Telling Our Stories Through Creative Practices Workshop Series

Take a moment to pause and breathe.

I invite you to take a moment to close your eyes, take a few slow deep breaths and then imagine yourself in your favourite place in nature, maybe a park or by a lake, noticing the sensation of a gentle breeze on your skin, hearing the soothing sound of waves meeting a pebbly shore. Enjoy this stillness for a few moments in the busyness of your day. Take a couple more slow and deep breaths and on the out breath, open your eyes. Take a moment to notice how you’re feeling - are you feeling calmer or refreshed?

​This relaxation practice is just one of the many self-care exercises that participants in the Telling Our Stories experience in the workshops and can easily be practiced in daily life at work and at home.

Who can attend?
This fourth annual workshop series would appeal to any front-line staff working with women and children fleeing violence whether that be in a shelter setting, in an advocacy role and in a counselling capacity, to name a few.

Why should front-line staff participate?
We know that providing support to women in crisis is incredibly valuable work that brings much gratification, however, it can also be extremely stressful and intensely demanding work as needs increase and resources are stretched.

Imagine coming together with your peers to create, reflect, play, pause, dance, paint, explore and breathe your way through the challenges of this vital work. Also imagine leaving a workshop feeling inspired, energized, validated and equipped with new and creative ways to engage with clients.

The Telling Our Stories workshop series offers a one-of-a-kind refreshing antidote to the pressures, isolation and stress that front-line staff may experience in the course of their daily work. During the workshop series, participants are provided with the space to explore and engage in radical acts of self-care as they nourish their personal well-being and cultivate resiliency as individual practitioners and as a community.

Participants will also have the opportunity to collectively create a unique art installation to be exhibited at the 2017 Supporting Survivors by Supporting Staff two-day training hosted by WomanACT.

The Telling Our Stories workshop series is grounded in expressive arts philosophy and practice, meaning that no art-making experience or training is necessary.

What is expressive arts?
Expressive arts:

  • Offers us creative ways to give voice to our truths, our stories, our lived experiences through visual arts, written narrative, movement/dance, music/sound-making and dramatization.
  • Cultivates self-reflection, connection, exploration and rejuvenation of the mind, body and soul.  
  • Is about the journey, our relationship to the creative process and the things we discover about ourselves and the world along the way.

Workshop Details & Registration

  • The workshop series is comprised of 5 workshops in total and each workshop is 3 hours in length.
  • The content and process of each workshop is accumulative, therefore a commitment to attending all 5 workshops is essential.
  • A brief telephone intake will be conducted with each participant as part of the registration process.
  • The workshop series is limited to 15 participants.

For more information and to register, contact:
Irene Gabinet 
416-944-9242 x 222
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Generously supported by

​The Ministry of Community and Social Services - Services and Supports Branch