Mental health matters.
At Luminate Wellness, we recognize that mental health isn’t just an individual journey—it’s woven into our communities and the systems we live in. Our approach focuses on fostering connections that support both personal and collective well-being, helping create resilient, compassionate environments where everyone can thrive together.
Peer support is one of the cornerstones of our services.
Transform the healthcare, corporate, and education systems by utilizing lived and living experience.
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Polarized views and entrenched beliefs can make meaningful dialogue feel impossible. But what if you had the tools to navigate those tricky topics with ease and empathy?
Tough Conversations Made Easier
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Founder and Lead Trainer of Luminate Wellness
Jenn is an award winning curriculum writer. In 2023 she won the Merlot Awards: Exemplary Classic in the category of Health Sciences for her Post-Secondary Peer Support Training Curriculum textbook.
*MERLOT is an international community of educators, learners, and researchers.
Jenn Cusick
With a deep commitment to peer support, and creating safe trauma-informed workplaces, I founded Luminate Wellness to support organizations foster resilient, compassionate workplaces where everyone can thrive.
About Jenn
organizations jenn has worked with:
Offerings & Services:
Peer Support Training & Consulting
Facilitator Skills Training (skills for delivering any kind of workshop)
Trauma-Informed Leadership
Curriculum development and writing for your specific training
Facilitation Skills Training
Corporate Wellness Workshops
Consulting services for organizations bravely committed to challenging the status quo
Jenn is the curriculum developer and writer for the Provincial Peer Support Worker Training Curriculum on the Peer Connect BC website.
Jenn is the recipient of the 2023 Merlot Classics Award for the BC Campus Post-Secondary Peer Support Training Curriculum.
well-being =
COMPASSION/SELF-COMPASSION
LIVING WITH INTENTIONAL PRESENCE.
A GENERATIVE APPROACH
CULTIVATING COMPASSIONATE CURIOSITY.
TRUE BELONGING
pioneering
Jenn has been working in community mental health for over 25 years.
1999: Jenn began leading one of the first mental health funded peer support programs in the province of BC.
2002: Jenn spearheaded the implementation of a revolutionary mental health recovery program Wellness Recovery Action Plan into the agency she worked for. Now WRAP is offered across Western Canada. Jenn her team of co-facilitators have trained WRAP facilitators across Canada.
2018: Jenn wrote Foundations of Support, a Peer Support training curriculum for Alberta Health Services–Edmonton Zone, and Mental Health Recovery Partners South Island.
2020: Jenn won the contract from the Provincial Government of BC to develop and write the official peer support training curriculum for the province of BC.
2021: The BC Peer Support Training Curriculum is released to the public on July 16th.
2022: The Post-Secondary Peer Support Training text book published
2023: Jenn wins the MERLOT Classic Award for the post-secondary training!
writings
Featured
watch, listen, and read
Articles by Jenn for Other Organizations
InHabit Magazine
Navigating the uncertainty of new beginnings
Ever feel like stepping into the unknown leaves you standing on shaky ground? In my latest Inhabit Magazine article, I dive into why new beginnings often bring discomfort—and how that very unease can spark unexpected growth and resilience. If you're ready to see uncertainty in a new light, this one's for you.
Uncertainty is scary. Beginnings can be really uncomfortable. But stepping into the unknown is essential for growth — it’s where we find possibility, creativity, and healing.
VISION’S Magazine
Well-Being as a Non-Linear Journey
Jenn was the guest editor, and contributed an article for the issue called Blips and Dips.
Snippet of the article:
“The only way out of something is to go through it. Being present, learning how to sit with our difficult feelings when we are in struggle is an essential step. Processing pain means that we have to let ourselves feel it first.
I have also come to understand the importance of community and support. As human beings, we all experience struggle: it’s our birthright. I have noticed that when I talk about my struggles, my shame melts away and I know that I am not alone.”
VISION’s Magazine
Effectively Supporting Others is a Radical Act
“I don’t feel seen, heard or understood.” This is one of the most common types of anguish of our time. We live in an era where technology connects us in ways that would have felt like science fiction 30 years ago. Yet it seems we are more disconnected than ever. Not to mention that our post-pandemic world is still healing from so much isolation. In November 2021 the federal government released a document about loneliness.1 It reported that one in 10 people aged 15 and older say they always or often feel lonely.
In this article I wrote for Visions Magazine, I explore why truly supporting others is a radical act. Going beyond just showing up, I dive into how empathy, deep listening, and intentional care can create transformative impact—not only for those we support but also for ourselves. Discover what it means to offer meaningful support and why it’s more powerful than we might realize.
A Focus on Strengths
(Originally written for the PSR/RPS Canada website)
When we really think about it, the culture we live in is very focused on deficits and problems. From a very early age we become keenly aware of our personal issues, flaws and problems. What is getting in the way of me being the best I can be? Why am I not living to my full potential? How can I fix this vexing problem within me? I need to lose a few pounds, then I’ll feel good about myself.
Self-Determination and Recovery
(Originally written for the PSR/RPS Canada website)
Self-determination should always be integral to the way we serve anyone. It might look different depending on how someone is doing, but it should always be present. It is an essential part of being human.
Agents of HOPE
(Originally written for the PSR/RPS Canada website)
There are so many different paths people can take on their recovery journey, but every single path begins with HOPE.
Hope for many starts out really, really small. I often describe hope as the wee spark that gets us out of bed in the morning. If that spark is tended to, it can grow and grow until it becomes that catalyst that fully changes our lives.
Article for
#makeitREIGN
Article for Make it Reign website on managing diabetes.
I have calluses on my fingers.
I was forced to get over any discomfort I had over needles many, many years ago.
On more than one occasion a syringe has accidentally fallen out of my purse. I always get judgmental looks when it happens. It’s pretty mortifying, as you can imagine.
The Importance of Language in Recovery-Oriented Organizations
(Originally written for the PSR/RPS Canada website)
When we were kids we chanted the rhyme, “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” However as adults we know this is untrue. Words can profoundly hurt and leave scars that can last years. I can imagine that a lot of us might be still nursing scars from hurtful words we have received over our lifetimes. The topic of language is something on the radar for PSR focussed organizations committed to serving with recovery-oriented practices
Webinars and Podcasts
In this session we will dig into the research behind self-compassion.
Jenn Cusick is the founder and lead facilitator at Luminate Wellness. She is passionate about helping organizations create inspiring and heathy work cultures.
In this interview segment with WRAP facilitator and trainer, Jenn Cusick from Luminate Wellness, we discuss the 5 Key Concepts of Mental Health Recovery and Wellness.
In this interview we discuss the mental health recovery program called WRAP, developed by Mary Ellen Copeland, and the 5 Key Recovery Concepts of wellness.
The BC PSR Advanced Practice is pleased to offer a webinar that addresses the concept of self-determination in a caring context. Most of us get into the mental health field because we want to give back, or help. We will spend some time in this webinar looking at the radical/cutting edge shifts that have occurred in the field over the years.
Appreciative Inquiry is the process of team-building through Appreciative Inquiry involves storytelling and exploring the best of what already exists, through team connection, and sharing. Appreciative Inquiry (AI) flips the negative "glass half-full" paradigm on its head.
The BC PSR Advanced Practice is pleased to offer this webinar as the first of two WRAP sessions. Jenn Cusick facilitated an interactive overview of a WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plan) workshop. We had a few group participants in the room as well as online participants.
“Jenns work and teaching style in peer support and wrap facilitation, has not only shaped my career, but influenced how I go about my personal interactions. The wisdom I’ve taken away from every training has helped me examine my bias and unpack discomfort. A true nurturer of compassion and empathy.”
-Natalie Miller
instagram feed
A few months ago I got what I thought was a spam email. It was from MERLOT. MERLOT is an international community of educators, learners, and researchers. They told me that I won the 2023 Classics Award in the category of Health Sciences for the Post-Secondary Peer Support Curriculum manual that I wrote.