By Bonnie Borchardt & Connie Phillips

Allan taught the Tree of Life, an exercise in building resilience by getting in touch with your “roots” and strengths. I taught with Connie on Stress, Anxiety and Depression for 2 days and a third on self-care after Trauma. Allan joined me as a trauma Specialist. Surviving and Thriving was the message from God’s Word.  Each session was well attended and appreciated. Of course, we sang and danced a lot, the best medicine!

Kim had the biggest group for her cooking and safe food handling. Wendy worked with women and men to talk about making the community more welcoming for people with disabilities and caring for themselves while caring for others. Heather enjoyed playing with the kids with crafts and pictures. Even though we all had a turn at not feeling well and our programs got abbreviated, people appreciated the programs so much and we each had someone come to us for personal counselling. It was a rich time of learning and sharing together.

Connie- I introduced the basics of massage on Thursday morning teaching on the muscles, use of our hands (being mindful of pressure, being gentle and taking a prayerful approach) along with basic massage techniques. Together, we worked on the back, neck, feet, arms, hands and head for relaxation along with different types of pain release. The following morning, we reviewed the basics of massage and did hands-on treatments on the presenting needs on the ankle, back and knees. Massage was completely new to the group, and they were very keen to learn and to practice massage techniques.  We had a lot of fun together! We closed both days feeling better in our bodies and with beautiful singing. I was very blessed by their enthusiasm and their gratefulness to have practical ways to care for their hard-working bodies.