Trauma-Informed Training: Intro to Portrayals & Re-enactments in Therapy

Please note that this is an advanced, in-person, experiential group workshop, and is limited to a maximum of 24 participants.

This workshop was developed due to demand for a deeper and more experiential learning on four topics which are covered in our "Healing Limiting & Trauma-Based Beliefs" trainings.

For dates and detail on the other trainings in this series (i.e. Chairwork, Therapeutic Breathwork and Systemic Constellations) all focused on healing limiting & trauma-based beliefs, please see: www.trishwalsh.ca/trauma-training

WORKSHOP DETAILS:

DATE: Sunday April 27, 2025

TIME: 10:00AM am to 5:00PM PST

VENUE: The University of British Columbia: Robert E Lee Alumni Centre, 6163 University Blvd, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1

Background:

Portrayals and Re-enactments are powerful transformational tools that can be used for trauma healing. One of the earliest recorded instances of reenactments in therapy was by Carl Jung, who believed that by re-enacting past events, he could help his patients access and process their unconscious motivations, thoughts and emotions and work towards personal growth and transformation.

In the 1980’s, the concept of re-enactments and portrayals gained popularity in the field of trauma therapy. One of the most powerful aspects of this work is providing a space for the client to "say and do" in the present what could not be "said and done" in the past. This ability to speak from the experience versus about the experience allows movement towards a corrective embodied experience to help heal trauma. Today, reenactments or portrayals are a common technique used in various forms of therapy, including trauma-focused therapy, psychodynamic therapy, and relational therapy.

Reenactments can take many forms, including role-playing, storytelling, and guided imagery. The therapist may ask the client to recreate a specific scene or event from their past, or to imagine a scenario that triggers strong emotions or memories. The goal is to help the patient skillfully confront and work through their emotions and to develop a greater sense of self-awareness and emotional regulation.

This training will dive into the process of re-enactments and/or portrayals to access the stuck trauma to offer a choice of doing something different in the here and now to move towards corrective experiences and the universal truth of who we are as humans. We will also be looking at these tools through the lens of Polyvagal Therory and Somatic Experiencing . As attendees of this workshop, you will have the opportunity to experience, be witness to or participate as an ‘actor” in a re-enactment or portrayal in a supportive environment.

Please note that this is an *advanced workshop. Although having attended the foundational training "Healing Limiting and Trauma-Based Beliefs" is not a pre-requisite for attending this training, it is required that participants have a foundational understanding of trauma healing and trauma-informed practice.

This workshop combines both theoretical and experiential frameworks of Therapeutic Re-enactments and Portrayals.

Certificates of Completion will be provided.

Learning Objectives:

• Informed consent, and how to create a framework of safety in setting up the process for Portrayals and Re-enactments
• The benefit of these therapeutic tools: why, when and how to use

• The practical application of Re-enactments and Portrayals. What therapists need to pay particular attention to when setting up a Portrayal or Re-enactment and while facilitating through to completion.
• How to, and the importance of, VAK (visual, auditory and kinesthetic) tools in the success of portrayals and re-enactments. How to use this tool effectively.
• Attendees will have the option of experiencing/taking part in their own or other’s portrayals or re-enactments.
• Portrayals and Re-enactments through the lens of Polyvagal Theory, and Somatic Experiencing. Research and frameworks
• How Portrayals and Re-enactments can be powerful tools for the use of anchoring truths and corrective experiences.

Facilitators:

Angela Baff, BApSc (ME), BSc (OT), MTC, RCS

Angela is a counselling therapist, registered counselling supervisor and breathwork facilitator working in private practice in Vancouver BC. She also holds a BApSc (Mechanical Engineering), and a BSc (Occupational Therapy) a 28 year OT career which she has recently retired from. Angela has been an instructor, workshop facilitator and public speaker with a counselling training and personal growth organization called Clearmind International since 2005 and was a regular facilitator of their Awakening workshops. She values and cherishes the transformation that occurs when people step into all aspects of themselves. Her belief is that we are all on this journey together and her own work and learning is never done.

Angela has additional training iAngela has additional training in Systemic Family Constellations, Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), Inherited Family Trauma, Family Systems Theory, Emotional Focused Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Transpersonal Psychology, Cathartic/Holotropic Breathwork instruction and facilitation, and Non-Violent Communication.

Angela was drawn to her own healing journey due to feeling empty in all parts of her life: work, intimate relationships, and friendships to name a few. She prided herself in being independent, smart and able to figure things out on her own. This emptiness was different, there was no book, no strategy, no “let’s just put a smile on my face and move on” attitude; nothing was shifting this void no matter what she tried! She realized that all her strategies were keeping her safe but numb and it took being vulnerable and openly sharing with others to shift her inner world. It was a humbling, trusting and connective experience which infused her being with the truth that we are all connected, and that love exists. For her, love always felt elusive and ‘out there’, something she had to earn. Through the power of being vulnerable and open, Angela absolutely knows without a shadow of a doubt that love exists inside!! What a weird and wonderful fact!

She doesn’t presume to know what love is, but its grace has knocked on her heart and she has followed the call to support others to find their own unique path to the joy and love that lives inside of them. She is determined and passionate in this pursuit. It’s in diving off the edge into the unknown, into the scary, into the hidden that hones her skill to guide others into the depth of that territory. Angela leads with a gentle, accepting, and direct manner and has a deep reverence for our human dilemmas as it is the messy stuff of growth and healing.

She leaves you with a quote: “People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” – Carl Jung.

Trish Walsh BA, MTC

Trish Walsh, BA, MTC, is a Registered Master Therapeutic counsellor, instructor and workshop facilitator, located in Vancouver, British Columbia; the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. From 2008 – 2016 Trish was the Executive Director of the InnerChange Foundation; a Canadian foundation with the mandate of increasing funding, education and awareness in the area of addiction and concurrent disorders.

Trish has received additional training in a broad range of therapeutic modaltities including facilitating Systemic Family Constellations. Since 2017 Trish has focused on developing and facilitating strength-based trauma informed trainings, education and supervision, for counselling program students, along with health and mental health professionals already working in the field who are interested in updating their knowledge and skills in the area of trauma healing, and increasing relational resiliency. Since 2015 Trish has been a therapist in private practice and an instructor in a 3-year counselling accreditation training program. Trish provides trauma-informed, and resilience-informed, trainings and workshops on healing intergenerational trauma, collective trauma, compassion fatigue, secondary trauma, and moral injury, to front line workers, school teachers/school administrators, organizations, and the general public. Trish’s growing focus from 2021 to the present are trainings to help strengthen individuals' relational-resiliency (“response-flexibility”), with the aim of helping to heal individual and collective/societal polarization.

In addition to Trish’s counselling practice, her work over the last 20 years has focused on knowledge translation: specifically, conveying research findings in medicine and mental health care to government decision makers, and to physicians, mental health professionals, allied health care providers, along with corporations, community groups and the general public. She has also consulted for several organizations to bring health information to their staff, stakeholders, and the general public. Trish has a particular passion for conveying research information in an engaging and easy to understand way, aiding decision makers in their funding and public policy decisions, and helping individuals to learn practical strategies for better health, happiness, and personal success.

Trish also provides training in Trauma-Informed Coaching and Transpersonal Coaching, for professional coaches.

For more information please see: www.trishwalsh.ca

Participant feedback from Angela Baff's and Trish Walsh's workshop on Healing Limiting & Trauma-Based Beliefs (held on March 9, 2024):

“Very well done!! Authentic facilitators, very knowledgeable. Thank you for a wonderful day!"

“Incredible material! Thank you! Your voices were soothing and calming which is great for this topic. Thank you!”

"I really liked the context, it built upon what I’ve been working on in my practice, and in my work. Keep up the great work! “

“I loved the exercises and resources offered!"

"Thank you so much for your authenticity and your genuine thoughts. I learned so much from you, and I’m excited to learn more!”

“I felt feelings I was not expecting - and I learned about some of my limiting beliefs that I didn’t know about. “

“I loved all of the group exercises and examples. It felt like real hands on learning!”
“The facilitators made the environment feel safe. Thank you! “

“A whole weekend workshop would be more than welcome! Lovely, willing group of people. And lots of beautiful, helpful info! Thank you for creating such a warm and welcoming learning space.”
“I appreciated the openness of everyone and the vulnerability of the presenters. And I appreciate the resource list we’ll be given. I enjoyed the variety of resources and techniques we were shown. The subject matter was enough to be thought provoking but not too emotional. “

"Thank you so much for this training! It was very helpful for me in my practice and I am looking forward to the follow-up trainings!"

Host or Publisher Trish Walsh