A Look Back - And an Invitation Forward This past Sunday, our Collective Care Circle at The Branches @thebranchesyoga brought together a beautiful group of community members for a quiet hour of somatic healing, shared breath, and gentle presence. Led by Nicole Brown Faulknor, we moved together - through grief, through grounding, through joy. Thank you to everyone who showed up, held space, and allowed themselves to just be. If you missed it, we hope you’ll join us for the next session: Sunday, October 5, 2025 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM The Branches, 9 Samuel Street, Kitchener, ON Free and open to all Learn more + Register here: https://linktr.ee/TEAOCanada or link in bio. This offering is made possible through the generous support of the Waterloo Region Community Foundation @wrcommfdn , allowing us to keep community care free and accessible. Note from TEAO Canada: The Art of Community Care & Mutual Aid. Sometimes care isn’t loud or obvious-it lives quietly in the spaces where we unknowingly support one another. Through resourcing together-learning to feel an internal sense of safety alongside each other-something shifts. Isolation breaks. Humanity is shared. Community care reminds us that even in moments of solitude, we are not alone. #CommunityCare #MutualAid #Traumalnformed

♥️ We’re excited to be part of the Recovery Community Celebration! 💫 📅 Friday, Sept 12, 2025 | 11 AM – 8 PM EST 📍 Art Facility, Etobicoke | In-Person & Virtual Hybrid TEAO Canada will be there all day with our booth — come find us, connect, and learn about our work at the intersections of trauma recovery, community care, and systemic change. Our CEO & Founder, Nicole Brown-Faulknor @wounds2wings, will also be a featured speaker presenting: 💬 The Missing Link in Recovery: Trauma-Informed Embodiment Practices for Lasting Healing Workshop Focus: ✔️ A practical and interactive session introducing accessible body-based tools for nervous system regulation, emotional safety, and sustainable healing from trauma. You’ll Learn: ✔️How trauma impacts the nervous system and recovery ✔️Simple somatic tools for stress and trigger regulation ✔️Ways to build inner safety and resilience ✔️How to create your own “Safe Resource Toolkit” for daily recovery Who Should Attend: ☑️Individuals in recovery • ☑️Sober-curious community members • ☑️Loved ones supporting someone in recovery • ☑️Recovery professionals seeking trauma-informed, body-based tools 🧠 Why it Matters: 60–90% of people in addiction treatment have trauma histories. Healing the body is as essential as healing the mind — this workshop bridges that gap. 📌 FREE Event – Registration Required 🎟 RSVP here: Event Link @addictionrehabtoronto or QR Code from Poster We can’t wait to see you there! ♥️ #RecoveryCommunity #TraumaInformedCare #SomaticHealing #AddictionRecovery #TEAOcanada

Educational Resource Sharing: #welovethekids❤️❤️ ‘What is Community?” Reposted from @nikeaurea We all impact a space. We all have different positional power, but still we all impact the space s we are apart of. #community #communityspace #communitymanager #spaceholder

🌱 TEAO in Community – This Week’s Highlights Our Trauma-Informed Circles returned this week, offering a safe space to slow down, breathe, and reconnect. Together, we explored gentle movement, nervous system regulation, and self-forgiveness practices—releasing the weight of self-blame while strengthening our connection to our bodies. We were also honoured to support our neighbours in Norfolk County, facilitating somatic integration and reflective processing for Indigenous women working in trauma and mental health care. These sessions created room for grief, compassion, and embodied resilience, so they can return to their work rooted in strength and steadiness. ✨ Next in Cambridge 
Our next Trauma-Informed Care Circle is on Tuesday, Sept 17, 6:45–8:00 PM at the Cambridge Public Library – Hespeler Branch (5 Tannery St. East, Cambridge, ON). 
No registration required—just drop in if you’re nearby. Come as you are, no pressure to share—simply rest, ground, and receive care in community. LINK IN BIO Our —You’re Not Alone — Virtual Soma-Peer Support Group starts this Wednesday online!: Thanks to the generosity of local donations and grant funding @wrcommfdn, we are able to offer these groups free of charge — making accessible, trauma-informed mental health care available to all who need it. These groups are designed to provide a safe, supportive space for individuals navigating anxiety, depression, PTSD, and CPTSD. Participants will connect in community care and co-regulation through embodied practices and peer-led support. #TraumaInformedCare #CollectiveCare #SomaticHealing #SelfForgiveness #IndigenousHealing #CommunityCare #TraumaInformed #TEAOCanada #HealingInCommunity

Educational Awareness 🙌🏾♥️🫶🏾 Have you ever noticed how a leader’s energy can shift the whole room — for better or worse? How do you stay grounded so others feel safe around you? Educational Repost by @sarahbcoaching 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 • There’s a reason why some leaders inspire creativity and collaboration while others leave everyone walking on eggshells. It’s not their strategy, experience, or even their personality. It’s the state of their nervous system. Your autonomic nervous system is contagious. When you walk into a room, everyone else’s nervous system immediately begins to orient to yours through co-regulation. If you’re chronically activated — operating from fight-or-flight — you’re unconsciously signaling danger to everyone around you. This creates a dysregulation ripple effect. Your team starts operating from survival mode too. Creativity shuts down, collaboration becomes challenging, and innovation dies because taking risks feels dangerous. But here’s what’s remarkable: the opposite is equally true. When you lead from a regulated state — what we call your ventral vagal complex — you become like a tuning fork for safety. Your regulated nervous system sends signals that it’s safe to think creatively, take risks, and bring their full selves to work. Think about the leaders you’ve been drawn to throughout your life. I’m willing to bet they had this quality of groundedness, of being unshakeable even in challenging moments. That’s regulation in action. This isn’t about being perfect or never feeling stressed. It’s about developing the capacity to return to regulation quickly and consistently. When you do this, you don’t just transform your own experience, you transform everyone around you. 💗 Leadership from regulation creates abundance because you’re operating from possibility rather than scarcity. In kindness, Sarah _______ #LeadershipDevelopment #NervousSystemRegulation #TraumaInformedLeadership #EmotionalIntelligence #LeadWithCalm #MindfulLeadership #CoRegulation #LeadershipSkills #PsychologicalSafety #ConsciousLeadership #EmbodiedLeadership

Today’s “boardroom” looked a little different — Sherman Falls, Ancaster, along the Bruce Trail. 🌿✨ We traded grant deadlines for flowing water, and meeting tables for forest paths, as our Volunteer & Fund Development Coordinator Danielle Allen and our Executive Director & Chair @wounds2wings came together to reflect, reset, and dream forward. After a summer filled with grant applications, volunteer coordination, and community outreach, we took this moment to ground ourselves, align our vision, and plan for a vibrant fall of connection, care, and growth. Because at TEAO Canada, building community also means tending to our own balance and well-being. ♥️ #TEAOCanada #FundingLiberation #VolunteerLeadership #FallPlanning #NatureMeetings #CommunityInMotion #GrantSeasonRecovery #BruceTrail #ShermanFalls

📝 @traumatorecoveryy states, “You can’t starve a child of love for years, then expect them to feel your warmth later.” By then, the bond is already broken. Because love isn’t something you give when it’s convenient — it’s what a child needs in their most vulnerable years: when they are forming their sense of self, their view of love, their belief about their worth. TEAO Canada believes that when that love is missing, the wound doesn’t disappear with age. It follows them into adulthood — shaping friendships, relationships, and even their own self-image. This is the root of trauma: disconnection and the loss of belonging. The path to healing often begins with finding spaces that feel safe for your body and soul — spaces that allow you to rebuild trust, re-learn belonging, and reclaim what was lost. Our community events are designed exactly for that — to offer connection as a form of trauma care and accessible support. ✨ Find upcoming events here: [link in bio or https://linktr.ee/TEAOCanada] or use the QR code. #CollectiveCare #HealingTogether #BelongingIsHealing #CommunityCare #TraumaInformed #InnerChildHealing #EmbodiedHealing #ConnectionIsMedicine #TEAOCanada

Starting September 3rd, TEAO Canada will host FREE biweekly Trauma-Informed Care Circles at the Cambridge Public Library - Hespeler location. These circles are not therapy sessions - they are accessible, stigma-free spaces where community members can gather, connect, and support one another. Rooted in the belief that the art of witnessing others begins with being witnessed ourselves, the circles invite reflection and shared presence in a supportive environment. Runs bi-weekly, September - December 2025 6:45 PM - 8:00 PM Cambridge Public Library - Hespeler Branch (5 Tannery St. East, Cambridge, ON). Registration link: link in bio ⬆️ We invite you to join us, bring a friend, and share this opportunity within your networks. Together, we can break down misconceptions about mental health care and build a culture of collective healing. #Traumalnformed #CommunityCare #CollectiveHealing #MentalHealthAwareness #TEAOCanada

The Power of being Witnessed. #welovethis ♥️ Reposted Awareness by @mymentalhealthspace We heal by being witnessed. Not advised. (Please remember this is IG not therapy and yes there are situations where we want and need advice) #health #wellbeing #mentalhealth #heart #wordstoinspire #traumasurvivor #poetrycommunity #poem #healthylifestyle #healing #healingjourney #cptsd #ptsd #poetry #peoplepleaser #parentification #narcsurvivor #narcissisticabusesurvivor #healthy #heal #cyclebreaker

🌿✨ Day 1: Rooted & Rising at Rhythm & Blues Cambridge’s BGX Camp ✨🌿 TEAO Canada is honoured to launch Day 1 of the BGX Born to Lead: Hometown Heroes Edition — a week-long camp powered by Rhythm & Blues Cambridge, designed for African, Black, and Caribbean Identifying (ABCI) girls ages 13–16 to explore their leadership potential and recognize the power they hold to make a difference — starting right in their own community. Our retreat, themed Rooted & Rising, will create a healing and empowering space for these incredible young leaders to connect to their mental and emotional wellness, explore embodied self-expression, challenge imposter syndrome and shame, and rise in the power of their stories, bodies, and sisterhood. BGX offers an immersive experience that builds confidence, leadership skills, and connection with inspiring Black and BIPOC women entrepreneurs through interactive workshops, skill-building sessions, and local business visits — all within a safe and inclusive environment. Through guided activities, storytelling, peer support, and cultural reflection — we’re planting seeds of self-love that they can carry into school, home, and life. Grateful to be part of a community that is not just pouring into our youth — but rising with them. Deepest thanks to @rhythmandbluescambridge for leading this essential work in our community, and to @wrcommfdn for your generous support in making this vision & partnership possible. 🖤 More information + registration for the BGX camp: contact @rhythmandbluescambridge directly. #RootedAndRising #BGXCambridge #BornToLead #BlackGirlsHealing #TEAOCanada #RhythmAndBluesCambridge #WaterlooRegionCommunityFoundation #BlackYouthLeadership #YouthEmpowerment #ABCIGirls #MentalHealthMatters #CollectiveCare #BlackGirlsDeserveJoy #CambridgeOntario #CommunityPartnership #TraumaInformedCare