ABOUT

Paula Toledo (B.Comm, MAPP)

Paula Toledo is a well-being consultant, speaker, university guest lecturer, and singer-songwriter. She has given talks (TEDx, Collision Conference, WE Day, World Congress IPPA), been a media correspondent (Global TV, CBC Parents), and shared research-informed curriculum surrounding the power of play, wonder, and awe as a means to promote well-being. In professional circles, she advises on practices to enhance workplace and entrepreneurial well-being. Her expertise lies in curating gatherings through wonder as a way to help alleviate loneliness and nurture social bonding and connection.

She combines her background and strengths as an artist, marketing and business strategist for Fortune 500 companies, along with her lived experience as a mental health caregiver to design well-being practices and pathways for workplaces, healthcare, academic institutions, and arts and culture organizations. 

Paula is also a Canadian Mental Health Advisor for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace and has earned a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of British Columbia and completed a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. While at UPenn, she studied directly under Dr. Martin Seligman, the co-founder of the field of Positive Psychology. As a positive psychology practitioner, Paula shares foundational evidence-based science surrounding ways to achieve happiness, life satisfaction, and flourishing states.

Believing in the power of the human spirit, Paula believes that within life’s adversity, we have the potential to affect positive change by focusing on the strengths that we hold within us. She enthusiastically uses her skills to innovate and contribute to the collective strengths of communities in which she works, plays, and lives. As a recipient of a social prescription to help her navigate through grief following the loss of her husband and mother, she understands first hand the impact of art on well-being and works passionately to advise general practitioners, arts, and nature-based community organizations on best practices to realize positive outcomes within social prescribing models in British Columbia, Canada.