Workshops & Team Trainings

Workshops by Thrive: Learning Together as a Group

Workshops at Thrive bring the same values that guide our counselling rooms into the spaces where people work, learn and support one another: you make sense, you are not broken, and connection heals. Led by Carson Kivari, Thrive’s director and co-founder, each team training blends clear teaching with experiential practice, so participants leave with a felt understanding rather than just a new set of slides. This guide explains what each of our workshops explores, who they suit, how formats work and how to plan a session that fits your group.

What Each of Our Workshops Explores

The workshops listed above cover different depths and purposes. Here is a closer look at the ideas behind them, so you can picture how each might land with your group.

Life Review

Life review approaches, first described by psychiatrist Robert Butler in the 1960s, invite people to reflect on the chapters of their lives: turning points, losses, choices and the values that carried them through. Thrive’s Life Review is an advanced group intervention run over two and a half days. It gives participants time to learn about themselves, integrate experiences both small and large, and reconnect with who they are and what they want from life.

Trauma and Group Counselling I

This introduction explains how trauma affects the nervous system and why people under threat may fight, flee, freeze or shut down. It then turns practical, offering strategies for building and running social support groups and for responding with care when someone is anxious or depressed. It can suit peer supporters, group facilitators, educators and leaders who want a grounded foundation.

Trauma and Group Counselling II

The second level goes deeper into polyvagal theory and affect regulation. Polyvagal theory, developed by Stephen Porges, describes how the nervous system shifts between states of safety and connection, mobilization and shutdown. Parts of the theory are debated in research, yet many clinicians find its language useful. Participants explore group-based healing strategies and how to support more complex participants without losing their own footing.

Microdosing education

This session offers historical context on psychedelics, an overview of current research and a window into how Thrive thinks about safety, self-understanding and integration. Microdosing usually refers to taking very small, sub-perceptual amounts of a psychedelic. Research on its effects is still early and mixed, and some controlled studies suggest expectations may explain part of what people report.

Psilocybin remains a controlled substance in Canada, with legal access limited to authorized clinical trials, exemptions and Health Canada’s Special Access Program. Thrive does not supply, sell or administer any substance. Laws are evolving, so please follow Canadian law and medical guidance. Research updates are available from MAPS, and our psychedelic integration team offers individual support.

Burnout, vitality and purpose

Carson also works with groups to address burnout, restore vitality and connect more deeply with life purpose. These themes weave through many of our workshops, because exhaustion is rarely just about workload. It often reflects values drifting out of alignment with how people are asked to spend their days.

Why Learning as a Group Supports Wellbeing

Much of what helps people cope with stress happens between people, not only inside them. When colleagues or community members learn together, a few things tend to shift:

• Shared language: once a group can name states like overwhelm, shutdown or being on edge, it becomes easier to ask for help without long explanations.
• Co-regulation: calm, attuned people help settle each other’s nervous systems. Practising together builds that capacity across a team.
• Less stigma: hearing peers acknowledge stress or grief makes it feel more ordinary and less shameful.
• Social support: research consistently links strong social connection with better mental health, and a group experience can strengthen those bonds.

None of this replaces fair workloads, good leadership or individual care. It does give people a common foundation to stand on when things get hard.

What group learning is not

It is not group therapy, and nobody is expected to process their deepest history in front of colleagues. It is not an evaluation of anyone’s performance or resilience. It is also not a quick fix. Think of it as a shared starting point: common language, practical tools and a little more trust, which the group can keep building on long after the session ends.

Who Our Workshops Are For

Thrive’s workshops are designed for groups of 6 to 50 people who want to understand stress, trauma and connection in a practical way. Groups that often benefit include:

• Helping professionals and peer supporters who hold space for others and need tools to do it sustainably
• Workplace teams navigating change, high workloads or a difficult stretch together
• Leaders and managers who want to respond well when a colleague is struggling
• High-stress occupations, including roles similar to those supported by our first responders counselling
• Student and community groups looking for grounded, stigma-free mental health learning

Every group is different. A short conversation beforehand helps match the right workshop to your people and goals.

Signs your group could use support

Groups rarely announce that they are struggling. Instead, you may notice patterns such as:

• More irritability, cynicism or conflict than usual
• People withdrawing, going quiet in meetings or taking more sick days
• A sense that everyone is running on empty after a long stretch of change
• Strong reactions following a critical incident, loss or public event
• Talented people leaving, or talking about leaving

The World Health Organization describes burnout as an occupational phenomenon marked by exhaustion, growing mental distance or cynicism about one’s job, and reduced effectiveness. Recognizing these signs early makes it easier to respond with care rather than blame.

Choosing a Format for Your Team Training

Workshops are offered via Zoom or in person, and most can run as a single three-hour session or as three one-hour sessions. Life Review follows its own two and a half day format. When choosing, consider:

• Depth versus flexibility: a three-hour block allows longer experiential exercises, while three shorter sessions give people time to practise between meetings.
• Energy and attention: online sessions can be easier to schedule across locations, but shorter segments often help people stay engaged on screen.
• Privacy: in-person sessions in a quiet room can make it easier to share openly, especially on tender topics.
• Team rhythms: choose a time when people are not pulled away by deadlines, shift changes or urgent calls.

Making online or in-person sessions work

• Online: encourage headphones and a private space, make cameras optional during reflective moments, and build in short screen breaks.
• In person: choose a quiet room where chairs can be moved into a circle, with water, natural light if possible and minimal interruptions.
• Either way: share the agenda ahead of time so people know when breaks happen and what the session will and will not ask of them.

What Participants Can Expect in Our Workshops

People often arrive at workshops unsure how personal things will get. Trauma-informed group work generally emphasizes the following, and you can ask Carson how each shows up in a particular session:

• Choice: sharing is treated as an invitation rather than a requirement, and people can observe quietly if they prefer.
• Pacing: heavier material is balanced with grounding, breaks and lighter moments.
• Experiential learning: short practices help people feel concepts in the body, not only understand them intellectually.
• Group agreements: the group sets shared expectations about confidentiality and respect at the start.
• Practical takeaways: the aim is for people to leave with a few simple tools they can use the same day.

If a workshop will touch on personal history, sharing its structure with participants ahead of time helps everyone decide what feels right for them.

Bringing the Thrive Formula Into Group Settings

The same three-part framework that guides counselling at Thrive shapes how group learning unfolds:

• Regulate: the group first practises settling the nervous system together, stepping out of fight, flight or collapse so learning can actually land.
• Reveal: participants explore how stress and difficult experiences have shaped habits, roles and reactions, individually and as a group.
• Reclaim: insight becomes practical change, such as clearer needs, healthier boundaries and choices that reflect shared values.

This sequence matters. When people feel safer in their bodies first, harder conversations tend to become more honest and less defensive.

Preparing Your Group for Workshops

A little groundwork helps any team training feel purposeful rather than like one more meeting. If you are organizing, consider these steps:

1. Name your goal. Is it shared language about stress, better peer support, recovery after a hard season, or reflection on purpose?
2. Explain the why. Tell participants why the session is happening and that it is not a performance review or a judgement of anyone.
3. Protect the time. Ask people to silence notifications and arrange coverage so they can be fully present.
4. Invite leaders to join as participants. When managers take part alongside their teams, it often signals that wellbeing is genuinely valued.
5. Check accessibility. Ask about hearing, mobility, neurodivergence, language and scheduling needs early.
6. Plan the follow-up. Decide how you will keep the conversation going once the workshop ends.

A Note for Leaders and Organizers

Leaders shape how safe it feels to be honest about stress. A few principles can help a session build trust rather than erode it:

• Keep it voluntary in spirit. Even when attendance is expected, personal disclosure should never be.
• Protect privacy. What people share should not find its way into performance conversations.
• Model openness. A leader who names their own stress in a grounded way gives others permission to do the same.
• Pair learning with change. If staffing, workload or scheduling are driving distress, acknowledge that openly. Skills help people cope, but they cannot fix structural problems on their own.

Keeping the Learning Alive After a Team Training

Insight from a single session can fade quickly without small supports. Many groups find these ideas helpful:

• A brief check-in at the start of regular meetings using a practice from the workshop
• Peer buddies who remind each other to use a grounding tool during busy weeks
• A shared list of resources, including crisis lines and counselling options
• A follow-up session a few months later to revisit what has changed

Simple practices to start this week

• A one-minute pause: begin meetings with three slow breaths and a quick check of how everyone is arriving.
• Naming states: invite people to describe their energy with a simple word or colour, without needing to explain.
• Protected focus time: agree on blocks with no messages so nervous systems can downshift.
• End-of-day closure: a short ritual, like noting one thing finished and one thing for tomorrow, helps people leave work at work.

Workshops can also stir up personal material. Anyone who wants more support can book individual counselling, and organizations interested in ongoing on-site support can learn about Thrive2Go mobile therapy. For workplace psychological health and safety guidance in BC, WorkSafeBC and the Canadian Mental Health Association offer useful resources.

If anyone is in crisis, call or text 988, or call 911 in an emergency.

How Booking Workshops Works

1. Free chat with Carson. Reach out through our contact page or call 604-227-0297 to talk about your group and goals.
2. Choose a workshop and format. Together you decide which workshop fits, whether to meet in person or via Zoom, and whether to run one longer session or several shorter ones.
3. Share context. Let Carson know about your group’s size, roles and any recent events that might shape the session.
4. Deliver and reflect. After the workshop, talk about what landed and what support might help next.

To make the first conversation as useful as possible, it helps to have a rough sense of your group size, the roles people hold, what prompted the request, your preferred format and a few possible dates. There is no need to have everything decided; the chat itself is where many of these details come together.

Workshops FAQ

How large can our group be?

Workshops are designed for teams of 6 to 50 people.

Do participants have to share personal stories?

Trauma-informed group work treats sharing as an invitation. Ask Carson how a specific workshop handles personal material so you can let participants know what to expect.

Can workshops run online?

Yes. Workshops are offered via Zoom or in person, and many teams find online sessions easier to schedule across locations.

Is the microdosing workshop legal?

It is educational. Thrive does not supply, sell or administer any substance. Psilocybin remains controlled in Canada outside authorized access, so participants should follow Canadian law and medical guidance.

What if someone becomes distressed during a session?

Facilitators can slow the pace, offer grounding and help the person connect with support afterward. For emergencies, call 911, and for crisis support, call or text 988.

Is support available after the session?

Yes. Participants can book individual counselling at Thrive, and organizations can ask about ongoing support through Thrive2Go.

Can a workshop replace counselling?

No. Workshops build shared understanding and skills, while counselling offers individual care. Many people find the two complement each other.

Plan Your Team Training With a Free Chat

If your group is carrying more than it should, or simply wants to connect more deeply, a conversation is the best place to start. Contact Thrive or call 604-227-0297 to book a free chat with Carson and explore which workshops fit your team.