Using a trauma lens towards recovery, Soul Food will provide insight into historical contexts for Black individuals, from the foods we eat, to how we can reclaim our Blackness and heal from racial trauma. This group will be open to Black individuals from across Canada with a focus on African Nova Scotians, from the long history attached to the transatlantic slave trade to the continued experience of systemic racism and "being Black in Canada.”
Healing modalities
This group will predominantly be using trauma recovery as a framework. This means exploring safety and regulation, coming to terms with our experiences - not just being able to talk about our injuries, but being able to begin metabolizing, digesting, processing how our mindset has adapted or has found itself stuck as a result of what has happened to us. This means exploring how our bodies interact with this stuckness/injury, how our emotions flow through this stuckness/injury, and how we think about our stuckness/injuries, consciously and subconsciously. Some tools to assist in this process include Internal Family Systems, Breath Work, Pyramid of Basic Needs, and Somatics.
Facilitator: Kayla Breelove Carter [She|They]
Clinical Traumatologist Kayla Breelove Carter works with individuals and organizations to increase their awareness and understanding of trauma, racial trauma, and adverse childhood experiences. Kayla helps bring reflection and profound change in one's recovery journey, while guiding organizations in the reflection of how their privilege and own lens, can play out within their role in the workplace. With over ten years of clinical experience, Kayla specializes as well in nutritional psychology and psychedelic assisted therapy. As a clinical supervisor for those seeking licensing in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Kayla also dedicates her time in supporting graduate students through Breelove’s weekly, free counselling clinic and community counselling program, where individuals seeking counselling therapy can engage in one on one mental health counselling for free.
When she is not providing counselling therapy or consultation work, Kayla enjoys contributing to CBC Morning Moncton and PEI,as their mental health columnist, while also spending time with her two children under five and partner of fifteen years.
Co-Facilitator: Chaw Su [she|her] preferred name: Su
Su is a Licensed Counselling Therapist- Candidate (LCT-C) with the College of Counselling Therapist of New Brunswick (CCTNB). She is currently in the process of completing her certification in Mindfulness Awareness Meditation for Instructors Training Course (MAMITC). Su has previously received her Bachelor of Science from Memorial University and completed her Masters in Counselling Psychology from Yorkville University.
Su works from a humanistic approach, blended with cognitive behavioural therapy interventions and elements of solution focused brief therapy. While Su is cognisant of trauma informed practices, her lived experience as a racialized person also helps her connect and support other racialized people who are seeking support. Su works with clients who have had racial trauma, developmental trauma, complex trauma, acculturation, anxiety, depression, and other mental health barriers.
Additionally, Su has an interest in supporting clients who have a diagnosis of ADHD or think they may have ADHD. She works to provide clients with ways to manage their symptoms as well as explore routines that work.