Lori MacLean is a co-founder of Healing Rainbow, a group offering mental health support through lived experience. (Photo Courtesy Meghan Cobb)

By Meghan Cobb

Healing Rainbow to offer mental health support through lived experience

Aug 8, 2022 | 1:39 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Two Medicine Hat women have started a group to provide spiritual and mental health support to the community through their own lived experience.

Lori MacLean and Michelle Demnick started The Healing Rainbow after meeting at the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Recovery College. Demnick is a facilitator at the college and MacLean started by attending courses and then providing peer support for the courses.

“For me it was so comforting to find community, people who were going through the same things I was,” says MacLean when asked about signing up for the Recovery College courses. “It helped me to feel not so alone because that’s what anxiety and depression does, it puts you in this little box and makes you feel like no one understands.”

The Healing Rainbow combines spirituality with mental health. MacLean says often those two aspects of life are dealt with separately, but for healing to take place, a wholistic approach needs to be taken.

WHAT'S ON

Here is what's on this weekend in Medicine Hat: May 8-10

May 08, 2026

Mental Health Week

'Watching hope come back to someone's eyes': OCJ continues support for addiction and mental health

May 07, 2026

In the Community

Women in Business Committee of Medicine Hat announces 2026 Inspire Award Nominees

May 05, 2026

“What we talk about is healing mind, body and soul, it’s all one,” MacLean says. The Healing Rainbow offers healing circles, a podcast and is hosting a retreat to Lake Louise in September.

MacLean says everyone is welcome at The Healing Rainbow because healing isn’t something that happens and then is done.

“We all have things that go on in our lives and we don’t realize, maybe I need to do some work on this or maybe I need to look into this more,” explains MacLean. “So, that’s what we do with The Healing Rainbow, we share our experience.”

While Demnick is trained in mental health support, MacLean is quick to point out that she isn’t, but what she lacks in training, she makes up for in compassion and support.

“It’s about letting them know they’re not alone and there are people who have walked this path,” says MacLean. “We might only be a couple of steps ahead, but we’re all together. It’s all the same, we’re here to help each other, we’re a collective.”

More information on The Healing Rainbow, the podcast and the retreat can be found on its Facebook page.

by Meghan Cobb

Healing Rainbow to offer mental health support through lived experience

Our Community