About Kayla:

With over 10 years experience in the field of traumatology, Kayla practices as a clinical traumatologist, focused on racial trauma, adverse childhood experiences, and vicarious trauma (occupational injuries). Kayla specializes in nutritional psychology and psychedelic assisted therapy. Kayla offers consultation work in integrating more racially and trauma informed practices, while also supporting those seeking licensing or completion of graduate studies in counselling therapy, as a supervisor.

About Breelove Counselling:

Breelove Counselling is a trauma focused mental health clinic. Not only do they integrate community and private partnerships, they offer various modalities of counselling healing and recovery, such as Trauma processing, Brainspotting, EMDR, Mindfulness, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Solution Focused, Cognitive Processing, Somatic, Internal Family Systems, Emotionally Focused, and Psychedelic Assisted Therapy (21+). Breelove Counselling offers online support to the Atlantic regions and Ontario.

How Sexual Violence is Rooted in Oppression:

• Certain groups of people, including racialized people, experience sexual violence at higher rates, and we know that sexual violence is inextricably interwoven to oppression.

• We use the term 'racialized' because it acknowledges that the barriers racialized groups face are rooted in historical and ongoing racial prejudice in society and are not a product of individual identities and shortcomings.

• An anti-racist lens towards racialized groups starts by intentionally acknowledging the problematic standards in society then changing our lens to unlearn those standards.

• We will never end sexual violence without ending all forms of oppression.

Childhood Adversity:

• What happens in early childhood can matter for a lifetime, and learning how to cope with adversity is an important part of healthy child development and, in turn, healthy adult living.

• Major adversities in early childhood, such as poverty, abuse, or neglect, can set our body stress response on high alert. Emerging research shows that early adversities have been linked to poor health outcomes in adulthood.

• When we are threatened, our bodies activate different physiological responses, including increased heart rate, blood pressure, and stress hormones like cortisol.

• Individuals with adverse childhood experiences have an increased risk of interpersonal difficulties, and are also 1.7x-8.3x more likely to experience sexual violence in adulthood.

Privilege and Patriarchy:

• We have to recognize the pain associated with decades of current systems and institutions that have been created to perpetuate inequality, and the ways those systems shape our current lives and experiences with sexual violence.

• When we talk about ending sexual violence it's often from the viewpoint of a feminist philosophy that was created by white women and has historically excluded Black people, Indigenous people, and other racialized people, but to actually end sexual violence we need to end all forms of oppression and discrimination.

• The history of racism and sexual violence is interwoven, and violence against all people is rooted in power and control in a patriarchal system.

• If individuals coming from a lens of privilege choose not to think about inequity or oppression they do not have the ability to frame our collective work in the context of our shared lives and different experiences.

Your Healing Journey:

• Talking about your experience of sexual violence with someone you trust can be one of the most relieving steps towards healing, but it's important to be selective about who you tell, especially at first. If you don't have someone you trust or someone you don't think can be supportive and empathetic, you can also talk to a licensed therapist or crisis line.

• Begin to understand and learn the effects of trauma so that you're able to recognize coming symptoms and understand what your body is telling you. Understanding potential symptoms can help prepare you for handling distorted thoughts and other stress responses.

• Ultimately, come to terms with a traumatic past and allow appreciation for the person you have become, integrate strategies that allow you to live in the present.

Practices to Bring With You:

• Stay connected to life, whatever that means to you.

• Have fun and laugh with people who care about you.

• Nurture yourself and practice self-compassion.

• Take time to rest and restore yourself.

• Be intentional with who you surround yourself with and with what you consume (media, substances, etc.,)

• Let your loved ones know you love them.

• Show kindness, empathy, and patience, for yourself and others.

• Intentionally acknowledging the problematic standards in society then changing our lens to unlearn those standards.

• Work to be trauma-informed, and to remember that racism and sexual violence are inextricably linked and that to end sexual violence we must work to end all forms of oppression and discrimination.

Connect with Breelove Counselling and Find Support:

• Follow @breelovecommunity on Instagram

• Check out breelove.ca to learn more about Breelove Counselling and ways you can begin your healing journey

• Reach out to Kayla via email at kayla@breelove.ca

This event was a virtual community wellness event and space for poetry, painting, yoga, meditation, and music!

Participants were lead through the creation of a community poem with Addy and Emma from Writing Activism, created paintings of “home” in a guided painting session, listened live to singer-songwriter Lina Rula, and joined Catherine Kennedy for evening yoga and a guided meditation! Afterwards the group debriefed the event and discussed mindfulness practices and the importance of rest as a form of healing and resistance.