Scaling Trauma Care with Empathy with Sakeena Mihyar | BVZ Five Years Bold

Episode notes

In this special episode of The Business Leadership Podcast , Edwin Frondozo sat down with Sakeena Mihyar, Founder and CEO of SAVIN, as part of BVZ: Five Years Bold - a founder story series celebrating five years of the Brampton Venture Zone. Sakeena is a refugee-led founder building a digital, neuroscience-based mental health platform delivering trauma care in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. Inspired by her lived experience as a survivor of war, SAVIN uses evidence-based EMDR therapy principles to make trauma treatment accessible, culturally appropriate, and scalable across languages and regions. We explore: How lived experience became the foundation for a global mental health platform Why neuroscience-based trauma care can outperform traditional talk therapies The challenges of building a HealthTech company as a refugee and Muslim woman founder How empathy and inclusion can be operationalized at scale How BVZ supported SAVIN in identifying blind spots, refining its pitch, and scaling impact globally Today, SAVIN operates across Canada and internationally, including in post-conflict regions such as Syria, supporting communities affected by trauma with dignity and care.

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