Continuing Professional Development Workshops
Click Here to see the listing of French Continuing Professional Development Workshops.
The Centre for Interpersonal Relationships (CFIR) offers continuing professional development workshops to different professional groups over videoconference.
Physician Continuing Professional Development Workshops
With these offerings, psychologists at CFIR hope to share knowledge with you from the field of psychology, particularly psychological treatment and assessments, that we believe will be immediately useful to your care for the patients you serve.
These activities have not been formally reviewed by the CFPC; however they are eligible for non-certified credits! Mainpro+ participants may also earn additional certified credits by completing a Linking Learning exercise.
Our workshops have been structured to facilitate your participation and busy schedules – workshops are provided virtually by videoconference, and involve a 40-minute powerpoint presentation and 15-minutes of discussion. Attendees will receive a certificate of attendance at the end of the workshop.
Fees: No Charge
Clinical Learning Workshops
With these offerings, presenters share knowledge and help build skills related to a variety of clinical topics via video conference. These workshops are appropriate for individuals working or training to enter the mental health field (i.e., counsellors, psychotherapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, doctoral residents, students in Counselling and Clinical Psychology Programs. These workshops offer mental health clinicians an opportunity to learn skills that can be readily used in your practice. Our sessions have been structured to facilitate presentation of clinical theory with vivid presentation of clinical materials and opportunities to practice skills. Our workshops are typically either 1/2 day, 1 full day or 2 full days. Attendees will receive a certificate of attendance at the end of the workshop.
You may attend these learning events anonymously unless you decide to disclose your identity (i.e., register with your real name, but attend the Teams meetings without using your real name). Thank you in advance for your interest in considering these workshop offerings. You are welcome to register below to any and all of the workshops available. Should you have any questions and wish to contact us concerning these offerings, you are most welcome to send us an email to events@cfir.ca.
2025 Complex Trauma Clinical Learning Workshop Series
The Centre for Interpersonal Relationships (CFIR) is hosting clinical learning workshops in 2025 to provide experienced mental health professionals and trainees with cutting edge knowledge and practices to assist the clinical work of supporting clients affected by complex trauma. We are delighted to be welcoming internationally renowned and published experts in the field offering live workshops this year.
Rates for each workshop:
- Regular: $200 + HST ($226 with taxes included)
- Students: $100 + HST ($113 with taxes included)
Jan Winhall, M.S.W. P.I.F.O.T.
Treating Trauma with the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model
Description
This one-day workshop will present a deep exploration of the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model (FSPM), a radical approach for treating trauma and addiction. From an embodied perspective we will deconstruct the current top down pathologizing models of treatment, offering a new paradigm based on current neuroscience. The FSPM, formulated over forty years of clinical practice, is based on five theoretical frameworks: feminist/trauma theory, focusing/felt sense therapy, interpersonal neurobiology, the learning model of addiction, and polyvagal theory. We will examine each one as they build on the other to formulate a comprehensive treatment model that celebrates the wisdom of the body. The FSPM teaches clinicians a new way of working with two embodied processes, Eugene Gendlin’s interoceptive process called Focusing/felt sense, and Stephen Porges neuroceptive process of nervous system regulation.
Application of the model will be demonstrated in an introduction to The Embodied Assessment and Treatment Tool. (EATT)™. The EATT is a unique tool that offers practitioners a somatic assessment based on the FSPM. Instead of a pathologizing DSM model we can track neuroception and interoception to assess how embodied/integrated our clients are. We create the assessment in an Excel spreadsheet which can become part of the clinical record. A case example of this process will be included with opportunity to practice using the EATT.
This workshop will be both top down and bottom up, engaging participants in embodied practices, and conceptual frameworks. People new to polyvagal theory and those that have familiarity are welcome. This workshop will incorporate lecture and video of a case example.
In this training you will be able to:
- Translate theory into practice with graphic models that serve as aids for teaching your clients
- Name and describe the 7 Autonomic states on the FSPM client model.
- Name and describe the two main embodied processes that are the basis of the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model
- Describe the Four Circle Harm Reduction Practice
- Describe addiction and dissociation through a Polyvagal lens
- Teach clients how to engage and regulate their nervous system (neuroception)
- Educate clients on using the six steps of Focusing/Felt Sensing (interoception)
- Teach clients to use the Four Circle Harm Reduction Practice to heal from trauma and addictive processes
About Jan Winhall, M.S.W. P.I.F.O.T.
Jan Winhall is an author, teacher, and seasoned trauma and addiction psychotherapist. She is an Educational Partner with the Polyvagal Institute where she offers a training program based on her book Treating Trauma and Addiction with the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model, Routledge 2021. Her new book 20 Embodied Practices for Healing Trauma and Addiction: Using the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model, (Norton) is due out March 18, 2025. She is an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Toronto and a Certifying Co-Ordinator with the International Focusing Institute. Jan is Co-Director of the Borden Street Clinic where she supervises graduate students. She enjoys teaching all over the world. You can learn more about her at janwinhall.com.
Registration
- Friday May 30th, 2025 @ 9am – 4:30pm EST
- Regular Rate: $200 + HST
- Student Rate: $100 + HST
- Please follow this Registration link for more details
Dr. Risa Adams, M.D.
The Use of Internal Family Systems for Trauma Treatment
Description
IFS (Internal Family Systems) is a non-pathologizing and compassionate form of psychotherapy that works with ‘parts’ of the personality to uncover a powerfully healing core essence. Developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz and held up by Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk, IFS is useful for a wide range of clinical presentations and is particularly helpful when treating underlying trauma. Many therapists move towards this modality when they are feeling stuck or burned out. This workshop will cover essential teachings and delve into the protocols for working with protective parts, with an emphasis on connecting with one’s own parts as a key component of the therapeutic process.
Whether or not you have any familiarity with parts work or an intention to weave it into your practice, a basic understanding of the IFS perspective can aid you in optimizing your therapeutic presence and enhancing the work you already do.
In this training you will:
- Learn the difference between ‘parts’ and Self
- Hone your own ‘parts detector’
- Understand the different categories of parts
- Map your own parts
- Witness a full-length demonstration
- Practice the ‘6Fs’ IFS protocol
About Dr. Risa Adams, MD
Dr. Risa Adamsis a family physician and certified IFS therapist, approved consultant and assistant trainer with the IFS Institute. She has taught introductory and comprehensive IFS courses for therapists and physicians, including at St. Michael’s Hospital Academic Family Health Team and the Central Lambton Family Health Team. Risa’s clinical work has focused on the perinatal population and includes long term psychotherapy with complex PTSD survivors. Having worked extensively in the field of primary care, she is passionate about bringing IFS to health care providers in general for their own self-care. She is a co-author of an upcoming book ‘It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way: A Physician’s Guide to Radical Self Care.’ She is a founding member of IFS Connect, a consultation and learning hub that supports the growth of IFS professionals throughout Canada and beyond. Risa engages with the practices of IFS on a daily basis and continues to be surprised and delighted by the depths of joy and solace she finds along the way.
Registration
- Friday June 13th, 2025 @ 9:30am – 4:30pm EST
- Regular Rate: $200 + HST
- Student Rate: $100 + HST
- Please follow this Registration link for more details
Dr. Janina Fisher, Ph.D.
Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors: Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment (TIST)
Description
Self-rejection is a survival strategy that maintains children’s attachment to abusive attachment figures by disowning themselves as “bad” or “unlovable.” This deeply painful failure of self-acceptance is adaptive in an unsafe world but results in lifelong shame and self-loathing, difficulty self-soothing, identity confusion, and complications in relationships with others.
As clients learn to relate to their overwhelming emotions and impulsive behavior as signs of these rejected traumatized parts, they develop an increased ability to observe rather than react to distressing affects and/or act out associated impulses. Using strategies inspired by Polyvagal Theory and Internal Family Systems, therapists can help clients access the therapeutic power of mindful relationships to their most deeply disowned selves.
In this training you will learn to:
- Describe the relationship between trauma and self-alienation or self-rejection
- Describe the Structural Dissociation theory as an explanatory model
- Recognize signs and symptoms of trauma-related states and parts
- Identify parts that sabotage self-compassion and self-acceptance
- Describe interventions that increase a felt sense of self-compassionate connection
About Dr. Janina Fisher, Ph.D.
Janina Fisher, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist, author, and speaker. Known for her expertise in trauma treatment, she is a board member of the Trauma Research Foundation, a patron of the Bowlby Centre, and a former Instructor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Fisher lectures and teaches nationally and internationally on topics related to the integration of neurobiological research and newer trauma treatment paradigms into traditional therapeutic modalities. She is the author of Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors (2017), Transforming the Living Legacy of Trauma (2021), and the Living Legacy Flip Chart (2022). She is best known as the creator and trainer of Trauma- Informed Stabilization Treatment (TIST), a parts approach to resolution and healing. More information can be found on her website: www.janinafisher.com.
Registration
- Friday October 24, 2025 @ 11am – 6pm EST
- Regular Rate: $200 + HST
- Student Rate: $100 + HST
- Please follow this Registration link for more details
Workshops for Physicians
At this time, we are not offering any Continuing Professional Development workshops for physicians. Please check back in the new year for updates on our schedule and upcoming events tailored for healthcare professionals.
