TEAO - Trauma and Embodiment Association of Ontario, Kitchener, ON (2025)

11/18/2025

Every year, TEAO Canada grows a little more since 2022 - not just in programs or reach, but in relationship.

Our upcoming Annual General Meeting isn’t simply a procedural milestone; it’s a collective pause.
A moment to reflect, root, and remember why we began.

From our earliest circles to the vision of the Trauma Health & Embodiment Centre (THEC), every step has been guided by one question:

What does care look like when it leads?

On November 27th, virtually, 5:15-6:15pm EST, we’ll gather as board members, partners, volunteers, and community - to honour our 2024-2025 impact, celebrate the people who made it possible, and shape the next chapter of embodied, trauma-responsive leadership in Ontario.

Healing is governance.
Accountability is care.

And this journey, as always, is collective.
Join us for reflection, connection, and shared
visioning:

— https://l1nq.com/cRY0i or link in bio

Founder, Chair & CEO - Nicole Brown Faulknor

11/16/2025

⚖️ Find Your Balance Recap: Student-Led Mental Health & Wellness Conference ;  “Centered Under Pressure Workshop”: A Rhythm, Movement & Mindfulness Experience for Youth In partnership with x

At the WRDSB Student-Led Mental Health & Wellness Conference, more than 100 secondary students stepped into rooms designed for them— last Wednesday, we turned a room into a space of rhythm, grounding, and youth empowerment.

Our workshop, offered a journey using embodiment as a mental health resource & students learned how to breathe with the beat, shake stress out of their bodies, move through pressure, and find their own center using rhythm, breathwork, and creativity through real Did you know the most calming aromas in the world are released from trees?

From TikTok-style movement to grounding resets, they showed how naturally young people use music, dance, and culture to regulate and express themselves.

They painted symbols of balance, created personal grounding pieces, shared brave words, and left with tools they can use anytime: breath, rhythm, movement, community, and their own voice.

This was youth wellness in motion (even afterwards at our booth space!)  This was embodiment meeting culture. This was community care — centered through rhythm.

To the youth who showed up with openness, vulnerability, curiosity, and brilliance—thank you.
To the educators and staff who supported this vision—thank you.

And to Rhythm & Blues Cambridge, thank you for leading with heart and helping create pathways where youth can thrive through art, mentorship, and culture.

This is how we build safer communities—one rhythm, one breath, one collective beat at a time. 🫶🏾

11/16/2025

Find Your Balance Recap: Student-Led Mental Health & Wellness Conference ;  “Centered Under Pressure Workshop”: A Rhythm, Movement & Mindfulness Experience for Youth In partnership with x

At the WRDSB Student-Led Mental Health & Wellness Conference, more than 100 secondary students stepped into rooms designed for them— last Wednesday, we turned a room into a space of rhythm, grounding, and youth empowerment.

Our workshop, offered a journey using embodiment as a mental health resource & students learned how to breathe with the beat, shake stress out of their bodies, move through pressure, and find their own center using rhythm, breathwork, and creativity.

From TikTok-style movement to grounding resets, they showed how naturally young people use music, dance, and culture to regulate and express themselves.

They painted symbols of balance, created personal grounding pieces, shared brave words, and left with tools they can use anytime: breath, rhythm, movement, community, and their own voice.

This was youth wellness in motion. This was embodiment meeting culture. This was community care — centered through rhythm.

To the youth who showed up with openness, vulnerability, curiosity, and brilliance—thank you.
To the educators and staff who supported this vision—thank you.

And to Rhythm & Blues Cambridge, thank you for leading with heart and helping create pathways where youth can thrive through art, mentorship, and culture.

This is how we build safer communities—one rhythm, one breath, one collective beat at a time. 🫶🏾

11/15/2025

Educational Awareness: ♥️

Repost from
•
Here’s what they don’t tell you: you can hold deep reverence for where you came from while refusing to be confined by it.

Your parents wanted better for you.
Their parents wanted better for them.

Each generation stood on the shoulders of the one that came before, reaching a little higher, seeing a little further. That’s not just family history—that’s the entire point.

They survived so you could do more than survive. They sacrificed so you could have choices they never had. They endured conditions they hoped you’d never have to accept.

And now you’re here, with access to education they fought for, opportunities they dreamed about, and perspectives they literally couldn’t afford to have because they were too busy keeping the lights on.

So when you question their beliefs, challenge their traditions, or choose differently than they did—you’re not betraying them. You’re honoring exactly what they wanted for you: the freedom to think beyond the constraints that limited them.

The different perspective you have? That’s not arrogance—it’s the inheritance they gave you.

They positioned you on higher ground specifically so you could see what they couldn’t. Using that vantage point to choose differently isn’t disrespect. It’s fulfilling their vision.

You can appreciate the foundation while building something new on top of it. You can honor their sacrifices while refusing to repeat their suffering. You can respect your elders while recognizing that the world they prepared you for is different from the one they navigated.

Gratitude doesn’t mean staying where they left you. It means going further than they could go—which is exactly what they hoped you’d do, and what the generation following in your footsteps needs you to do.

[text reads: “you can honor your parents AND break their patterns. you can love your culture AND question its traditions. you can respect your elders AND challenge their beliefs. gratitude and growth aren’t mutually exclusive.”]

11/11/2025

Collective Pause Retreat: The Pause Between 🍂🍁

What a weekend. What a pause. What a community.

Thank you to every single person who filled our SOLD OUT Collective Pause Retreat: The Pause Between.
 You showed up with openness, courage, softness, and truth — and the space held every bit of it.
To those who laughed, cried, shook, rested, released, and remembered their breath — thank you for trusting your body enough to let it lead.

To our host space, Somerset Recovery , and the beautiful care of Michelle — thank you for holding a sanctuary where healing feels possible, gentle, and sacred. And to Natasha who offered her special gifts through an embodiment offering!

This retreat reminded us that healing isn’t loud — it’s quiet.
 It happens in the pause between who we were and who we are becoming.

We’re leaving grounded, connected, and less alone. Until the next pause — thank you for being part of this healing community. ♥️🫶🏾

Stay Connected
If this retreat felt like home, we would love to stay connected with you.

You can follow our upcoming workshops, trainings, community circles, and future retreats here:
https://linktr.ee/TEAOCanada or link in bio.

From our social channels to our newsletters, every space we create is rooted in community, embodiment, and collective care.

We’d be honoured to continue this journey of healing and reconnection with you.

____

11/06/2025

“Do Better” — Introducing our first ever “Do Better” merch line — hats, beanies, shirts, hoodies, and notebooks — arriving just in time for our SOLD OUT Collective Pause Retreat this weekend. 🫶🏾♥️

“Do Better” isn’t just a slogan. It’s a trademarked statement born from the work we do every day at Wounds 2 Wings Trauma & Embodiment Association of Ontario (TEAO Canada ) — a call to care more deeply, look inward more honestly, and show up for community with integrity.

For years, our organization has been dedicated to supporting educators, frontline workers, leaders, and community builders — especially those working alongside racialized and marginalized communities. 
Through trauma-responsive training, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion rooted in embodiment, and conversations about impact over intention, we remind people that healing systems begins with healing ourselves.

Because we all carry stories. Stories that live in the body. Stories that shape the way we enter the room — even when we’re silent.

When those stories remain unconscious, they can show up as defensiveness, shame, guilt, fragility, or fear. But once we see them, we can choose differently.
 We can learn, repair, listen, and transform.
That is the heart of “Do Better.” Not perfection. Not performance. But a commitment to growth, responsibility, and care.
If we want systems to change, we have to start with the parts of the system that live in us.

So wear it with intention. Wear it as a reminder. Wear it as a promise to yourself and to your community:

Do Better — for real
First drop: this weekend’s retreat. More releases coming soon.

11/03/2025

This Week at TEAO Canada: Three Pathways to Collective Healing

This week, we’re holding space for rest, regulation, and reconnection across three unique trauma-informed offerings. These are all free to attend and rooted in community, embodiment, and racial equity.

Sunday, November 2 – Collective Care Series (In Person)

Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Location: The Branches, 9 Samuel Street, Kitchener, ON

Led by Nicole Brown Faulknor, this session blends somatic practices, group processing, breathwork, and psychoeducation. It’s designed to support emotional healing for those affected by systemic harm, offering space to be seen, heard, and held.
Register here https://lnkd.in/e8FQgy-5

Wednesday, November 5 – Somatic Peer Support (Virtual)

Time: 6:45 PM – 8:00 PM

This biweekly virtual space supports individuals navigating stress, trauma, or emotional dysregulation. Led by trained peer support facilitators, sessions provide somatic grounding and nervous system care.
Register here https://lnkd.in/ers_-D_J

Saturday, November 8 – Collective Pause Day Retreat (In Person)

Time: 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Location: Port Dover, ON (exact location shared after registration)

The 3-day retreat is now full, but spots remain for the day retreat. Participants will experience land-based care, somatic healing, movement, reflection, and trauma-responsive practices. This is a rare opportunity to slow down and tend to your nervous system in a community of care.
Register here https://lnkd.in/eE4hH6ki

All events are hosted by TEAO Canada as part of our ongoing mission to provide culturally grounded, trauma-informed, and embodied care across Ontario.

Supported by:
Waterloo Region Community Foundation ()

To learn more:
Visit: www.teaocanada.com
Email: info@teaocanada.com

10/31/2025

Big News 📣 — We’re Returning to Costa Rica! 🇨🇷
After a life-changing, heart-opening journey last year, we’re doing it again.

🇨🇷 The Collective Pause Retreat returns — January 3–10, 2026.

This immersive 7-day experience invites you to begin the new year grounded in rest, reflection, and renewal. Through trauma-responsive practices, community care circles, breathwork, and embodiment rituals, we’ll reconnect with what it means to pause — to listen inwardly, release what no longer serves, and return home to ourselves.

Hosted by TEAO Canada (), and Wounds2Wings () in partnership with Somerset Recovery Centre (), this retreat is more than an escape — it’s a reclamation of presence, wholeness, and joy.

💫 Expect:

•Somatic & trauma-responsive workshops
•Guided movement & restorative yoga
•Mindful excursions in nature
•Deep rest, reflection, and shared meals in community
•Transformative integration sessions

We left Costa Rica in 2024 forever changed — and we can’t wait to return with you in 2026.

🕊️ Spaces are limited. Registration details coming soon. Or DM for more details and registration & financial arrangement information.

10/30/2025

We love this: Educational Awareness ♥️

Repost from 🫶🏾🫶🏾

How do we encourage people who need help to seek therapy or counseling services?

10/28/2025

♥️ Milestone Moment for TEAO Canada! 🫶🏾

We are thrilled to announce that our first cohort has officially completed their Peer Support Certification, becoming TEAO’s first Trauma-Responsive Care Personnel — ready to serve our community through crisis support, outreach, and embodied care.

This certification marks a major step in our vision to make mental health support accessible, relational, and rooted in lived experience.

Over the course of this training, participants explored:
1. Foundations of trauma-responsive care
2. Embodied practices for regulation and relational safety
3. The 5-Step Peer Crisis Support Model
4. Grounding, active listening, and curiosity-driven dialogue
5. Supporting without fixing — and caring without carrying

✨ What we witnessed: growth, reflection, compassion, and courage.

Each participant showed up not just to learn, but to unlearn — practicing how to hold space with empathy, boundaries, and deep respect for the human experience.

As these newly certified Peer Support Personnel begin their journey with TEAO Canada, they will be available to provide community crisis and outreach support, walking alongside others in moments of need with gentleness, safety, and solidarity.

To our cohort — thank you for your presence, your stories, and your unwavering heart for this work.
To our community — this is just the beginning.

🤲🏾 Together, we’re shaping trauma-responsive systems of care — one embodied conversation at a time.

10/26/2025

🪴 Foundational Care Series: Building the Future of Trauma-Responsive Communities

This past Friday, TEAO Canada proudly launched our Foundational Care Series — a monthly space (every 4th Friday) dedicated to nurturing & educating onthe roots of trauma-responsive, community-centered care. 🫶🏾

Our inaugural session set the tone beautifully. Together, we:

✨ Revisited TEAO’s mission — to bridge gaps in mental health care and make trauma-informed, embodied support accessible for all.

✨ Welcomed new volunteers, including psychotherapists, community advocates, and emerging leaders committed to collective healing.

✨ Explored what it means to offer care with communities, not to them — embodying compassion, responsiveness, and anti-oppressive practice.

✨ Discussed how trauma-informed, trauma-sensitive, and trauma-responsive approaches shape the spaces we hold and the systems we hope to transform.

Our dialogue also touched on exciting initiatives ahead — from local healing retreats to data-driven community collaborations like the Rhythm & Blues Cambridge survey amplifying Black and racialized voices across Waterloo Region.

💫 Next Steps for Volunteers & Community Members:

➡️ Complete your volunteer portal registration (if you haven’t yet).

➡️ Join our newsletter via www.teaocanada.com for updates.

➡️ Participate in two volunteer activities this season.
Share the Rhythm & Blues Cambridge Pulse Survey to help reach 1,000 community responses. Visit their IG link in bio or website for more instructions for our with them too! 🫶🏾

The Foundational Care Series is more than a meeting — it’s a practice of belonging, accountability, and collective care in action. Join us next month as we continue deepening this work, one embodied conversation at a time. 🪴

10/21/2025

Educational Awareness: ♥️

Repost from
•
If we want a spiritual revolution, we need to stop bypassing the systems that keep people stuck in survival.

TEAO - Trauma and Embodiment Association of Ontario

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