Leading to Heal was founded in 2025 by Dr. Cynthia Garner to fill the gap in secular, evidence-based training pathways for educators, helping professionals, and leaders who are seeking to support their communities through trauma-sensitivity, wellness offerings, and mindfulness.
In trauma-impacted systems, collective healing depends upon those in leadership embodying presence, belonging, and care. At Leading to Heal, our approach weaves together the work of trauma-sensitive mindfulness, somatic psychotherapy, nonviolent communication, school mindfulness curricula, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, and mindfulness-based stress reduction. We offer virtual and in-person trainings as well as custom offerings to suit the unique needs of your trauma-impacted community.
Our Mission: To empower leaders to prioritize wellbeing as a foundation for whole-systems healing, and to increase access to mindfulness-based supports and trauma-sensitive education across the lifespan.
I’m Dr. Cynthia Garner, and it is my passion to empower leaders, change-makers, and creative thinkers with mental fitness trainings and therapeutic support so they can disrupt oppressive systems and interrupt cycles of abuse. As a therapist, teacher, coach, single-mother, and survivor of complex relational trauma, I am unwilling to be silent about the urgent need for widespread mental fitness training across the lifespan.
In my work with school and organizational leadership, I’ve learned that systemic wellbeing and a culture of belonging depend upon those at the top prioritizing their own mental health. When leaders regulate and welcome themselves, the impact ripples many times outward into their circle of care. We cannot heal a broken world without first healing our relationship to ourselves. Indeed, to make a real difference, we must start within ourselves.
Give yourself and your community the gifts of focused attention, embodied awareness, and strong boundaries that protect, nourish, and inspire. Join the movement today, right now, by committing to your own mental fitness and to systemic wellbeing.