Jan. 31 – Feb. 14: Healing Hearts Survivor Group: Somatic Practices
Healing Hearts is a support group for people of all genders who have had an experience of sexual violence or harassment. These gatherings offer a space to connect with your body’s wisdom, cultivate deeper awareness, and engage in healing somatic practices through embodied movement.
This term, we’ll be meeting in the Multi-Faith Centre, Room KP207. Programming will include QiGong from 9:30 – 10:30, and Acudetox from 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. Light refreshments will be served and registration is required.
- Friday, January 31, 9:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.
- Friday, February 7, 9:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.
- Friday, February 14, 9:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Please note that Healing Hearts is a closed group for survivors of sexual violence or harassment.
By filling-out the form below, you’ll receive email updates about each of these three in-person sessions at UTSG. Please note that to participate in the Acudetox, you may be asked to complete an additional consent form.
What is Qigong?
Qigong is an ancient self-healing practice from China that has been evolving for thousands of years, forming the foundation of Classical Chinese Medicine and many martial arts. It combines posture, meditation, breathing, self-massage, movement, and the intention to unite and maximize the potential of our mind, body, and spirit.
Exercises consist of sequences of movements that promote overall health and longevity and strengthen immunity, heal specific physical, emotional, and spiritual ailments, regulate the organs and energetic channels of the body, and purge toxic energy.
Some of the benefits of practicing qigong include feeling more relaxed, energized, flexible, and centred, improved blood circulation, bone density, immunity, digestion, and sleep.
Qigong is a gentle practice suitable for all ages and physical abilities.
What is Acudetox?
Acudetox, also known as the NADA protocol, is a low-cost, low-barrier approach to harm reduction and community healing. It helps reduce cravings, withdrawal symptoms, stress and trauma and calms the nervous system. It is a standardized ear acupuncture or acupressure treatment that involves placing up to 5 single-use sterile needles or seeds into specific points on each ear. No intake or medical history is required. The practice is often performed in a group setting, with participants resting quietly for the duration of the treatment. Needles are generally retained for 20-45 minutes. Please Note: No needles will be used during this session. We will be using seeds and acupressure.
About Mai Cao, R. TCMP, R.Ac
Mai is a lifelong student of Eastern philosophy, medicine, and martial arts. She is a licensed acupuncturist and Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner, registered with the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners and Acupuncturists of Ontario. She holds a diploma from the Ontario College of Traditional Chinese Medicine and is a Kokoro Dojo’s Zen Shiatsu Program graduate. She is also the first female to be promoted to the rank of Sifu through Golden Harmony Kung Fu and the Tai Shan Praying Mantis Association.
Mai developed a curiosity for Chinese Medicine over decades of teaching and practice in Kung Fu and Qigong. Experiencing the profound healing and transformative effect the training has on people’s lives, she retraced their roots, which led her to Shiatsu and then Chinese Medicine, which shares the same foundation.
Her passion for Kung Fu and Qigong as healing arts, coupled with her background as a street outreach and harm reduction worker, brought an invitation to teach at the Butterfly Peace Garden in war-torn Sri Lanka in 2004. Since then, she has returned twice to expand on those teachings. She has worked with children, youth and adults affected by war, the tsunami, displacement and homelessness, ex-child-soldiers, youth detainees, families of the disappeared, people suffering from addiction and mental health issues and survivors of violence in Toronto and throughout Sri Lanka.
Over the years, her studies have pivoted toward holistic Medicine. Mai takes a heart-centred approach to her practice, bringing compassion and intuitive touch to her treatments. She treats various conditions, including muscular-skeletal pain, digestive issues, menstrual disorders, fatigue, and ailments that are difficult to pin down to a specific cause. She is particularly interested in mental and emotional well-being, addressing acute and chronic stress, trauma-related conditions, sleep problems, anxiety, and depression.
A lover of nature, adventure, animals, good food and drink, Mai’s “happy place” is sitting by a fire out in the woods, sharing a laugh with friends and family.