Calgary firefighter creates charity dedicated to improving men’s mental health

A veteran firefighter who turned to holistic therapies to heal his physical and mental health founded A Warrior's Peace to help others.

A Calgary firefighter has started a non-profit initiative aimed at helping first responders deal with the trauma they experience on the job through holistic healing.

A Warrior’s Peace founder Chris Canales says while the charity is starting with Calgarians, the goal is for it to someday expand nationwide.

“I really believe that first responders all over the nation can benefit from this type of healing,” Canales said. “I know that all of us, we go through the same things, we go to the same calls and a lot of us take things home with us –so I think this is a really beneficial piece for all first responders to have in their toolbox.”

• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

Canales says he spent close to five years trying to deal with his stress through talk therapy, but it wasn’t until he turned to a holistic approach that he started to see results.

“Trauma-informed yoga breathwork, reiki and somatic healing; a combination of these modalities has really allowed me to just tap into each part of my body and be able to understand and recognize what’s going on,” he said. “But then, through the breathwork, I’ve been able to release that from myself.”

Canales has been a firefighter for 17 years, and says the accumulated stress had a significant impact on him.

“When we go to these calls, we witness people’s worst days of their lives. There are times when families are torn apart in an instant, and while we are working to save a life, there’s so much secondary trauma that we experience during these calls,” he said.

“I wasn’t doing well. My body was hurting a lot, I was losing my hair – it was going gray – and I started to really understand what stress would do to the body.”

Canales says many first responders have a calling to help others – but it comes at a cost.

“When we sign up for this job, it really comes with that empathetic heart and the desire to serve others,” he said. “Over the years, as those calls accumulate, there tends to be this shadow and darkness that comes over top of us, and that empathy piece – it isn’t able to just shine.”

Canales teamed up with Megan Oviatt, a registered psychologist whose focus is on mental and physical health treatment through a holistic approach.

“That’s one of the beautiful things about the work that Chris is doing,” she said. “He acknowledges the complexity of trauma and the impact that first responders face doing their jobs. He creates a unique program for each person – so he really has surrounded himself with other people who have a similar mindset on holistic wellness.”

Oviatt says she’s seeing positive results with the first responders she’s working with through A Warrior’s Peace.

“The clients that I work with who have this type of holistic healing approach see improvements more quickly, and they’re more long lasting,” she said. “We want to create a team and community so that the work that we do isn’t just a band-aid fix – it’s a systemic solution so the person’s nervous system is healed.”

The organization is holding a fundraiser in collaboration with the Nurturing Hearts Foundation.

“The proceeds from this 50/50 will go towards programs, workshops and retreats for first responders free of charge,” Canales said. “I believe that taking out the monetary piece of this is a really important part because I think that everybody deserves to have this feeling of just letting go.”

The draw takes place Nov. 2.