Meet Our Team
Yvette Perreault
When grief shows up in our lives and in our workplaces - whether we are ready for it or not – it is disruptive, painful and stressful. I know what it’s like to manage teams and organizations when it feels like the ground is constantly shifting from the unpredictability of loss. I and my team have decades of collective experience helping leaders, managers, workers and volunteers deal with losses of all kinds.
My work and activist history is cross-sectoral (violence against women, HIV/AIDS, harm reduction) and is centred on building resilient workers, communities and organizations. I am trained in psychiatric nursing, Traumatolgy, Thanatology and process facilitation and I work with organizations, groups and individuals.
When workplace grief is unattended, worker wellness suffers, client service is impacted and organizational capacity can be diminished. My team and I are here to partner with you to manage what may sometimes feel unmanageable. We’re here for you.
Chris Leonard (she/her)
Chris is a process facilitator committed to supporting well-being and transformative change in communities. Over the past 30 years, she has held space with workers in the HIV/AIDS, Harm Reduction, CHC sectors, and communities impacted by gender-based violence, traumatic loss and experience of incarceration. Her training and facilitation build capacity in areas of Grief and Loss, Vicarious Trauma, Impact Debriefing, Restorative Practices and Wellness.
Chris brings mindful awareness and compassionate presence from her training as a Zen shiatsu therapist to her work that supports creating space for individual and collective care, mutual learning and transformative change.
Cathy Walker
Cathy is a Mohawk mother of 3 autistic boys, an essential front-line CHW and co-creator of a grassroots street patrol which includes Allan Gardens Food & Clothing Share. Founder of Giwaabamin Street Patrol where she contributes her skills as a trained street medic, Cathy also brings her dispensary to multiple street-involved organizations. She has been studying herbalism for over 30 years and is currently working on certification as a clinical herbalist.
Cathy believes that the priority for the street-involved community is access to healthcare – and the choice and autonomy in how they interact with the health system. She brings vital, mindful and person-focused attention and skills to the trauma, stress, mental health struggles, addictions and physical wounds of the street-involved folks she serves. Cathy brings traditional medicines and her bundle to the streets and includes ceremonies with drums and songs as part of her patrol. The deep listening, connection and presence she offers creates a safe space for people to feel a sense of belonging and access healing.
Betty Ann Rutledge
Betty Ann is a passionate, relationship-driven manager of volunteers with over 25 years in community-based healthcare, death, dying and bereavement. Her work at the AIDS Committee of Toronto, Bereaved Families of Ontario-Toronto, and several community hospice programs have included designing and delivering education and training programs based on the peer/mutual support model and centred in principles of equity and inclusion.
Betty Ann has journeyed with many people through illness, end of life and grief including both parents and many friends. She is committed to creating safe, inclusive spaces for sharing stories of loss, healing, resilience and meaning-making. Betty Ann seeks to cultivate present moment awareness and believes that seeking beauty is an act of resistance against despair. She loves wandering the beach in search of heart-shaped rocks and taking countless photos of the trees, flowers and lake that ground her.
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Let us guide you through this complex time.
Good Grief Care consultants know how to navigate grief in the workplace. Let’s connect to get started.