About Us
Who We Are
Cedar Centre has a long history of helping children, youth, and adults recover from the impact that interpersonal childhood trauma has had on their lives. The Centre has been serving the community of York Region since 1987. Just as cedar trees are known for providing birds and woodland animals with shelter from the elements, and a safe place to build their nests, Cedar Centre provides people with a welcoming and safe environment, free of charge, to begin to recover from their trauma.
We approach everything we do at the Centre from a trauma-informed position, including the language we use to describe the work provided. For example, individuals who come to Cedar Centre are participants, not clients. ‘Participant’ implies that people seeking service actively join with the therapists to help shape the work that they do. We honour lived experience as a source of knowledge that helps guide therapeutic work. Program participants at the Centre can expect to have their voices valued and heard.
Mission
We provide a unique and holistic approach to therapy, education and advocacy for those who have experienced trauma. We work from anti-racist and anti-oppressive frameworks, serving people ages 3 years old and older. We are committed to improving their lives through a trauma-specific therapy plan that is designed to meet each person’s unique needs, strengths and challenges. We fulfill our mission through:
Clinical Excellence
By using evidence-based practices to ensure our clients receive the best trauma-therapy available
Our People
By investing in our staff through training and offering a flexible work environment
Education
By furthering our evidence-based research to help inform, train, and support community leaders, educators, clinicians, and other professionals
Leadership
By developing collaborations and partnerships within the community in order to provide clients with fully-integrated, trauma-specific care
Values
As a provider of trauma-specific programs and services, Cedar Centre staff, students, volunteers and Board members use a trauma-informed lens consisting of six values to guide their work.
Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that all people(s) may experience traumatic events during their lifetime. Trauma is a subjective experience that may result in responses that range from being adaptive and life saving to intrusive or painful. The impact of trauma not only affects the individual but can impact their loved ones, and community at large.
Safety
We believe that safety for people is multi-dimensional; it includes one’s physical environment, psychological self, physical self and culture. Safety is created by the quality and context of every human interaction and stresses the importance of relationship building.
Trustworthiness
We understand that a person’s trust is earned and that it requires patience, respect and clear interpersonal boundaries to grow. We will strive to set predictable expectations in our work and we will adhere to our scope of practice and competencies.
Choice and Control
We understand that many traumatic experiences are characterized by the absence of choice and control. We value the crucial role of self-efficacy and recognize the connection between choice, control and safety.
Relationship and Collaboration
We recognize the role and importance of relationships in our work and will strive to reduce power imbalances and to promote transparency whenever and wherever possible.
Strengths Based and Empowerment
We believe that every person has their own unique strengths and capacity for growth. We will encourage empowerment, self-efficacy and endeavor to foster a climate of hope, optimism and resilience through our work.
