Past Events

Browse our range of successful past educational events

Our past events were highly successful in providing women with education in a broad range of topics ranging from modern investment strategies, legal, psychological and financial relationship responsibilities, retirement paradigms, the psychology of money, behavioural finance, salary negotiation and many more.

Geeta Gill
Sandy Hawkins
Tracy Theemes

Transitioning Through Divorce – A Workshop for Women

Tuesday, April 30, 2024 – 6:00pm – 8:00pm

Divorce can be complex, challenging, and at times overwhelming. Join Tracy Theemes as she moderates this highly informative panel discussion of the emotional, legal, and financial aspects of divorce with family lawyer Geeta Gill and divorce coach and therapist Sandy Hawkins. They will draw upon their diverse backgrounds and expertise to provide a comprehensive overview of what it means to transition through divorce.

LOCATION

This is an in-person workshop which is being held at our Sophia Financial Office:

3762 10th Ave West, Vancouver BC

Replay will be available to registered attendees.

Geeta graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1999 with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Psychology, and received her LL.B. from the University of British Columbia in 2003. She was called to the Bar in the Province of British Columbia in September 2004.

Geeta practiced in the areas of Civil Litigation and Family Law until the fall of 2008, at which time she began practicing exclusively in the area of family law and has done so ever since. Geeta joined Connect Family Law in October 2020. She is accredited by the Law Society of BC to act as a Parenting Coordinator, Family Law Arbitrator and Family Law Mediator.

www.connectfamilylaw.ca

Sandy is a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) with a Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology. She co-founded Concordia Counselling Services in 2008 with her partner, Lindsey Jespersen. Her practice is dedicated to working with adult individuals, couples, adolescents and families with an additional focus on separation and divorce. Sandy has additional training in Family Systems, Narrative Therapy and Gottman Couples Therapy, which allows her to address her clients’ concerns both quickly and completely. She has also completed advanced training in Collaborative Divorce and mediation. Sandy has been involved with Collaborative Divorce Vancouver since 2010 in several capacities as a member, Board Member for 6 years, and Co-Chair of the Board from 2016-18. In her work with Collaborative Divorce, she is both a Divorce Coach and Child/Youth Specialist. In her separation/divorce work, she is part of a team that includes lawyers and financial specialists who create and draft parenting plans for separation agreements. In addition to her education and experience in private practice, she has also worked in clinical settings with Family Services of Greater Vancouver and Pacific Coast Family Institute.

http://www.concordiacounselling.ca

Tracy is a leading authority on the issues facing women in our economic world. She graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Master of Arts in Psychology and experienced firsthand how poverty created long term disadvantage while working with women and families in some of Vancouver’s poorest neighbourhoods.

Tracy started her financial career as a financial consultant with Smith Barney, a US brokerage firm, and later worked with RBC Dominion Securities in Canada.  In 2009, she co-founded Sophia Financial Group a full-service advisory firm focused on providing a socially conscious, financial planning and investment management firm on Vancouver’s west side.

Read Tracy’s full bio.

Mihael Mamychshvili

Neuropath Resent

Saturday, April 13, 2024 – 1:00pm – 4:00pm

We all have areas in our life where we feel blocked, anxious, or frustrated. Some of us even have significant trauma that prevents us from feeling able to move forward to achieve our goals.

Mihael Mamychshvili, an internationally recognized specialist in the healing power of the mind body connection, believes we can use the intelligence of our body to overcome habitual patterns and break through areas of blocked energy.

In this dynamic, experiential workshop, you will learn:

  • How to overcome fear
  • How to identify your habitual operating system
  • The building blocks to achieving your goals with greater ease
  • How to identify your personal triggers and how to manage them
  • Ways to overcome habitual patterns and how to change them
  • How to use the wisdom of your body to gain greater knowledge

Mihael is the Founder & Lead Therapist of Angel Hands Integrative Programs. His specialty is reconnecting the communication between the mind and body. His innovative approach to the body and broad knowledge and experience has lead to his reputation as a therapist who can initiate transformative change. After becoming a Shiatsu Therapist in 2001, he has developed his own style of therapy and methodology that focuses on the body-mind connection. He has helped clients change and transform through his treatments which look at the complete person. Developing strong palpation skills through over 20 years of manual therapy and mind-body studies, he has a gift to understand and translate what your body is trying to communicate.

Mihael is recognized by complementary as well as conventional health agencies like VGH Cardiac Rehab Centre, PainBc, and The Cancer Society where he is often asked to be a keynote speaker or educator. He has become well known for treating “tough cases” and extremely effective at Complex chronic pain, frozen shoulders, trauma, PTSD, digestive issues, chronic fatigue syndrome, migraines & headaches, and more.

Homepage

Jacqueling Knoblauch

And What About Insurance

Thursday, February 29, 2024 – 6:00pm – 8:00pm

Insurance can play a crucial role in protecting the financial security for yourself and loved ones. It is an often overlooked and misunderstood element of a solid financial plan and can be useful at many stages of life.

Join our insurance expert Jacqueline Knoblauch as she walks us through insurance basics. She will be addressing the following common questions:

  • What is insurance?
  • What purposes can it serve for me, my family or my business?
  • How do I determine how much I really need, if I need it?
  • What are the different types and how do I know what is right for me and my loved ones?
  • When shouldn’t insurance be used?

You will leave our workshop with a clear idea of what makes the most sense for you and those you care about.

DATE: Thursday, February 29, 2024
TIME: 6pm – 8pm
LOCATION: In-Person, Sophia Financial Office, 3762 10th Ave West, Vancouver BC

WORKSHOP PRESENTER:

Jacqueline Knoblauch, CFP® CLU®, Insurance Planning Specialist, Raymond James. Jacqueline’s experience includes brokering high risk loans and mortgages, and being a senior insurance planner for a bank owned firm.

Replay will be available to registrants

Linda Chu

Out of Chaos: Organize Your Life

Tuesday, February 20, 2024 – 6:00pm – 8:00pm

FREE WORKSHOP!

Let’s get 2024 off to a roaring start! We all want to have a streamlined, efficient and elegant life. Our guest speaker, Linda Chu, is the Queen of assisting people to downsize, declutter, move, and optimize their work and home spaces. She helps people create systems that liberate time and energy.

Living an organized life is about much more than keeping your desk or closet neat and tidy–it’s about optimal management of your time, your space and your actions. That starts with learning some beneficial habits.

Learn new sustainable, approaches to managing your life.

DATE: Tuesday, February 20, 2024
TIME: 6pm – 8pm
LOCATION: In-Person
Sophia Financial Office
3762 10th Ave West, Vancouver BC

WORKSHOP PRESENTER: Linda Chu, Founder, Out of Chaos. Linda is a leader in the industry and her organizing tips have been published in many major newspapers. She regularly appears on popular television and radio programs.

Taught by: Linda Chu
Tracy Theemes
Irene Nizzero

I’M NOT CRAZY, I’M A COMPASSIONATE COMMUNICATOR!

Tuesday, December 5, 2023 – 6:30pm – 8:30pm

The holidays can drive even the sanest person to the edge. In this humorous, experiential workshop, we will look at the 5 C’s of getting through the tough stuff. None of us wish to create conflict or hurt people’s feelings, so we might give in on issues that really matter. We may find ourselves breaking our budgets, doing too much work and spending time with people we don’t even like! Using scenarios and role play, we will address values-based communication strategies and learn how to set the stage for constructive, compassionate conversations and healthy boundary setting.

Tracy is a leading authority on the issues facing women in our economic world. She graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Master of Arts in Psychology and experienced firsthand how poverty created long term disadvantage while working with women and families in some of Vancouver’s poorest neighbourhoods.

Tracy started her financial career as a financial consultant with Smith Barney, a US brokerage firm, and later worked with RBC Dominion Securities in Canada.  In 2009, she co-founded Sophia Financial Group a full-service advisory firm focused on providing a socially conscious, financial planning and investment management firm on Vancouver’s west side.

Read Tracy’s full bio.

When Irene is coaching, she feels like she is living her true calling. There is something quite remarkable about supporting individuals who are whole, resourceful and creative, albeit temporarily stuck on a challenge arrive at that awareness of the next right thing to do. She has worked with highly placed executives in multinational corporations honing their efforts to provide model leadership and high school students working to improve their GPA. The range of client experiences and the aspirations they bring to coaching has been rich and rewarding. Each client is her most important one, in the moment.

Her coach training is distinct from many programs, in that it is rooted in the tenets of positive psychology, evidence-based theories that describe conditions for optimum human flourishing and resilience. As a result, her approach with all clients is strengths-based, proactive and empowering.

Along with her training and experience in working with executives, Irene has a particular interest in supporting clients who are affected by ADHD. Her coach training has included specialized courses on these topics, among others.

She also delivers a variety of in-person and virtual workshops on the theme of human resilience and flourishing that have been widely well received. Drawing from years of teaching Positive Psychology at the post-secondary level, she uses this science to craft engaging presentations to enhance participants’ level of well-being.

positiveadvantagecoaching.com

Rachel Lewis

AN EVENING OF PEACE

Thursday, November 2, 2023 – 6:30pm – 8:30pm

The days are shorter. The rain beats harder. It is often difficult to keep the light shining within us. During this quiet, reflective evening, we will practice guided mindfulness exercises and short periods of silence and stillness. In an atmosphere designed to slow down our frenzied activity and settle our nervous systems we give our body and mind an opportunity to reset in a healthy, harmonious way. These practices of self-soothing will help us establish a connection to the peace that is always within and their resilience to withstand challenges.

Taught by: Dr. Rachel Lewis

Rachel Lewis began practicing insight meditation in 2003, while completing her physics PhD at Yale. Since 2011, she has taught dharma and meditation classes and retreats in British Columbia and beyond. She completed the IMS/IRC 4-year teacher training in 2021, and is a guiding teacher of the British Columbia Insight Meditation Society. Her dharma teaching interests include the power of music, humour, and creativity to increase our capacity for learning, as well as the way that practice supports and is supported by social justice work.

https://rachelmeditates.ca/about.html

Patricia Chartrand

ESTATE PLANNING ESSENTIALS

Tuesday, October 24, 2023 – 6:30pm – 8:00pm

Transferring wealth is a complex affair. With new estate laws and ever-increasing complications in family dynamics, the issue of how, when and to whom to transfer wealth can be challenging. There are many land mines – and opportunities that need to be understood. The days of just writing up a letter of your last wishes with a signature from a neighbour are over. To protect yourself, your family, your assets, and leave a tax-efficient legacy you will need to prepare carefully. Patricia Chartrand has guided hundreds of families through the murky and often troubled waters of organizing their estates. Now is the time to figure this out.

Patricia Chartrand is a Senior Trust Advisor working out of the Vancouver corporate office and servicing Advisors and their clients as well as our Correspondent Services clients in Vancouver and throughout the B.C. mainland.

Prior to joining Raymond James Trust (Canada), Patricia was a Trust and Estate Consultant for 10 years with CIBC Trust, building client relationships, assessing clients’ needs, and identifying and providing appropriate trust services to assist with the effective execution of trust services roles.

Among her prior work experience during her 22 years at the bank, she was a Sales Solution Lead and provided bilingual client service. She has extensive experience dealing directly with clients and various stakeholders as well as giving presentations.

She earned a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from the University of Prince Edward Island, and completed the IFC through CSI. She is fluent in English and French.

https://www.raymondjames.ca/bennest/your-team/our-partners?sc_lang=en

Tracy Theemes

EMPOWERED INVESTING 2023

Saturday, October 14, 2023 – 9:30am – 12:30pm

It has been years since we have taught this comprehensive workshop on investment management and financial planning fundamentals. Being grounded in terminology, aligning individual objectives to strategy, and seeing the context in which investment occurs is essential to an empowered economic life.

In this workshop you will learn:

  • To make well-informed, confident investment decisions
  • The relationship between asset allocation and investment returns
  • How to balance risk and volatility with financial security

Tracy is a leading authority on the issues facing women in our economic world. She graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Master of Arts in Psychology and experienced firsthand how poverty created long term disadvantage while working with women and families in some of Vancouver’s poorest neighbourhoods.

Tracy started her financial career as a financial consultant with Smith Barney, a US brokerage firm, and later worked with RBC Dominion Securities in Canada.  In 2009, she co-founded Sophia Financial Group a full-service advisory firm focused on providing a socially conscious, financial planning and investment management firm on Vancouver’s west side.

Read Tracy’s full bio.

Tracy Theemes & Kamal Basra

NEW – Paradigms of Retirement (Part 2)

Wednesday, April 13, 2022 – 12pm – 1pm

Join Financial Advisors and Co-Founders of Sophia Financial Group and Sophia Wealth Academy, Tracy Theemes and Kamal Basra, for part 2 of their noon hour retirement workshop series. Tracy and Kamal will address the modern paradigms around retirement as well as practical strategies to plan for and manage this important stage of our financial life.

Join Kamal and Tracy as they discuss:

  • The four new phases of retirement and their financial impact
  • The economic implications of a longer life expectancy
  • Modern income planning strategies
  • How to balance risk with financial security

via Zoom

As trusted financial advisors for over 20 years, Tracy Theemes and Kamal Basra are long-time champions of financial literacy and equality in Canada. Co-founders of Sophia Financial Group, Raymond James Ltd, they provide investment advisory services to high net worth clients, devote a day each week to pro bono clients, and are the founders of the Sophia Wealth Academy financial education platform.

Learn more about Tracy.

Learn more about Kamal.

Tracy Theemes & Kamal Basra

NEW – New Paradigms of Retirement (Part 1)

Wednesday, April 6, 2022 – 12pm – 1pm

Join Financial Advisors and Co-Founders of Sophia Financial Group and Sophia Wealth Academy, Tracy Theemes and Kamal Basra, for part 1 of their new 2-part noon hour retirement workshop series. Tracy and Kamal will address the modern paradigms around retirement as well as practical strategies to plan for and manage this important stage of our financial life.

Join Kamal and Tracy as they discuss:

  • The four new phases of retirement and their financial impact
  • The economic implications of a longer life expectancy
  • Modern income planning strategies
  • How to balance risk with financial security

via Zoom

As trusted financial advisors for over 20 years, Tracy Theemes and Kamal Basra are long-time champions of financial literacy and equality in Canada. Co-founders of Sophia Financial Group, Raymond James Ltd, they provide investment advisory services to high net worth clients, devote a day each week to pro bono clients, and are the founders of the Sophia Wealth Academy financial education platform.

Learn more about Tracy.

Learn more about Kamal.

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