Tucked into the old Tumbler Ridge News offices—between the Pharmacy and the Real Estate offices—is the Tumbler Ridge Healing Space.
The Healing Space is a pop-up space where local masseuse Yvonne Poulin and acupuncturist Irina Cividino, a traveling traditional medicine practitioner who historically has come to town twice a year.
Cividino says they’re offering “trauma informed care to support people who are integrating and processing what they’ve gone through, so that their nervous systems can regulate and they can feel more like themselves.”
When she heard about what happened in Tumbler Ridge, Cividino says she called Poulin. “I called her the day after it happened. But when I thought of going back to my own clinical practice, I couldn’t justify treating only three or four clients a day in a day, when I knew if I had a larger space, I could treat many more people and have an immediate effect on people who were traumatized. I called Yvonne and told her ‘I think I have to come and set up a pop-up community acupuncture clinic to support the local population, so that way this trauma doesn’t mess them up for the rest of their life.”
Poulin began looking for space, which incredibly came together in the course of an hour.
More than that, NorthStar Kitchen and Catering also agreed to feed the volunteers and staff so they wouldn’t have to worry about meals.
“It just came together,” says Cividino. “At first, my intention was to be here for maybe a week. If we could keep this running for a week, that would be a great accomplishment. Free massages and acupuncture. But that very same day, a friend who started a non-profit community acupuncture charity in southern BC was like, ‘no, no, no. You got to think bigger than that.’” And so she thought: what if we can keep this going for a month? What if we can keep it going for longer?”
Two days after the shooting, they had the keys to the space (donated by Anthony and Karen Boos of Century 21 Realty).
That took care of the space. “When you’re volunteering, you don’t want to pay a ton of rent out of pocket, because there’s other expenses to cover. So it was just incredible how that came together.”
But the space? It was completely empty and hadn’t been cleaned in years. She waives around at a series of reclining camping chairs, displays, and massage tables. “The people of Tumbler Ridge donated these chairs, blankets, and some of the other supplies and artwork. We have some First Nations memorabilia, some of that is mine, but we had an elder come and smudge the space, too.”
Cividino says she has been coming to town twice a year for the last few years. “You might ask, why didn’t I stop coming if I come so infrequently? And it’s because of the people. So when this happened, I was deeply concerned about not only my patients, praying that their kids and family were safe, but also deeply concerned about the long term impact this could have on their mental health.”
And so Cividino—who has trained with Acupuncturists Without Borders—was already set up to come to town. “I had ordered all the supplies a couple years ago, and I had all my mobile supplies from the travelling work I do. So my first thought was: I could just go to Tumble Ridge and offer free sessions. But if I had the space, I could help four to six times as many people. And that’s what the community needs. So, I knew that if I didn’t try to initiate this, it might not happen.”
By the end of February, the two had given out over 160 free treatments to the community. They’ve also lined up a few other volunteers to help them.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
