We were lucky to catch up with Keda Edwards Pierre recently and have shared our conversation below.

Keda, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.

Yes, True2Soul serves womxn survivors of sexual trauma – focusing on people who identify as Black, Indigenous and People of Colour. Though we talk about racial oppression and gender-based violence, we rarely talk about the fallout when these two worlds collide – where BPOC and Indigenous womxn disproportionately experience sexual trauma.

I understand this intimately as a survivor of complex traumas that began for me in toddlerhood. My lived experiences drove me to a career where I could protect and save others from the traumas I experienced: policing.

Living through the unrelenting traumas of policing, community activism, and simply living in an inequitable world as a Black womxn numbed me, and I didn’t even realize it. Yet, by all rights, I succeeded in my job, relationships and social standing.

I showed the world a skillful Black female professional with a bright smile. In contrast, I felt unseen, blocked, detached and unable to be truly happy. My unresolved traumas inevitably affected my health, relationships, and professional success. My pivotal moment was when I became a mother. I knew I had two choices: heal or pass the legacy of trauma onto my child. I chose to heal, and so began my conscious and transformative journey. It’s not been easy.

I had to deal with more than just the sometimes painful healing process. I was also re-traumatized by inadequate or ill-suited services. I was “othered”, unseen and even victimized by systems tainted with racism and misogyny. I was hindered from finding the resources I needed by obstacles and huge stigmas on discussing sexual trauma. As a police officer and public figure, I couldn’t find safe, inclusive and confidential spaces to be vulnerable and find healing support. True2Soul was born within this need gap.

Over the next two decades, I built communities of survivors and passionate cross-sectoral service providers. I collaborated with professionals who focused on mental health, trauma healing and health disparities at the intersections of race, gender and socioeconomic status. I refined my skills in trauma recovery and developed a multi-program curriculum for BPOC and Indigenous womxn that is culturally reflective, unlocks transformative healing, and helps to remove barriers that obstruct health, career and relationships. The MOJA Healing Program (Program) was born.

The Program is comprised of 4 modules – the first of which is CHRYSALIS: a virtual, anonymized and culturally-reflective healing curriculum. We bring survivors and global providers together in a safe, inclusive and trauma-informed eco-system, where participants find suitable one-on-one therapy within a discreet, non-judgmental community and an international suite of service providers find precisely the clientele they seek to help.

MOJA Healing is in beta-testing and officially launches in 2023/24.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

As a survivor of complex traumas that began in childhood and continued into adulthood, I sought many ways to cope and survive. I found escape through arts – visual and performing. As an adult, that creative passion’s led me into theatre, film and TV. I discovered a sense of empowerment in community activism and advocacy. As a result, I’ve dedicated over 35 years of my life thus far to activism – from shelters to board rooms. I also developed a keen interest in the justice system – seeing it as a way to help others who were most vulnerable. I joined policing in the 1990s – when only 6% of the police were women.

I was one of very few Black women who were police officers at the time. There were approximately 150 recruits in my police cadet class, and I was one of about 20 women. Fast forward to current day, these numbers have not changed much. Policing in Canada is still very much white male-dominated.

Throughout my career in policing, I encountered many things that troubled me – both on and off the job. I knew intimately and witnessed how trauma impacts human potential and can destroy lives. I saw institutional flaws and systemic challenges that harmed rather than helped. Bad cops remained protected and flew under the radar, and good cops got gutted, chewed up and spat out. While on the job, various misogynistic and racist officers in the ranks, management and command kept me in hyper-vigilance mode for much of my career – so I was in constant fight or flight positioning. Sometimes I won the battles I fought, and sometimes lost miserably.

I witnessed, time and time again, vulnerable people – particularly BPOC and Indigenous womxn – being underserved and disregarded by rules and procedures created without them in mind – in justice, health, education, and other fundamental systems.

My community work and personal healing journey allowed me to see my experience in policing – good, bad and even the ugly – as part of my path to figuring out what I wanted to do – which is to create safe space for underserved communities who fall through the cracks of our broken systems. I dove deep into trauma healing, becoming a trauma specialist as I clarified my purpose. True2Soul Network was born, a safe, inclusive and empowering space created to help revolutionize survivorship and eradicate gender-based violence. By 2020, I’d left policing to focus my energy on True2Soul’s vision of a safe society for all who identify as womxn and girls to be safe, empowered and true to who they are.

Our platform, amid beta tests, is set to launch in 2023/24. True2Soul connects trauma survivors with culturally-reflective, trauma-informed content, supportive services, and holistic products. The already global virtual community is diversified, inclusive and non-judgemental – prioritizing mental wellness and authentic engagement. Our experienced and cross-sectoral program delivery network of professionals are socially-conscious, diverse and well-known in their respective industries.

Distrust of harmful systems, re-traumatization by inequitable supports and fear of consequences for disclosing trauma are a few reasons survivors don’t pursue healing. The enormous economic cost of health care, lost productivity, and reduced quality of life take their toll on survivors and society – to the tune of billions of dollars. Help is needed.

True2Soul’s MOJA Healing program is the first of its kind in the world. The starting module, CHRYSALIS, is 100% virtual, anonymized, culturally reflective and delivered by a vetted and curated suite of trauma-informed program delivery professionals.

We provide opportunities for meaningful connection and support within a non-judgemental community, one-on-one therapy that’s culturally reflective, advocacy and knowledge hub, a marketplace of vetted services and products that support healing and wellness and inclusive content about personal and professional development.

I’m most proud of the visceral response I’ve felt, witnessed or received through feedback about True2Soul’s programming over the years – which includes messages like: “I left the session so light, full of joy and truly feeling supported. Thank you so much for all you have done and are doing. You’re truly making a difference.”

True2Soul’s MOJA Healing Program is a healing curriculum created by a survivor – for survivors. We’re deeply proud and passionate about the work we do.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A multi-faceted lesson I’ve had to unlearn is seeking external validation and approval and people-pleasing. These are socialized behaviours and also survival mechanisms from past traumas. While they appeared to serve me in the past by keeping me “safe” from the perceived dangers of disapproval, conflict and rejection, I grew to understand how these behaviours undermined my ability to be authentic, feel empowered and allow my uniqueness.

As a young child, I perceived that if I could make people smile, they were less likely to harm me. My self-worth became contingent on how happy I could make people, and I learned to measure the value of my ideas by the response of people around me.

I began to learn the hard lessons of this behaviour in my adulthood. In my personal life, I realized how chaotic life is when tethered to other people’s opinions, validation and approval. Professionally, I learned to appreciate my creativity and knack for idea generation through the pain of having concepts stolen and missing opportunities due to a lack of self-confidence.

A combination of lived experience, training, mentorship and healing helps me unlearn these habits of relying on the external world to tell me who I AM.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

My reputation within trauma recovery, sexual trauma survivorship and impact producing has been built on “me being me”. I’m consistent with who and how I am – regardless of where, with whom or why I interact. In my personal and professional life, I live by the same principles I built True2Soul on – including social consciousness, passion, integrity, and authenticity.

People with whom I’ve interacted, who have supported or been supported by me in the past, had heard me talk the talk and walk the walk of equity, advocacy and trauma recovery before True2Soul was even a glint in my eye. Word of mouth and community support have been fundamental to building my reputation.     

Contact Info:

• Website: https://true2soul.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/true2soulnetwork/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/true2soulnetwork
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kedaistrue2soul/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/True2soulNetwork
• Facebook profile: https://www.facebook.com/BeingKEDA

Image Credits
David Leyes – http://www.davidleyes.com/