““To Be Still: Peer Support in the Moments People Almost Tell the Truth”- May 2026 CPS/CPPS Community of Practice
May 2026 CPS/CPPS Community of Practice
“To Be Still: Peer Support in the Moments People Almost Tell the Truth” with Dominique Christian
Thursday, May 21st, 2026 from 1:30 – 3:00 pm CT
Facilitator:
- Dominique Christian
Dominique Q. Christian is a wellness advocate, peer support leader, trainer, and writer committed to reshaping how care is experienced within historically marginalized communities. With more than a decade of experience across mental health, substance use recovery, housing instability, and systems navigation, Dominique brings both lived experience and professional insight into every space.
As the founder of Sondercove Wellness, Dominique has built a practice rooted in cultural humility, autonomy, and the belief that people deserve to be seen beyond diagnoses, systems involvement, or survival strategies. Her work centers on creating spaces where individuals and families feel heard, respected, and supported in defining recovery, healing, and wellness on her own terms.
Dominique is recognized for facilitating impactful trainings on peer support, racial equity, trauma-informed engagement, and culturally responsive care for providers and organizations across Wisconsin and beyond. Her approach challenges deficit-based thinking while encouraging deeper reflection around power, language, resilience, and the realities many communities navigate daily.
Dominique’s work is deeply influenced by collective care traditions, community wisdom, and the legacy of Black advocacy and healing practices. Through writing, training, and direct engagement, she continues to push conversations forward around what meaningful, human-centered support can truly look like.
Whether speaking to providers, supporting families, or developing future peer support leaders, Dominique remains grounded in one core belief: people are the experts of their own lives, and care should honor that.
Description:
What happens in the moments people minimize themselves?
As peer specialists, we hear these phrases every day. Often, the most important part of the conversation is the part someone almost didn’t say.
To Be Still is a 1.5-hour interactive Community of Practice training designed for peer specialists who want to deepen the way they listen, connect, and respond in moments where pain, overwhelm, shame, and emotional exhaustion are sitting just beneath the surface.
This training moves away from clinical language and focuses instead on the real-life ways people communicate when they are struggling to externalize what they are carrying internally. Through guided reflection, collective discussion, intentional pauses, and honest conversation, participants will explore how peer support can create space for people to feel witnessed without pressure, fixing, or forced vulnerability.
Topics explored include:
- “I’m fine… but anyway”
- Silence and emotional shutdown
- “I don’t want to be a burden”
- “It is what it is”
- Emotional exhaustion and “I’m just tired”
- Suicidality, isolation, and internalization
This training invites participants to slow down long enough to notice what is often rushed past—in ourselves and in the people we support.
Designed for Wisconsin Peer Specialists and rooted in peer support values, mutuality, autonomy, and lived experience.
Feedback Survey/CEH Information:
We invite you to please fill out the evaluation survey link (click here) if you attended this community of practice gathering or if you watch the recording. The survey will close at 4:30pm on Thursday, June 4th. Certificates of Participation will be sent to those completing the evaluation form by 4:30pm on June 11th, 2026. No evaluation surveys will be accepted for CEH credit after the evaluation survey’s closing date/time.
This website is managed and maintained by staff at Access to Independence working on the Wisconsin Peer Specialist Employment Initiative. The words, views, and values presented herein are not necessarily representative of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
