With a deep foundation in developing peer support programs across British Columbia, our training is crafted to provide high-quality education grounded in best practices. Developed by the author of BC’s Peer Support Training curriculum, our program ensures that your peer support staff are equipped with skills that align with industry standards and foster meaningful, supportive connections within your organization..

1. The Foundations

This module is an introduction to the training. It covers topics that will be reflected in the rest of the training such as sitting with discomfort, interconnection, empathy, dealing with uncertainty, and hope.

2. Peer Support & Wholeness

This module is an intro to the paradigm shift from clinical work to peer support work. It covers a basic history of peer support, learned helplessness, and some basic elements of the role.

3. Self-Determination

Most meaningful change comes from our own intrinsic (internal) motivation. In this module we look at how we can create an ecology that supports someone’s self-determination, and steer away from advice-giving.

4. Categories & Containers: Unpacking Our Biases

In this module we unpack why we judge and have biases. We look at how we can mindfully work with our explicit and implicit biases.

5. Cultural Humility

Culture is inextricably connected to belonging. This module covers the importance culture plays in our overall wellness, and how we can approach cultures different than our own with a spirit of humility.

6. Understanding Boundaries & What it Means to Co-Create Them

Clarity about what is ok and what is not ok in a relationship keeps us in connection with others. This module explores what co-created boundaries are, and how the mutuality of peer support may make boundaries look different than they might look in clinical work.

7. Connection & Communication

Relationship is at the core of peer support. In this module we unpack the importance of intentional communication, through deep listening, sharing your story, cultivating compassion, and transforming conflict.

8. Healing-Centered Connection: Principles in Trauma-Informed Care

A large percentage of people served by the healthcare system have experienced trauma. This module examines what trauma is, the impact of systemic trauma, how trauma impacts the nervous system, and the principles of trauma-informed care. Creating safe spaces where connection can occur is important.

9. Social Determinants of Health

This module looks at how inequitable, and unjust societal issues greatly impact a person’s access to healthcare and in turn their overall well-being. This is important because peer support is counterculture by nature, and activism and supporting societal change is a big part of our work.

10. Supporting Someone Who Is Grieving

Many people feel unsure how to support someone who is grieving. This module covers the importance of acknowledgement, bearing witness to someone else’s pain, and how it is essential that we avoid platitudes, and stop attempting to fix that which can’t be “fixed.”

11. Substance Use & Peer Support

There are many layers of complexity around substance use. This module digs into those complexities through exploring harm reduction, and the history of prohibition, the war on drugs, the criminalization of those who use drugs, and the dehumanization that people who use substances are faced with.

12. Mental Health & Supporting Those in Crisis

Setbacks come with the journey of recovery. This module explores some basics about mental health and supporting someone through crisis.

13. Goal-Planning

Often peer support includes working towards goals. This module introduces a paradigm shift where we support someone to dream and create a vision before we move into setting outcomes-focused goals.

14. Building Personal Resilience

When we are supporting others, we can sometimes put our well-being on the backburner. This module shares practices that support our own well-being, so we can prevent burnout–ex. creating wellness plans, self-compassion, mindfulness, and protecting ourselves from re-traumatization.