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Virtual Forum · Saturday, November 21
Healing Beyond the Burn
Navigating mental health and support after trauma
A 3-hour online Forum that focuses on burn survivors’ mental health and identity recovery, while offering essential tools and support for their families, healthcare professionals, and firefighters. Each group plays a vital role in the healing journey, and this event seeks to unite and empower all involved.
When
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM MST
Where
Online, by video
For
Survivors, families, clinicians, firefighters
Includes
Q&A and breakout rooms
Keynote speaker
John Westhaver
John Westhaver is a Safety and Resilience Expert and keynote speaker based in Victoria, BC. On April 29, 1994, at age 18, he survived a car crash that killed three of his friends.
He was burned over 75% of his body and woke from a month-long coma in the Saint John Regional Hospital Burn Unit. Over 20+ years and more than 850 presentations across Canada, the USA, and virtually, he has built that experience into Learn. Heal. Grow., a framework grounded in accepted neuroscience that helps people see the beliefs driving them, heal what installed them, and grow the patterns that come next. John is a board member and peer support director with the Firefighters’ Burn Fund Victoria, served on the board of the Canadian Burn Survivor Community from 2016 to 2021, and is a band member of Sipekne’katik First Nation. He is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and the Coast Mental Health Courage To Come Back Award.
Your Forum team
Heather Lynn Beveridge
Master of Ceremonies · CBSC board member
Kyle Hynes
Forum Producer & Tech Support · Co-Chair, CBSC
The morning
9:00
to 9:15 AM
Welcome
Welcome & Forum overview
Introduction from CBSC leadership, setting the tone for the day and outlining the importance of support networks for burn survivors.
9:15
to 10:15 AM
Keynote
Opening Keynote: Redefining Self: Mental Health and Burn Recovery
John Westhaver
A burn injury can change more than how we look. It can change how we see ourselves, how we think others see us, and who we believe we’re allowed to be. Many survivors end up stuck between the person they were and the person they haven’t met yet. Through my own story, and plain-language neuroscience on how the brain is built to protect us, we’ll look at the beliefs sitting underneath our thoughts and why you can’t change what you can’t see.
10:15
to 10:25 AM
Break
Pause and breathe
A quick mindfulness or breathing exercise.
10:25
to 10:55 AM
Panel
The Role of Families, Firefighters, and Healthcare Professionals in Burn Survivor Recovery
Melissa Bonnell
Facilitator · Chair, CBSC
Jason Matthews
Captain, Calgary Fire Department · CFBTS Burn Survivor Liaison
Sametta Cole
Occupational Therapist · Foothills Medical Centre Burn Unit
Christina
SOAR Peer Supporter · Family Member
One more panellist to be announced.
Four panellists share how families, firefighters and health care providers each support recovery. Melissa Bonnell facilitates. She will ask questions to our panelists to assist in reflecting a wide variety of experiences, putting some questions to one panellist at a time and some to the whole panel, so you hear different perspectives on the same question.
10:55
to 11:05 AM
Break
Quick break
Stretch, refill your drink, and come back for the workshop.
11:05
to 11:50 AM
Keynote & workshop
Closing Keynote and Workshop: Embracing a New Identity: Moving Forward with Confidence
John Westhaver
This is where we put it to work. Using Learn. Heal. Grow., the process I’ve lived and refined for more than 30 years, participants will identify one belief that’s holding them back, face what keeps it in place, and start building a new response. We’ll practice settling the nervous system first, because the logical part of the brain can’t do its job while the alarm is going off. Everyone leaves with the 60-Second Reset, a simple tool for the moment that old thought shows up again.
The Forum wraps up at 12:00 PM.
Joining on the day
One link, in your browser or on your phone. No account and nothing to download. Your camera can stay off.
Thank you to our Forum sponsor
Calgary Firefighters Burn Treatment Society
Calgary Firefighters Burn Treatment Society
Session dates rotate biweekly. Register once and we'll email you every date, so you never have to check.
Special & community events
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