Holistic Emotional First Aid
HEFA
Doing good in the world is deeply meaningful—and deeply demanding.
Whether you're leading change or providing frontline support, purpose driven work is often urgent, complex, and emotionally heavy—especially during times of ongoing and overlapping crises. You show up because you care. But over time, the chronic exposure to stress and suffering can take a toll, reshaping how your body, mind, and spirit show up to both work and life.
From education to corporations, we all want to do it differently – with dignity, sustainability, and humanity. Where is the place to learn about social and emotional learning for an organization? To have open, fruitful conversations about mental health, overwhelm, and workforce exhaustion? To go beyond coping and just getting by for the sake of productivity to actual generativity and thriving?
Community First Aid offers proven, effective practices that help you create a culture of care in your organization. It teaches your team practical somatic approaches to transform stress and overwhelm with Holistic Emotional First Aid (HEFA) and resource navigation, paired with ongoing support so you can nurture resilience, clarity, and creativity in your staff or organization. The benefit of this work is exponential—it impacts your team, culture, and the communities you serve.
WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW
Cultures of Care: Where Individuals & Organizations Thrive
People need more than resources – they also need to know how to be resourced.
WHO WE WORK WITH
Change Makers, First Responders, Community & Wellness Practitioners, Service Oriented Staff.
In short: YOU.
What if your team could grow the skills to stay connected, energized, and aligned with their purpose—even in high-demand environments? Community First Aid & Holistic Emotional First Aid are about building practical, moment-to-moment tools that support resilience, restore motivation, and deepen long-term sustainability. These small, doable practices empower teams to stay in the work—not just longer, but stronger—for the greatest impact.
Simple, Evidence-based Practices
for stress mitigation to expand capacity
Build Skills That Sustain You
Research shows that when we understand the impacts of trauma and body-based responses to chronic stress, we are empowered to effectively tend to ourselves while also tending the larger systems. Some of the powerful benefits of these somatic easy-to-use tools include…
Mitigated stress on the cardiovascular system
Reduced depression & anxiety
Improved emotional regulation, attention, focus & sleep patterns
Lowered burnout & emotional burden
More clarity & better decision-making amidst chaos
Greater resilience & capacity to serve
HOW Community First Aid WORKS
Essential Skills For Adaptive Learning & Leading
We offer many custom trainings and topic-specific sessions as requested. Reach out below. We always suggest a two-pronged approach: bottom up and top down. Leadership introductory workshops are paired with HEFA staff circles to build a psychologically safe foundation for building your culture of care.
Our organizational introductory workshops are designed as a two-part training; each session is experiential and interactive. Your team will learn, practice, and assess the impacts of our evidence-based tools using in-the-moment regulation to experience here and now relief and foster healthy systems for self-care and resilience.
We will build on this foundation to teach you how to create a shared language between staff that enriches communication, deepens collaboration, and provides stronger outcomes for your community.
SESSION 1
Emotional First Aid – Skillful, Emergent Response
Learn: Trauma, recovery, zones of resilience & harnessing a full cycle response
Focus: Building core strength & supporting the system
Apply & Practice: Nervous system regulation tools, breath practices & energy strategies
SESSION 2
Aftercare – Tending Cycles As A Team
Review: Completing stress cycles & essential skills for growth
Focus: Adapting tools and practices for access & building cultures of trauma-informed care
Apply & Practice: Mindfulness, orienting & somatic tools. EFA at work in the day to day.
Nourish your natural ability to heal, respond,
regenerate & innovate
The Training Team
We’re a team of experienced, down-to-earth professionals dedicated to supporting those who care for their communities. Our trainers bring real-world expertise in trauma-informed care, clinical psychology, peer support, maternal health, nonprofit leadership, community organizing, international crisis response, emergent strategy, nature-based healing, and holistic approaches to wellness. We understand the challenges of frontline and leadership roles, and we equip individuals and organizations with practical, effective tools to build resilience, strengthen connection, and support long-term community wellness.
MEET YOUR TRAINERS
Trauma-Informed Leaders in Social Impact
Founder: Christi Garner, LMFT, DBH-C, CYT, CCPT, has worked on the frontlines with trauma and recovery for over two decades as a therapist, international educator & trainer, and somatic practitioner. Facilitating resilience training for first responders, military service members, and health care professionals, she brings together neuroscience, trauma-informed leadership, and mindfulness to focus on post-traumatic growth. As a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Certified Clinical Trauma Professional, Certified Yoga Teacher, and somatic therapist, Christi is the co-founder of Holistic Emotional First Aid and a soul-led servant leader for the work.
In Memoriam: Shannon Thompson, Founder
Shannon Thompson touched this work deeply and became our soul ancestor after her passing in March 2024. A pioneer in soul-led living, feminine leadership, and authentic transformation, Shannon shaped HEFA with her bold vision, deep wisdom, and unmatched teaching magic. Her influence lives on in every HEFA trainer she mentored, and her legacy continues to ripple across the world.
Her laugh and genuine desire to lift others are missed in our HEFA circles, but if you listen closely, you will hear it echo through some days when the silence sits just long enough to touch the truth.
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Ruthi Solari
Ruthi Solari holds a Master's in Mind Body Medicine and has 20+ years helping leaders and communities transform through holistic practices. She teaches practical techniques that connect mind and body, helping groups work better together and develop supportive systems of care. Ruthi guides organizations across nonprofit, private, and public sectors to create meaningful change by effectively engaging their resources and people. She works internationally with organizations committed to social and environmental improvement.
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Eden Trenor
Eden Trenor brings 20 years of nonprofit leadership and over a dozen years of facilitation experience in high-stakes settings such as prison, the outdoors, and international peace-building. Her background in nature-based education and body-centered healing includes systems thinking, learning design and community organizing as well as extensive training in energy medicine, Mindful Self-Compassion, regenerative systems design, and radical education models.
Contact us
Contact us
There is great strength, power, and resilience to be found by working our own emotional landscape and wellness.
PRICING
We have a deep commitment to supporting the rooted strength, positive growth, and skillful trauma response of providers, practitioners, and educators working to uplift their communities. Reach out to find out how we can partner.
Kind Words
Take Aways from our Participants
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Today provided valuable space to reflect, learn, and listen to both myself and others. Thank you for creating a safe, welcoming setting to share. I know that this work is both subtle and powerful and I appreciate your care in delivering it smoothly.
HEFA Participant, Yellowstone National Park
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Am deeply grateful for the tools given to us and to experience practicing the tools with a group/community. At the end, the energy in the room was amazing. I will be able to share these techniques to my congregations during Sunday services. Goes right along with sermon series - "do unto others" that I have been doing.
HEFA Participant, Montana
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I think it was a fantastic workshop that not only educates others about mental health and wellbeing but also showed how many other people just want to educate themselves so they may help those around them.
HEFA Participant, Big Sky
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The exercise parts of this training have been very effective and I have been regularly implementing them in both my workday and personal life.
HEFA Participant, California
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This training was really helpful and I have been making it a habit to use these strategies when I feel stress, I use them with my students daily as well.
HEFA Participant, Teacher, California
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The practical and useful tools I have already put in practice. I am very thankful you provided us videos we can watch again as needed! It helps to have them and the resources to return to as needed.
HEFA Participant, Oregon