outward until it becomes community. → Learn more. Get involved. Heal together. @teao_canada #linkinbio ________ #PowerOfOne #CollectiveCare #HealingInCommunity

We love this! ♥️♥️♥️ #amplifyingvoices Healers and creatives shift this atmosphere. We need your fire. #artist #healer #manifestation by @dr.thema 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 Video @native.proud _____ Care belongs to all of us—not just a few. #CollectiveCare EquitableHealing AccessibleWellness CommunityHealing CareForAll

DO BETTER isn’t merch. It’s a mirror. 🪞 A reminder that healing is a practice. Accountability is embodied. And doing better starts with us — every day, in how we show up for ourselves and each other. When you wear DO BETTER, you’re not claiming perfection. You’re choosing awareness. Repair. Responsibility. Community. 🖤 Purchase from our shop 🖤 Tag us wearing your DO BETTER piece 🖤 Share the message — let it ripple SHOP PAGE (teaocanada.com): https://www.teaocanada.com/shopteao or link in bio. Every purchase supports trauma-responsive, community-rooted care through TEAO Canada. Because doing better isn’t loud. It’s lived. #DoBetter #EmbodiedAccountability #TraumaResponsiveCare #CollectiveHealing #CommunityCare WearTheMessage TEAOCanada

Amplifying Voices & Educational Awareness Reposted from @fortheculture ♥️ Is there some unpacked baggage for Black folks when it comes to #farming and #agriculture? @karwasher of @riseandrootfarm contemplates the reasons Black people in particular might shy away from farming. #somatic #wellnessjourney

Strengthening Community Care Through Peer Support Training We’re nearly sold out for this weekend’s Peer Support Certification Training, and we want to take a moment to say thank you. 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾 To the leaders, practitioners, parents, caregivers, and community members who have chosen to step into this work — your commitment to learning, unlearning, and practicing care with intention matters.♥️ This training is about more than acquiring skills. It’s about building the capacity to support others ethically, safely, and responsively, while understanding the responsibility that comes with holding space in community. We are grateful to the Waterloo Region Community Fund @wrcommfdn for supporting this sliding-scale, online offering, helping to increase access to trauma-responsive, embodied peer support training across Waterloo Region. To everyone joining us this weekend: we’re honoured to learn alongside you as we continue strengthening community-rooted care together. #WaterlooRegion #NonprofitLeadership #MentalHealthTraining #CollectiveCare #CapacityBuilding

Amplifying Voices. Reposted Training Caveat @pyaartothepeople : I am not intending to say #talktherapy is bad or not useful. It can be really good and tremendously useful. I’m iterating that it does not work for *everyone*. I did talk therapy for decades and I felt like I was in a hamster wheel. Circling. Not transforming or transcending… Because talk therapy focuses solely on the mind. Mental analysis… and I know this is not especially useful 1)To those who do not espouse all western values:thought patterns: et al.; 2) To those who have used mental analysis or intellectualism as a survival mechanism Both of which describe me ⬆️ This is why introducing #somatictherapy into my practice has been transformative. And I realized this when I started to engage in Qawwali again. It’s not just nostalgia for my childhood; but #somatichealing practices that our ancestors have passed down for us 🥹 I thought this could be useful to some folks who are stuck in talk therapy 🙏🏽😘 #somatichealing

LAUNCHING: Trauma-Responsive Care Personnel (Peer Support) Program. Community-Facing 🗣️: We are launching something BIG — and it didn’t come from a boardroom. It came from listening to community. Over the past two years, across every TEAO program, circle, workshop, and somatic space, the same truths have surfaced again and again: “Witnessing is medicine.” This program bridges the gap so many people fall into — between clinical mental health systems and real-life overwhelm, grief, burnout, and transition. Our peer support model is: • Trauma-responsive • Community-rooted • Non-clinical • Short-term (4–6 weeks) • Grounded in safety, consent, and embodiment And today, we are proud to share that our first cohort are ready to go after 6 months of training and prep! Our first 6 Trauma-Responsive Care Personnel are ready to serve community. Last week, during our somatic peer support spaces at TEAO Canada, these themes returned — not as concepts, but as lived experience in the room. They reminded us that healing does not require fixing ourselves. It requires being met with patience, presence, and care — at the pace our nervous systems allow. This program is FREE — made possible through a year of collective investment, trust, and community advocacy from: • Upstream Fund, Region of Waterloo @regionofwaterloo • Waterloo Region Community Foundation, Racial Equity Fund @wrcommfdn • City of Kitchener through RISE @cityofkitchener This structure ensures peer support at TEAO remains safe, ethical, and sustainable — for both community members andvolunteers — with clear boundaries, shared responsibility, and ongoing support. This is not rushed care. This is not crisis response. This is relational care. And we believe it may be the missing link between mental health services and the lived realities of community. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has shown up with honesty, courage, and care as this work continues to grow. Learn more or request support through our Peer-Led Services Directory: https://www.teaocanada.com/peer-led-services-directory OR #linkinbio #peersupport #traumarecovery #traumaresponsivecare #communityhealing

We LOVE this Educational Awareness: #mlk #collectivehealing #mlkquotes Repost from @asianmentalhealthcollective • On MLK Jr. Day, we’re reflecting on how racism can shape mental health across the mind, body, and spirit. Dr. King’s legacy reminds us that dignity, care, and love are essential to well-being. Mental health isn’t only personal. It’s shaped by the conditions we live under and the relationships that surround us. You were never meant to carry this alone ♥️ #embodiedhealing #traumainformed

Why We Offer Monthly Collective Care Series? These monthly care series exist to make healing accessible—not just for those who can afford therapy, navigate systems easily, or already feel comfortable in wellness spaces. Too often, care is only available to people without barriers. But many communities face real obstacles: •cost •long waitlists •cultural mismatch •language and trust gaps •systems that weren’t built with them in mind This is how we begin to change that. Collective care creates space where healing is shared, community-rooted, and human—not isolated or exclusive. These gatherings are not a replacement for therapy. They are a bridge: •a place to regulate together •to learn how the body holds experience •to feel seen without having to explain yourself •to access care without proving worth or readiness This is what equitable spaces look like. Care that meets people where they are. If you’ve ever felt like healing spaces weren’t made for you— this is for you. Join us next month: 🗓 Sunday, February 22 📍 The Branches, Kitchener. Registration: link in bio. Care belongs to all of us—not just a few. #CollectiveCare #EquitableHealing #AccessibleWellness #CommunityHealing #CareForAll

We are excited to share a community offering led by Nicole Brown Faulknor @wounds2wings, in partnership with our friends @thebranchesyoga. Embodiment for Trauma Recovery is a 6-week course designed for individuals navigating physical or emotional trauma and seeking gentle, body-based ways to reconnect with themselves. Dates: January 18 to March 1(6 weeks) Time: 11:30 AM-12:30 PM Location: The Branches, 9 Samuel Street, Kitchener, ON Format: Hybrid (in-person or virtual) This course offers participants tools to understand how trauma affects the body and how embodied trauma can be processed through movement. Trauma can stem from major losses, accidents, violence, or prolonged life stress, and this class approaches healing in a grounded, accessible way. The sessions include: Gentle movement Simple hatha yoga postures Breath awareness Practices that support choice, empowerment, and internal sensing The class is beginner-friendly, with everything offered as optional. The focus is not on form or performance, but on cultivating a safer and more compassionate relationship with the body. This course is based on the evidence-informed methodology of Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga. While taught by a Registered Psychotherapist, it is a group movement class, not group therapy, and is intended as an adjunctive support rather than a replacement for individual therapy. Pricing $120 + HST Standard Rate $145 + HST Community Supporter Rate Subsidized rate available (20% off the standard rate) For more information, visit the Sliding Scale Pricing page through The Branches. Participants will also receive access to a virtual course portal with session recordings and on-demand practices for 90 days. Registration: link in bio or https://thebranchesyoga.com/yoga-workshops/type:pre-registered-courses We are grateful to collaborate with community partners who center care, choice, and embodied healing. #TraumaRecovery #SomaticHealing #BodyBasedHealing #TraumaSensitiveYoga #TCTSY

This Sunday: At TEAO Canada, we believe healing does not happen in isolation. &hearts;️

Our Collective Care Series creates space for group processing that happens not only through conversation, but through breath, movement, and embodied connection.

This Sunday: At TEAO Canada, we believe healing does not happen in isolation. ♥️ Our Collective Care Series creates space for group processing that happens not only through conversation, but through breath, movement, and embodied connection. This is how we approach trauma care and trauma health within communities. We are resuming our Collective Care Series, free and open to the community, led by Nicole Brown Faulknor, embodiment coach and psychotherapist. These circles offer a space to be heard, held, and supported, especially within systems and institutions that often erase lived experience. Through psychoeducation, somatic practices, breathwork, and movement, participants are invited to rebuild their relationship with their bodies and begin processing trauma beyond words. This work is grounded in the understanding that emotional health is collective, and our wellbeing is deeply connected. Location: The Branches Address: 9 Samuel Street, Kitchener, ON Time: 1:00-2:00 PM Cost: Free Register here: link in bio OR https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/collective-care-series-tickets-1529134515499?utm_experiment=test_share_listing&aff=ebdsshios&sg=40d7f0942232fbfa76923d5891e5cddcc52a962231c92fa474bb8d3b0472c3d2c9196c0f88289eaf9883b55d729e21297357ddc700cfade123ce7378d8b0dd0bbdb208cfce4bc3334b52f29e08 This free care series is supported by @wrcommfdn (Waterloo Region Community Foundation), and we are grateful for their commitment to racial equity and community wellbeing. All are welcome. #TraumaInformed #SomaticHealing #CollectiveCare #MentalHealthAtWork #EmbodiedLeadership HealingInCommunity

In December, our Foundations of Care Series at TEAO Canada explored a powerful question: What does trauma teach us about survival and safety? One key insight stayed with many of us. Trauma teaches survival, not safety. The nervous system learns how to stay alert, keep going when exhausted, anticipate danger, and override needs. These responses are often mislabeled as personality traits like being “strong,” “independent,” or “resilient,” when in reality, they are learned survival skills. Safety, on the other hand, is not a mindset. It is a felt experience built slowly through repetition, choice, and permission. At TEAO, our work centers on creating safer, relational spaces where people can begin to feel seen, felt, and heard. This is why our approach continues to shift toward trauma-responsive and community-rooted care, moving from fixing to empowering and from individual resilience to collective healing. As we move into the new year, we invite you to join our next Foundations of Care session: Embodied Equity: What It Means to Be Seen, Felt, and Heard in Systems That Erase Us Friday, January 23 12:00 PM - 12: 45 PM Virtual and free Register here: https://linktr.ee/TEAOCanada OR LINK IN BIO. This conversation will explore how equity is not just structural, but embodied, and what it means to create systems where safety and belonging are possible. We hope to see you there. #CommunityCare #SomaticSupport #PeerSupport #TraumaResponsiveCare #HealingInCommunity TEAOCanada

Educational Awareness: Projections “Stigmas are Dangerous. #unlearningtorelearn Repost from @imterencelester #amplifyingvoices When you are unhoused or poor, people will say anything to make you invisible. I have said this before, but being poor or unhoused is not a crime! Stigma is dangerous, and we must reframe it at all costs 💯

We’re Reconnecting After Our Winter Pause ❄️ As a community, we moved gently through a winter pause — a season of rest, reflection, and tending to capacity. This rhythm of slowing is part of how we practice care, not just talk about it. We’re ready to reconvene. Our Soma-Peer Support Group (Virtual) resumes bi-weekly on Wednesdays, beginning: 🗓 Wednesday, January 14 ⏰ 6:45pm – 8:00pm This space is for grounding, shared presence, and peer-led support rooted in embodiment and collective care. ♥️ Interested in joining? Registration details are available via: the link in our bio or by DMing us directly to receive next steps We look forward to welcoming familiar faces and new ones alike. You belong here. #CommunityCare #SomaticSupport #PeerSupport #TraumaResponsiveCare #HealingInCommunity TEAOCanada

THANK YOU TO OUR FUNDERS

THANK YOU TO OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT AND IN-KIND DONATIONS.