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Survivor-Led Support Groups & Retreats

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"Though there are many trauma experts, the only true trauma sherpas that can help guide others through and to the other side are those that have traversed the range of their own heart and body in search of who they are most meant to be. You have such an expert guide in this author."

Trapper Lukaart, Author, Speaker, and Trauma Specialist

Healing happens in the context of safe relationships. For more than 18 years, Kate Ouimette Wedell has been leading survivor support groups, mentoring women impacted by trafficking and exploitation, and developing survivor-centered healing programs through CherishedLA and Treasures.

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As a survivor leader, author, trauma-informed facilitator, and Human Trafficking Subject Matter Expert, Kate brings a unique combination of lived experience, professional training, and organizational leadership. Participants are invited into a safe environment where they can explore their stories, strengthen their identities, develop healthy relationships, and move toward lives of greater freedom, purpose, and connection.

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Organizations partnering with Kate gain more than a facilitator—they gain a trusted guide who understands the terrain of trauma, healing, and transformation from both professional and personal experience.

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Support Groups & Healing Series

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Kate offers trauma-informed support groups and healing experiences that can be integrated into existing programming or offered as standalone groups, retreats, and workshops. Each of these topics is a 4 week series 

Topics

  • Being Seen: The 7 Desires of the Heart
    Exploring the core longings that shape identity, relationships, and healing.

  • Defiant Hope
    Cultivating resilience and hope in the midst of life's challenges and disappointments.

  • Broken Into Beautiful
    Discovering how healing can transform pain into strength, purpose, and beauty.

  • Self-Care
    Developing sustainable practices that support emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being.

  • Focus (and Being Out of Focus)
    Understanding distractions, trauma responses, and how to regain clarity and direction.

  • Orphan to Queen
    Moving from survival and scarcity toward identity, belonging, and confidence.

  • Co-Dependency
    Learning healthy boundaries, self-awareness, and relational freedom.

  • RE-WILDING
    Rediscovering authenticity, voice, creativity, and personal freedom.

  • Re Series
    A collection of restorative experiences including Reclaim, Reflection, Recenter, and Reverie.

  • The Possibilities
    Exploring vision, purpose, and the opportunities that emerge through healing.

  • Healing from the Inside Out
    Addressing the connection between inner wounds, beliefs, behaviors, and relationships.

  • New Beginnings
    Supporting individuals through transitions, growth, and fresh starts.

  • Rupture & Repair
    Learning how trust, connection, and healthy relationships can be restored after conflict or harm.

  • RESET
    A guided opportunity to pause, realign, and create a renewed path forward.

EXPOSED Book Study

Signature Series: EXPOSED Book Study (25 week healing study) Exploring personal narrative, meaning-making, and identity reconstruction through a survivors story. Kate offers a guided survivor led group study using Exposed as a framework for trauma processing, identity reconstruction, shame recovery, and narrative healing. Participants are supported in safely engaging their story while building language for resilience, truth, and transformation.

Co-Facilitation Option-“Dynamic Duo”-

For organizations seeking enhanced support, Kate is available to co-facilitate with fellow survivor leader and author Bronwen Healey. Together, Kate and Bronwen bring decades of combined experience creating transformative healing spaces where survivors can safely explore their stories, strengthen relationships, and discover new possibilities for their future.

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Benefits of co-facilitation include:

  • Enhanced participant support

  • Multiple perspectives and facilitation styles

  • Greater capacity for larger groups

  • Additional emotional containment for complex trauma discussions

  • Increased ability to respond to participant needs in real time

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Organizations may choose either a solo-facilitated or co-facilitated model depending on their goals, participant population, and budget.

All support groups are proprietary curriculum written by Kate Ouimette Wedell & Bronwen Healy and are available through facilitated partnerships, staff training, retreats, licensing agreements, or certified facilitators. Materials may not be reproduced or taught without written permission.

Who We Serve

  • Anti-Human Trafficking Programs

  • Domestic Violence Organizations

  • Recovery Programs

  • Residential & Transitional Housing Programs

  • Foster Care & Transitional Age Youth Programs

  • Faith-Based Organizations

  • Community-Based Nonprofits

  • Survivor-Led Initiatives

Flexible Program Design

These groups may be offered as stand-alone workshops, multi-week series, ongoing support groups, retreat experiences, or integrated into existing residential, recovery, anti-trafficking, domestic violence, foster care, faith-based, or community-based programs, medical staff, law enforcement, LGBTQ+, people who are transitioning from incarceration. 

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