Ethics of Care: April 17th, 2025

04.17.2025 from 1pm to 3pm

SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation

1400 Blvd. De Maisonneuve Ouest LB 145, Montreal, QC, H3G 1M8

Panel Discussion

The Community Centred Knowledges research project will host a panel discussion to explore the ethics behind providing wellness services in communities where one's identity anchors one to that community.

This panel will explore wellness, with particular attention given to practitioners, with guest speakers Dr. Lisa Ndejuru, Kathleen Charles, and Gabriela Gomez. By sharing their experiences and engaging in question-and-answer sessions with the audience, the panelists will discuss the hidden costs of providing community care and provide solutions for taking care of yourself as you take care of others.

Guest Speakers

Dr. Lisa Ndejuru

• Lisa Ndejuru (she/her) is a psychotherapist, researcher, and community-based practitioner working at the intersection of trauma, storytelling, and collective healing. With roots in Rwanda and a base in Tio’tia:ke (Montreal), she draws from theatre, oral tradition, and Afropositive practices to support Black communities in navigating intergenerational trauma and imagining liberatory futures. She is the founder of Omora Healing, Clinical Director at the Black Healing Center, and an affiliate assistant professor at Concordia University.

Kathleen Charles

• Kathleen (Kat) Charles (she/they) is a queer, Haitian, mental health counsellor, creative arts therapist, community organizer, and artist based in Tio'tia:ke (Montreal). Kat is trained as a creative arts therapist and somatic practitioner with a focus on fostering safer spaces for QTBIPOC youth as a counsellor and community organiser. Their growing ideology as a therapist is heavily rooted in a commitment to the re-indigenization of healing spaces for marginalised communities through embodiment and sacred creativity to promote collective liberation.

Gabriela Gomez

• ​​Gabriela Gomez is a healing practitioner, researcher and facilitator who holds a Master’s in Educational Psychology and is a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. Her training has unfolded largely in community settings that center youth, emerging adults, LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC communities. She runs her own practice as a somatic counselor and consultant, providing individual counseling as well as research and facilitation services to a variety of community and educational institutions. She has particular expertise in the immigrant experience, harm reduction, intergenerational and developmental trauma, burnout, gender identity development and diverse sexuality. She is consistently amazed and inspired by the wisdom and intelligence of the body and nervous system, and deeply honored to guide clients and communities in accessing their innate capacities to heal, regenerate and thrive. Find her at Gabrielagomez.ca.