TEAO - Trauma and Embodiment Association of Ontario

04/12/2026

Meet the Atmosphere Creators.

The moment you’ve been waiting for… the last of our Celebration of Hearts & Spirit Gala lineup! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

At the Celebration of Hearts & Spirit Gala, every detail is intentional.

Every sound, taste, and touchpoint is designed to move you — not just entertain you.

Because this is not just a gala… it’s a feeling.

🎧 DJ Frisco Entertainment
As the evening transitions from storytelling into celebration, DJ Frisco will carry us there — seamlessly.
Through sound, rhythm, and energy, they will guide the room into connection, movement, and joy… where strangers become community and moments become memories.

🍸 Settin’ the Bar (Stephanie Riley)
This is more than bar service — it’s an experience.
Settin’ the Bar brings an elevated, intentional ambiance that invites you to slow down, savour, and be present. Every detail curated to complement the energy of the night.

🍽️ Indulge Kitchen
Nourishment is part of the experience.
Indulge Kitchen will offer flavours that ground us, comfort us, and bring us together — because sharing food is one of the oldest ways we connect as humans.

Together, they don’t just support the evening…
They create the atmosphere.

An atmosphere where you can feel it all —
connection, celebration, humanity, and joy.

Stay tuned as we continue unveiling the magic behind this unforgettable night ♥️

🎟 Tickets are now available
(Link in bio) or https://shorturl.at/imvje

Come alone.
Bring friends.
Bring your partner.
Bring your heart.
Let’s gather together.

TraumaResponsiveCare HealingInCommunity

04/12/2026

✨ LINEUP UNVEIL: MEET THE EXPERIENCES ✨

Stay tuned all weekend as we continue unveiling what’s to come… 👀

This weekend, we’re unveiling our Gala lineup piece by piece —from our hosts, to performers, to the experiences & then the atmosphere you won’t want to miss.

And today… we introduce the moments you’ll feel and remember

Fashion & Creative Expression

Amshina (Fashion Showcase by Utamika)
🔗 https://amshina.ca
🔗
A curated fashion showcase highlighting meaningful design, embodiment, and storytelling through clothing. This segment will bring a visually powerful and intentional element to the evening.

Experience & Atmosphere

Hidden Smirk (Photo Booth Activation)
🔗 https://www.hiddensmirk.com
🔗
An interactive photo booth experience offering customizable templates and premium backdrops. This will give our guests a fun, memorable way to capture the spirit of the evening.

🎟️ Join us June 20th in Cambridge 
(Link in bio / tickets available now)

Registration link: https://shorturl.at/imvje

—
💬 Tell us below: what are you most excited for — the music, the comedy, or the experience?

CollectiveCare

04/11/2026

🏡 We’re bringing the Celebration of Hearts & Spirit Gala to the Region.

(Stay tuned all weekend as we unveil our lineup piece by piece — from our hosts, to performers, to experiences you won’t want to miss.)

✨ We heard you… and we showed up. ✨

In 2022, we launched our first Gala in the GTA — and the message from community was clear:
“Bring it home.”

So this year… we are.

We’re bringing together voices that move you, performances that ground you, and moments that remind you what it feels like to be in community again.

🎶 Live music, movement, and storytelling that you’ll feel, not just watch

This one we are beyond excited for 💫✨🤩

Ammoye (Singer/Songwriter – Opening Performance)

🔗 https://www.ammoye.com
🔗
Ammoye will open the gala, setting the tone with a soulful, grounding performance that invites guests into the space with presence, warmth, and intention.

Dance Migration (Community Dance Performance)

🔗 https://www.dancemigration.com
🔗
A community-rooted dance collective bringing Brazilian dancing, movement, spirit, and storytelling. Their presence adds an embodied, expressive layer to the evening.

Oluseun Olayinka (Spoken Word)

Oluseun will offer a spoken word piece to deepen the emotional and reflective tone of the event. Her storytelling and presence would meaningfully ground the evening in themes of humanity, community, and collective care.

🎟️ Join us June 20th in Cambridge 
(Link in bio / tickets available now)

Registration link: https://shorturl.at/imvje

—
💬 Tell us below: what are you most excited for — the music, the comedy, or the experience?
CollectiveCare

04/10/2026

Celebration of Hearts & Spirit Gala lineup is here ✨
✨ And we’re just getting started…

Stay tuned all weekend as we unveil our lineup piece by piece — from our hosts, to performers, to experiences you won’t want to miss.

Jeff A.D. Martin ( Our Remarkable Host)

🔗 https://jeffadmartin.com
Jeff brings a powerful presence rooted in connection, integrity, and humanity. He would guide the evening as host/emcee—holding the flow, engaging the audience, and anchoring the tone of the night. His presence aligns beautifully with our intention of creating an evening centered in community, joy, and shared humanity.

Jay Martin (Comedian + Comedian Connection)

🔗
Jay and team ((And yes… we’re keeping a few surprises for the night of 👀) would bring lightness and laughter into the evening through a short comedic set, supporting the energy of celebration and connection.

And trust us — this is more than an event… it’s an experience.
We’re bringing together voices that move you, performances that ground you, and moments that remind you what it feels like to be in community again.

🎤 Our host is set to guide you through a night of connection, empowerment, and presence

😂 Our comedy lead is ready to shift the energy — and we’re keeping the full comedian lineup a surprise until the night of

This night was curated with intention — every element designed to bring us back to what matters: humanity, joy, and collective care.

We’re not just unveiling a lineup…
We’re inviting you into something you’ll remember.

🎟️ Join us June 20th in Cambridge
(Link in bio / tickets available now https://shorturl.at/imvje)

—
💬 Tell us below: what are you most excited for — the music, the comedy, or the experience?

GalaNight

04/10/2026

Youth of the Month | Reimagining Care 🫶🏾

This month, we’re centering youth—not just as participants, but as teachers of care. (sign up for TEAO Canada’s monthly newsletter 🗞️)

They remind us: care isn’t delivered—it’s felt, experienced, and co-created.

So we ask—what is trauma-informed care if it can’t be felt in how we relate?

At TEAO Canada, we move beyond awareness into trauma-responsive care:
• Relational safety
• Consent & pacing
• Embodied connection
This is what youth are asking for—and already practicing. Systems must catch up.

We’re calling in partners, funders, and community to help sustain this work:
✨ Free peer support
✨ Community care circles
✨ Trauma-responsive training
✨ Building toward THEC

If you believe care should be human, embodied, and equitable—join us.

🔗 Link in bio to learn more & support or directly here https://www.teaocanada.com

To the youth—thank you for leading. We’re listening. ♥️

ReimaginingCare

04/06/2026

We LOVE This Awareness 🫶🏾♥️ -educational awareness resource.

TEAO Canada embodies this by designing every training, retreat, and program as a regulated, relational space first—where people are not asked to perform healing, but are supported to experience safety, choice, and presence in their bodies. Through somatic practices, collective care circles, and consent-led facilitation, participants begin to shift out of survival mode and into awareness, reconnecting with themselves in ways that feel sustainable and real.

At the same time, TEAO integrates resistance education and systemic awareness into all offerings—naming how trauma is shaped by systems, not just individuals—so healing is not isolated, but connected to decolonizing the mind and disrupting harmful patterns at a collective level. This is how change becomes embodied, not just understood.

04/04/2026

There’s something powerful about witnessing care in real time
not explained, not labeled… just felt. ♥️

This is what it looks like when we move with community, not into it.

When we don’t extract stories, but create space for them to exist.

When young people are met exactly where they are—
and reminded, through experience, that they are not alone.

No titles.
No pressure.
Just presence, movement, and connection.

This is us, in community—
not talking about the work,
but living it.

👀 Watch us in action.

If you’ve been curious about what we do or how to be part of it—this is your moment to lean in.

Explore, join, support:
https://linktr.ee/TEAOCanada or 🔗 in bio.

Thank you for the partnership in community alongside the incredible work yours doing with our youth through rich programs in the school board.

Grateful for every person who continues to trust, support, and walk alongside this work.

— Nicole Brown Faulknor
Founder & CEO, TEAO Canada

EmbodiedLeadership

04/02/2026

Educational Post Incoming 🪡: “Healing doesn’t come from force. It comes from rhythm.” Most people don’t recognize this because we’ve normalized disconnection.

We’ve been taught to override the body,
to perform through exhaustion,
to call survival “strength.”

But there is a difference between:
being capable

and

being regulated.

This is where we begin to unlearn.
Not everything that looks like “not trying”
is a lack of discipline.

Sometimes…
it’s the nervous system asking for a different way.

At TEAO Canada, we don’t just talk about mental health.
We bring people back into relationship with their bodies - 🔗 https://linktr.ee/TEAOCanada check out our retreats, trainings and more!

Because healing isn’t something you force.
It’s something you allow.

TEAOCanada UnlearnToLearn

03/31/2026

03/28/2026

A Monthly Series. There’s something powerful about choosing to gather… again and again. ♥️

Our Collective Care Series isn’t just an event — it’s a rhythm. A monthly return to self, to community, and to the kind of care we’re not always taught to practice.

In these spaces, we slow down. We listen. We remember that healing doesn’t happen in isolation — it happens in relationship, in witnessing, in being held and holding others.
We created this series because too many of us are carrying silently. Because burnout is normalized. Because community care is not a luxury — it’s a necessity.

So every month, we open the circle.
For release. For reflection. For real connection.
If you’ve been needing a space like this… this is your invitation.

🎟️ Join us Tomorrow 1pm : https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/collective-care-series-tickets-1529134515499 or click 🔗 or monthly Sundays at 1pm. Next April 2026.

03/26/2026

We love this educational post by 🫶🏾♥️

Leadership Beyond Title: A Trauma-Responsive Practice

In trauma-responsive spaces, it’s not enough to meet targets or command a room. True leadership asks: Who feels safer, seen, and more empowered because of your presence? If people cannot grow, speak, or show up more fully around you, then leadership is still being learned.

At TEAO Canada, we understand leadership as a relational responsibility. It lives in how we create conditions for healing, voice, and agency — especially for those who have been historically silenced. It looks like the young person who finds the courage to speak their truth, the emerging leader who practices empathy over control, and the community that begins to trust itself again.

Legacy may but be about status — it is what shifts in others because harm was not repeated.

To lead in a trauma-responsive way is to move with awareness:
to recognize that what is unhealed can be unintentionally passed on, and to choose, daily, to interrupt those cycles.