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Helping Women Heal From Gender-Based Abuse Online With WEST
Over 35 women have been able to choose the tools they need to support their own wellness, learn about abuse, trauma and racial wounding and how to respond to them through the Stay Well Work Well Women’s Circle program coordinated by Women’s Enterprise Skills Training, Inc. (WEST).
“Learning how to take care of oneself, having mental wellness and social support, along with yoga to rest and integrate experiences is helping participants in the program,” states Venus Olla, the licensed psychotherapist (qualifying) who leads the four weekly evenings each session. “What we have learned from the program participants and their evaluations is that women are benefitting from the program with 100% of participants reporting they are gaining concrete self-care tools, resources, and connections to use for the future and over.”
Twice per week the group experiences guided rest and deep breathing to release the tension and stressors they have experienced with the expert guidance of world-renowned Social Justice Activist, Author and Accessible Yoga Instructor Dianne Bondy.
“The goal is to ensure women are able to experience a sense of ease and stability in a safe environment,” explains Bondy. “We have made a brave space for immigrants and BIPOC women.”
Executive Director of WEST, Rose Anguiano Hurst agrees: “We are happy to know we are meeting the needs of women and to hear their hopeful comments.”
Participants are sharing how the Stay Well Work Well program met their needs in anonymous evaluations and testimonials, like this one:
“Since beginning this course, I have been able to better trust in my own wisdom more in order to better respond to some of my trauma memories and move further along the path to healing and creating a better future for myself. As the program outreach indicated I can attest that I gained knowledge, power and practices to do what is necessary to live well and work well. The combination of written resources, group circle work and engagement with Venus in working through the material was especially helpful to me and comforting in the knowledge that I wasn’t alone in my experiences and desire to work through and overcome such.”
The Stay Well, Work Well Women’s Circle program is funded through a Safer + Strong Grant from the Canadian Women’s Foundation program to support organizations ’ ability to help address, prevent and reduce gender-based violence and deal with an influx of people seeking support due to an increase in gender-based violence in the COVID -19 pandemic.
The final session of this free program began on Wednesday, October 13, 2021 online. Space is limited to 25 women from anywhere in Canada. To learn more about it and sign up easily for the yoga, or support group, or both elements please visit online.
