Our little Wellness Centre was initiated in the middle of the pandemic in response to the emerging mental and physical health crises affecting our first responder population. As a Physiotherapist who has spent more than 30 years in this community, Tanja was dismayed by how limited resources were, and how long it took to access them.

She was working for a Brain Health Research centre and seeing all of the new technologies and treatment approaches that rarely made it to the clients they were designed to help.  Her dear friend, Dawn Elgin, an Integrated Health Practitioner, was seeing the same thing – limited access to innovation, long wait times, and not enough clinicians.  She was herself in recovery from several traumatic car accidents and she had come up against every possible barrier to getting proper care for chronic pain and PTSD.  Her husband lovingly nicknamed her his “broken squirrel” as she gathered her energy and made the courageous decision to start her own centre. 

Despite the pandemic and all it’s challenges, they teamed up and got to work to recruit a team of skilled, kind, dedicated therapists who understand complex care needs, gave them access to advanced technologies, and Broken Squirrel Wellness was born.