Laura is a settler of European descent who is uncomfortable but grateful to live as an uninvited guest on Vancouver Island on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Cowichan Tribes, to whom she offers respect and honour. Laura’s medical background is in respirology and critical care, but her clinical focus now is sleep medicine which she practices in the context of lifestyle medicine. At a time in her life when she needed it most, Laura had the opportunity to participate in RTT-KAT cohort 3, which led to discovering new ways of being and living. She experienced the profound change that comes with true self compassion, and she witnessed this in her co-participants. She has learned to trust her heart and follow what it tells her, and this has led to the privilege and honour of becoming a member of the Roots to Thrive team.
The in-person gatherings of the Roots to Thrive program take place of the ancestral and unceded territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation at the Snuneymuxw Community Wellness Center, and also on the homelands of the Coast Salish, Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw and Nuučaan̓ułʔatḥ (Nuu-chah-nulth) Peoples.
Integral to Roots to Thrive’s approach to healing, re-connection and remembering who we are, are these Guiding Principles. By embodying these principles we intend to honour and give thanks to the Snuneymuxw and all First Nations, the teachings they carry and lands they steward, and to join in working for Truth and Reconciliation.