Ep# 128. Michelle McKeaveney, River Valley Resilience Retreat

www.rivervalleyresilienceretreat.com

Near Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada

Michelle is a mental health therapist with a social work degree. Her career span in counselling has seen her work with urban and on reserve First Nations communities and also as a Correctional Officer at a women’s prison based in Prince Albert Saskatchewan. As a wife of a Veteran who recently retired after 26 plus years also a Federal Correctional Officer, and a mom of three grown children, Michelle is going to share about her journey through personal diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress, OSI-it’s impact on her health, her family and the lens she now views life. No doubt you’ll appreciate Michelle’s candid and engaging sense of humor, passion towards peer support, embracing change and the necessity to develop and incorporate a personnel tailored resiliency plan to with stand the demands of life. As a spouse of a veteran, Michelle will also share how hope, advocacy and facing adversity head on with courage and flexibility has not only saved herself, marriage and husband but also others within her interactions and time with a peer support program known as W.I.N (what’s important now)and critical incident stress management debriefings. ◦ She along with her friend Jeff Reeder (a city Firefighter) they started a non profit in 2019 River Valley Resilience Retreat inc ◦ Got donated land near the north sask river. ◦ Have a solid board of directors of Veterans/First Responders etc ◦ Operated 3 very successful day camps since June utilizing a combination of Equine Assisted Learning & Trauma Sensitive Yoga, Guided Nature hike with a Métis woman who has worked very hard on her own post traumatic growth process. ◦ Nature and Healing plus peer support are key components of the success of the Rvrr. So far.