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’re grateful to Little Mushroom for hosting TEAO Canada to support our community care initiatives. This evening is about: • Joy and connection • Grassroots fundraising • Sustaining trauma-responsive programs ♥️♥️♥️ — come join us! Repost from @littlemushroomdininglounge • Lots of exciting events in the Lounge this month! 💘🍷 To make a reservation go to the link in our bio or email lounge@littlemushroomcatering.com. #funactivities #community #trivia #love #collectivehealing

Educational Awareness Corner: Why Tai Chi? Why These Movements? ♥️ We love this work because healing is not only something we understand — it is something we practice through our bodies. Tai Chi teaches us that wellbeing does not come from force, speed, or pushing through discomfort. It teaches us to listen. The slow, intentional movements help regulate the nervous system, build balance between effort and ease, and invite the body out of survival patterns into rhythm and flow. These movements matter because trauma, stress, and daily life can disconnect us from sensation, breath, and presence. Tai Chi gently reintroduces safety through movement. It helps the body learn that strength can be soft, stability can be fluid, and healing can happen through repetition, breath, and awareness. We practice Tai Chi because it reminds us: Healing is not about mastering the body. Healing is about coming home to it #WellBeing #DailyExercise #HealthRoutine #EmbodiedHealing #SomaticWellness MindBodyConnection NervousSystemCare CommunityHealing MoveToHeal TraumaInformedMovement 📸 @thetaichiway

Trauma Informed Circles: Peer Support Spaces Our Trauma-Informed Care Circles are not support groups, therapy sessions, or spaces for fixing. They are collective nervous-system spaces—designed for people who are tired of performing wellness and are longing to simply arrive. In these circles, embodiment means we slow the pace enough for the body to catch up. We center consent, choice, and non-urgency so participants can notice what it feels like to be with others without pressure to speak, explain, or heal on demand. Presence is the practice. Witnessing is the medicine. As a collective space, the circle reminds us that healing does not only happen in isolation or in clinical rooms—it also happens when our bodies experience safety together. When we sit in shared humanity, our nervous systems learn something new: I don’t have to carry this alone. This is why the circle exists.  For community members across Cambridge, KW, and beyond—anyone who feels aligned to travel—this space offers a return to self through community. A place where rest is allowed, silence is respected, and belonging is not earned. You are welcome exactly as you are. Reminder: Trauma-Informed Care Circle – Tonight in Cambridge and every other Wednesday’s!  📍 Cambridge Public Library – Hespeler Branch 🕕 Wednesday, February 4 | 6:45–8:00 PM ♥️ Free • Community-based • Non-clinical Registration is stays open: https://linktr.ee/TEAOCanada or LINK IN BIO or drop in! #TraumaInformedCare #CommunityCare #PeerSupport #CollectiveHealing #EmbodiedCare

Learn Black History so We Can Unlearn the History You Were Taught &hearts;️🫶🏾: Collective Healing Edition

TEAO Canada Educational Corner:
If you were raised inside systems shaped by whiteness, the history you were taught was never neutral. It cen

Learn Black History so We Can Unlearn the History You Were Taught ♥️🫶🏾: Collective Healing Edition TEAO Canada Educational Corner: If you were raised inside systems shaped by whiteness, the history you were taught was never neutral. It centered comfort over truth, omission over honesty, and control over humanity. To learn Black history is to unlearn the distortions that quietly shaped unconscious bias, stereotypes, and the narrow lens many of us inherited. Embodied Learnings: Unlearning matters because Black History Month was never meant to be a single chapter of pain or a 28-day pause. It exists because Black life has always been full, expansive, and alive—celebrated 365 days a year. When we unlearn, we stop relating to Blackness only through trauma and begin to feel the truth of Black joy, creativity, intelligence, wisdom, love, brilliance, dignity, resilience, and legacy. This is not about guilt. It’s about responsibility. And relationship. And becoming honest about what was kept from us. As shared and taught by Terence Lester (@imterencelester ): Black History Month is about Black joy, Black intelligence, Black wisdom, Black strength, Black creativity, Black love, Black excellence, Black hope, Black dignity, Black determination, Black perseverance, Black resilience, Black brilliance, and Black legacy. And no matter how much people try to erase it—this seems to remain true. Embodied Equity: Unlearning is not a loss. It’s a return to truth. ⬇️ #DecolonizeTheMind #EmbodiedEquity #SystemicTruth #CollectiveHealing #DoBetter

You are the Community. Community Care Happens Because People Show Up. &hearts;️

At TEAO Canada, our work is sustained by volunteers, peer support personnel, facilitators, and community members who believe that healing and care should be accessible,

You are the Community. Community Care Happens Because People Show Up. ♥️ At TEAO Canada, our work is sustained by volunteers, peer support personnel, facilitators, and community members who believe that healing and care should be accessible, relational, and rooted in dignity. Each month, we continue to grow a network of individuals choosing to support others through trauma-responsive, community-based care. From peer support spaces to workshops and circles, this work is shaped by lived experience and collective responsibility. If you’ve been looking for a way to contribute meaningfully to your community, we invite you to explore volunteering with us or learning more about our peer support pathways. • Volunteer with TEAO Canada • Learn about Peer Support & Training • Complete an Peer Support Matching Intake Form to be matched for support to one of our Trauma Responsive Care Personnel (Free) *all link to register and find more information about in our bio https://linktr.ee/TEAOCanada ⬆️ This work is made possible through community trust and the support of our funders Waterloo Region Community Foundation; City of Kitchener and partners Cambridge Public Library who continue to invest in care that centers safety, choice, and compassion Together, we are expanding what community care can look like. #CommunityCare #PeerSupport #VolunteerWithUs #TraumaResponsive #CollectiveHealing TEAOCanada

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

Educational Awareness Corner: Why Tai Chi? Why These Movements? &hearts;️

We love this work because healing is not only something we understand — it is something we practice through our bodies.

Tai Chi teaches us that wellbeing does not come

THANK YOU TO OUR FUNDERS

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