Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House 2025 Staff Retreat & Mandatory Training
Our annual staff retreat combined team bonding in beautiful natural surroundings with essential trauma-informed training, strengthening our commitment to community care and resilience.
Reflecting on Our 2025 Retreat
Earlier this June, our Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House staff came together for our annual retreat, embracing connection, visioning, and fun amidst the beautiful woods. Surrounded by nature and vibrant energy, the weekend gave us a chance to strengthen our bonds, engage in reflective activities, and set intentions for the year ahead. Laughter, shared meals, team-building, and moments of quiet reflection shaped an environment where everyone felt included and inspired.
“The retreat brought us closer as a team and reminded us of our purpose—community care, growth, and renewal.”
You can watch a snapshot of our retreat on YouTube:
Mandatory Training: Noticing and Transforming Interactions with Trauma
Facilitated by Norm
A significant focus of our retreat was the all-staff training led by Norm. This session focused on deepening our understanding of trauma, both in ourselves and in those we serve, equipping our team with practical tools for healing and supportive engagement.
Training Highlights
- Connecting to Land and Nature
- Land acknowledgment and guided meditation
- Understanding Trauma
- Definitions, activators, flashbacks, reactions, and interrupters
- Visualizing trauma and the body’s relationship to it
- Exploring where trauma is stored and how it can be transformed
- Connect and Protect
- Body positioning and movement awareness when working with trauma
- Supporting others and self-cleansing after intense interactions
- Inner Critic
- Identifying internal critical voices and transforming the relationship with them
- Land-Based Tools
- Utilizing plant medicines, animal medicines, and elements as supports
- Deepening Self-Awareness
- Identifying reactions, triggers, and differentiating between thoughts, behaviors, feelings, and intentions
- Examining unconscious bias and privilege
- Real-Life Scenarios
- Roleplaying interventions using provided tools and techniques
- Approaches for bullying, conflict, de-escalation, deflection, and ensuring personal safety
These discussions and practices reinforced our shared commitment to building a supportive and resilient community within Frog Hollow and beyond.
Moving Forward Together
The retreat and Norm’s training continue to inspire us as we work to nurture belonging, safety, and growth throughout our network. We’re grateful to carry these learnings into our daily practice—investing in each other, in the land, and in everyone who walks through our doors.
Let’s keep creating a place for healing, transformation, and hope—all year long.