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• Executive Director, Trauma & Grief Institute

• Author, Over The Rainbow

• Mental Health Educator

• Organizational Speaker

Hi, I'm Krista.

I help people build greater capacity for healing and resilience through neuroscience, meaning-making, and practical approaches.

 

I’m best known for my trauma and grief informed trainings, books, and bottom-up nervous system tools that people can use during stress, conflict, and change. This includes applied breathwork, Safe & Sound Protocol, and EMDR. My work is grounded, evidence-informed, and designed to strengthen resilience in real-world settings.

I'm the founder and Executive Director of the Trauma & Grief Institute (TGI), a group practice in Ottawa, Ontario. Here, I lead a collaborative team of independent wellness practitioners committed to holistic and evidence-informed care.

 

I'm also the author of Over the Rainbow: The Love, Loss, & Legacy of Your Dog and the developer of EMDR-GRIEF©, a grief-focused protocol that integrates EMDR principles with attachment and mourning frameworks.

 

A Registered Clinical Social Worker and speaker, I'm an EMDR Certified Therapist and EMDRIA-Approved Consultant who facilitates professional trainings, and provides clinical consultation and coaching to therapists and leaders, building their recovery capacity and sustainable practice.

 

I facilitate trauma-informed breathwork for organizations, retreats, and group settings, and I offer speaking and training through both private invitations, and my work with the Crisis and Trauma Resource Institute (CTRI).

Start Here

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Organizational Wellness

Practical facilitation and tools that strengthen healthy workplace culture, reduce burnout risk, and help teams recover well after stress and disruption.

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Books

My books hold space for love, loss, resilience, and meaning — with practices readers can return to in real life.

Meditating in Nature

Breathwork & Retreats

Join a class or invite me to your event to experience a transformational journey.

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Clinical Consultation & Training

I work with therapists, specializing in trauma and grief. I can also offer a path to EMDR certification.

Organizational Wellness

Presentations have included:

• Canadian Clinical Supervisors 2026

• EMDR Canada Conference 2025

• Mother's Matter Conference 2025

I’m available for conference speaking, leadership workshops, and a variety of trainings. Topics and deliverables are based on your context and goals. I also offer a variety of trainings through the Trauma & Grief Institute and CTRI.

What I offer

Workplace wellness often becomes either too fluffy or too complicated. My role is to make it usable, not just soft talk and a completed checkbox for training.

 

​I’m a regulated health professional, author, and founder of the Trauma & Grief Institute. I show you how complex neuroscience can be used in clear, practical steps that supports healthier teams, steadier leadership, and better recovery after stress.

 

“Practical. Respectful. Designed for real workplaces.”

This is a fit if

​“If any of these sound familiar, you’re in the right place.”

You’re seeing signs of burnout risk (absences, turnover, strained morale, compassion fatigue)

Leaders want guidance that’s practical, not performative

Teams need shared language for hard moments (conflict, mistakes, pressure, grief, critical events)

You want a healthier culture where repair, boundaries, and recovery are normal

You’re ready for tools and protocols that don’t disappear after the workshop

You'll Walk Away With

Practical self-regulation tools leaders can teach and model in under two minutes

Team-ready grounding and reset practices that fit into real workdays

Burnout prevention guidance that focuses on capacity and culture (not just “self-care”)

Simple protocols for after a critical incident, conflict repair, workload surges, and return-to-baseline practices.

A tailored playbook your leadership team can keep using long after I leave

Ways to Work Together

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Leadership Workshops
(half-day or full-day)

A practical training for leaders to build recovery capacity, prevent burnout, and strengthen psychologically safer workplace culture.

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Keynotes & Staff Sessions

Engaging, grounded education with take-home tools people will actually use.

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Retreat-style Experienc

A structured reset focused on regulation, recovery, and sustainable workplace practices.

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My Style & Approach

“Accessible techniques, clear language, and real-world application.”

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Ready for practical tools and a clearer burnout prevention plan?

If you want approaches leaders can use in real time — I’d love to hear what your organization needs.

Note: Scheduling and registration may be hosted through the Trauma & Grief Institute when applicable.

Breathwork Classes & Retreats

I'm trained in Elemental Rhythm breathwork and facilitate these journeys with a trauma and grief informed lens to activate release, restoration, and reconnection. Events may also include other approaches using self-tapping and guided meditations.

Online work meeting

Join me for a training, group, or individualized support and guidance on complex trauma and grief cases, integrating EMDR, parts work, and attachment-based approaches. Enhance your clinical confidence and client outcomes. Clinical Consultation hours may be applied towards EMDR Certification.

Trainings include:

• EMDR-GRIEF

• Grief 101 for Clinicians & Supervisors

Clinical Consultation:

• individual

• group

Clinical Consultation & Training

My Books on

Grief & Human Resilience

Over the Rainbow: The Love, Loss, & Legacy of Your Dog

Over the Rainbow isn’t just another self-help book about losing a dog — it’s about remembering what love teaches us about healing, and who we are when the ones we love are gone.

This interactive book explores how connection can continue beyond loss, including through scientifically documented experiences like After Death Communication (ADC), offering a pathway to deeper healing and renewed meaning after goodbye.

Available in audiobook and paperback on Amazon HERE.

Sample of AudiobookOver the Rainbow by Krista Helman
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Over the Rainbow book by Krista Helman
Self-Care Moments Workbook by Krista Helman
EMDR-GRIEF manual by Krista Helman
Self-Care Moments: A Workbook to Navigate Your Grief

This self-help workbook offers gentle, evidence-informed practices to nurture calm, reflection, and resilience for those who are experiencing loss.

Available in paperback or spiral bound.

"EMDR-GRIEF"

A companion manual for clinicians completing Krista's EMDR-GRIEF© training with structured protocols, scripts, case reflections, and guidance for integrating grief work within EMDR practice.

Available in paperback or spiral bound.

The Four Currents:
From our inner spring to everyday life, discover the natural intelligence of becoming whole.

Inspired by the movement of water, The Four Currents reflect the quiet intelligence that lives within each of us — the adaptive capacity to find balance when we create space through Stillness, Flow, Continuity, and Resonance. Each current embodies a natural movement that helps us return to equilibrium after life’s disruptions and sustain a sense of wholeness in everyday living. They each stand alone, yet every one strengthens the others. Stillness steadies us. Flow reshapes us. Continuity unites us to each other and something bigger. Resonance carries us forward with purpose and meaning — and we return to Stillness, clearer and kinder than before.

Stillness
Where stillness returns us to the inner spring of wisdom.

Healing begins when we become aware of the storms that haunt and protect us. Our water calms and the sediment settles. In that quiet clarity, we can finally see to the bottom and notice what has always been there — just hidden beneath the surface.
 
Through grounding, breath, soothing affirmations, and sensory awareness, we reconnect with the body’s quiet intelligence. Here, deep regulation and restorative rest naturally emerge when the body feels safe.
 
Only when the body recognizes that it is now safe to feel safe can it begin to release what it no longer needs, receive what has been missing, and open to relearning more helpful ways of being.

Flow
Where movement becomes integration.

This water carries the current of change. As emotion and memory resurface, we learn to make meaning and reshape old patterns. 

 

Each time we choose awareness, we guide the current instead of being swept away by it. We can slow the current with pacing and anchors; integration prefers gentle movement over force.

 

Like a river adjusting to new bends, we adapt to what life brings — finding our way forward through nourishment, movement, reflection, and compassionate awareness.

 

What was once fragmented begins to move together again.

Continuity
Where healing completes itself through connection.

This water reminds us that wholeness is not found in isolation as a singular drop. It deepens through relationship — with others, with nature, and with something greater than ourselves.

 

Through ritual and shared meaning, we remember that we were never meant to journey through life alone.

 

It’s the Water of belonging, purpose, and shared meaning — like a river joining the ocean, merging into something vast, steady, and whole.

Resonance
Where flow becomes alignment in motion.

In physics and in nature, resonance occurs when waves moving at the same frequency amplify one another — when energy in water, sound, or even the body finds harmony.

 

This water reflects that same truth within us. When clarity of intention meets emotional engagement and purposeful action, the mind and body begin to align — creating the sense of flow where effort feels like ease. What we focus on becomes more visible; what we practice becomes more possible. Through visualization, gratitude, and consistent daily choices, we prime the brain to recognize and move toward what sustains us.

 

Like a pebble cast into calm water, each thought and action creates ripples that reach farther than we can see. Resonance invites us to live as though the state we long for already exists — to think, feel, and act from that inner alignment until the world naturally reflects it back.

When resonance slips into dissonance, realign with one small honest action and a kinder inner voice, so values and behaviour move together again.

Zen Stones in Water

Want to hear more about Krista's work and vision?

Invite Krista to share about Over the Rainbow or The Four Currents with your audience, and stay tuned for her upcoming book exploring how we find our way back to wholeness.

Media

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Podcast with the Designer Practice Podcast on EMDR-GRIEF

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Episode 138: EMDR-GRIEF: A Revolutionary Technique for Managing Grief with Krista Helman
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Tune into a chat about Over the Rainbow:

Unfiltered Conversation
on Bravery and Transformation
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Editorial by Kathy Sparrow

Over the Rainbow Editorial Krista Helman
Healing from Pet Loss

Testimonials

"Krista is a phenomenal presenter. She speaks from a perspective of someone who understands intimately her topics and not just from a theoretical perspective. She makes topics easy to understand and then apply in practice. She is knowledgeable, approachable and an enjoyable presenter to listen to.”"

Julie Marquis, RP

Over the Rainbow
"I loved it!  Even though it was a difficult subject, I found it refreshing and positive."

Josée Ouellette, owner of a Heart Dog

"Krista is engaging and impactful. Even as a seasoned therapist I learned a lot from her well-researched presentation."

Alison Sharp, RSW, LCSW

Over the Rainbow and Self-Care Moments
"Recommending Over the Rainbow is easy. This book will truly help you honour that sweet four-legged friend you’ve lost by leading you from grief to treasuring your memories. Read the book, do the exercises, use the workbook."

Grace Douglas, Heart Dog owner

"Krista's presentations are well-researched and organized. She is clear, personable, and engaging. She integrates theory into practice with plenty of examples, videos, and opportunities for learners to practice the skills discussed. I have learned a lot from Krista and value her knowledge regarding EMDR, parts work, and grief counselling."

Emily Davison, MSW, RSW

Over the Rainbow
"Krista expertly merges the worlds of storytelling of her own and other dog-owners experiences along with the incorporation of therapeutic techniques and theories."

Hannah O'Reilly, RP

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