Workshops

Marymound is a leader in offering professional development opportunities to the education and human service sectors that grounded in trauma-informed approaches. After almost a decade of offering in-person and virtual conferences, we are happy to launch the Marymound Training Centre.

The Marymound Training Centre will offer two conferences annually along with a series of smaller workshops that will be offered in Fall, Winter, and Spring sessions. Conferences and workshops will focus on topics that support mental health, dive deeper into understanding trauma, and celebrate resilience. Our goal is to provide quality professional development opportunities that empower care providers across multiple human sectors to build their knowledge base and enhance service delivery to individuals who are impacted by trauma.

Check out our Spring 2023 Training Catalogue below.

Neurobiology of Trauma

Dawn Isaac & Sonya Warga
May 4, 2023
Marymound Training Centre Main Campus, 442 Scotia Street, Winnipeg
Registration: $199 per person
One-day workshop for counsellors, school professionals and educators, service providers, early childhood educators, and family service workers

This workshop will integrate core principles of neurodevelopment and traumatology to inform work with children, families and the communities in which they live.

Participants will learn to help identify the strengths and vulnerabilities of the children and youth struggling with trauma histories and/or mental health and co-occurring disorders. This workshop will focus on understanding the foundations of trauma and attachment dysregulation. Participants will learn the neurological, physiological, cognitive and emotional impacts of trauma. Considerations through a trauma lens and strategies to promote emotional regulation will result in less stressed systems (both caregiving, management and above) and more supportive co-regulated environments.

Dawn Isaac is Anishinaabe-ikwe from Sagkeeng First Nation. She holds a bachelor’s degree in human Ecology and a Masters degree in applied communications. She has several years of experience in research & training with a focus on intergenerational, developmental, and organizational trauma as well as Indigenous issues in both a historical and current context. She is passionate about promoting a wide-spread understanding of trauma-informed and trauma-responsive services as a best practice approach across multiple sectors. Dawn is also committed to advancing Indigenous knowledge(s), resilience, healing practices, and creating safe spaces, as well as fostering reconciliatory relationship building. Dawn spent more than a decade working as part of an intergenerational team (grandmother-mother-granddaughter) facilitating workshops and healing sessions on intergenerational trauma and resilience. Through this transfer of knowledge, she has been part of an interdisciplinary team developing a Reconciled Healing Model as an overarching clinical framework for organizations in the healing and helping profession. Dawn has also worked closely with Dr. Sandra Bloom, to pilot Creating Presence; a new and innovative clinical approach to transform organizations and foster trauma-resilient practices.

Sonya Warga is the Clinical Director at Marymound, where she has worked since 2016. She obtained her Masters of Marriage and Family Therapy from U of W and had planned to grow a private practice, but after joining Marymound, she discovered a passion for working with youth. Sonya is responsible for supporting the programs and clinicians who work at Marymound by troubleshooting, problem-solving, advocating, and planning the clinical framework of the organization. She believes that every interaction with youth should be therapeutic, whether it is through one-to-one meetings or maintaining a therapeutic environment in group homes. Sonya’s work is focused on creating a continuity of approach to generate solidity in the organization.

Indigenous Knowledge Training

Elder Louise Lavallee, Dawn Isaac, Chantel St. Germaine
May 23 & 24, 2023 (9:00am-4:00pm)
Marymound Training Centre Main Campus, 442 Scotia Street
Registration: $249 per person
Two-day workshop for counsellors, school professionals and educators, service providers, early childhood educators, and family service workers.

In this two-day workshop participants will gain and understanding of Canada’s history of colonial policies and their impact on Indigenous peoples, families, and communities.

Participants will also expand their knowledge of cultural safety practices, how to provide culturally relevant services, and build culturally respectful workplaces.

Indigenous worldviews, knowledge systems, and spiritual and cultural values will be shared.

This workshop is experiential and will include ceremony.

Louise Lavallee has immense knowledge and experience, and has worked in the social service field for over 4 decades in various roles. This has led her to have experience supporting diverse populations of children, youth, families and communities, but also co-workers, leaders and politicians/policy makers. Elder Louise has exceptional knowledge of history, both written and lived and brings awareness of the impact of colonialism on the indigenous people of Canada. This is Canada’s history and her knowledge and expertise fosters important dialogue in the pursuit of social justice. Elder Louise has the ability to promote healing. She acknowledges and understand the difficult work that is carried out each day. She can support people by recognizing their courage, identifying their strengths/purpose, foster connection to the values and motivate their work. Elder Louise has a wonderful sense of humor and great personality. Her energy and enthusiasm for life brings much joy as well as meaningful experiences to those she works with. Elder Louise obtained her Bachelor of Social Work and currently is employed at Marymound as their resident Elder.

Chantel St. Germaine is a proud Indigenous woman who has a great amount of passion for what she does. Chantel brings forward a Bachelor Degree in History, and teaches our youth the importance of Indigenous culture and Culture Identity. Chantel is also a crafter and teaches our youth how to make Ribbon skirts, beading, drums, rattles, traditional foods, attends ceremonies with the youth and so much more. She takes pride in who she is as an Indigenous woman and passes her knowledge and teachings on in a respectable and honest way. Outside Marymound she also carries out cultural workshops for different organizations and enjoys attending ceremonies with her children.

Youth Substance Use

Kristin Lukie and Phil Audette
May 24 & 25, 2023
Virtual Workshop
Registration: $199

In this workshop, participants will gain an understanding of the issues pertaining to youth substance use. The stages of change model and level of harm concepts and tools are used to understand intervention. Participants will learn about the different types of substances and explore substance use trends as they relate to youth.

With a Bachelor of Social Work degree and over 20 years of experience, Kristin Lukie has had an integral part in working and facilitating training and conferences on addictions, sexual exploitation, and trauma informed care and practices. She is a certified Canadian Red Cross Facilitator on Violence & Abuse Preventions and province appointed Addiction Specialist. Kristin has a deep passion to continue to be a resource for healing to both people and organizations impacted by traumatic experiences. She aspires and strives to improve experiences that are the result of biases and prejudices which permeate our Canadian culture. Her goal is to support youth, families and organizations by giving them the tools to find healthy ground in order to help strengthen relationships for trauma resiliency. In this vein, Kristin has worked closely alongside Dr. Sandra Bloom, to pilot a program called “Creating Presence”, an advanced guide and support model for organizations to become not only trauma informed and trauma responsive but “trauma resilient”.

Phil Audette is a clinician at Marymound. He has many years of experience in his current role as well as being a youth care worker. He mainly works with the Bagosenim Planning and Assessment program while also overseeing internal Marymound referrals for assessment. Phil has an interest in addiction and harm reduction principles.

ASIST Training

Megan Schwartz & Nikki Schultz
June 8 & 9, 2023
Marymound Training Centre Main Campus, 442 Scotia Street
Registration: $249 per person

Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) uses internationally recognized best practices customized to be relevant to students, employees or concerned citizens. Instructors maintain a balance of challenge and safety.

As an ASIST trainee, you will be better able to:

Recognize and assist a person at risk to avoid suicide
Discuss suicide with a person at risk in a direct manner
Demonstrate the skills required to intervene with a person at risk of suicide
Recognize that caregivers and persons at risk are affected by personal and societal attitudes about suicide
Learn risk alerts and develop a safe plan related to them
List the types of resources available to a person at risk of suicide
Make commitment to advocacy, improving community resources and networking
Recognize that suicide prevention is broader than suicide intervention and, includes life promotion and self-care for persons at risk and for caregivers.

A certificate will be provided.

Nikki Schultz has been a part of the Marymound team since 2010, working first as a front line Youth Care Practitioner and transitioning to the role of Clinical Case Manager with the Independent Options/ Young Parents Program in 2013. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in Developmental Psychology and Conflict Resolution Studies, and is an active member of the Winnipeg Suicide Prevention Network. Nikki has both personal and professional experience with the child welfare system and has always sought a career in the field of Child and Youth Care. She strives to teach youth the tools to advocate and achieve success for themselves, while also providing necessary training and coaching to her team, when challenges arise. Nikki has been training ASIST since 2019 and has goals to expand her training portfolio in the future.

Megan Schwartz has worked in the child welfare field for over ten years, with her last seven serving as a Clinical Case Manager in the Treatment Foster Care Program at Marymound. She holds a Bachelor of Social Work Degree and a Bachelor of Arts Degree Majoring in Conflict Resolution. First being introduced and trained in Applied Suicide Intervention Training in 2009 as a participant, Megan has continued to remain certified and found the training to be invaluable in helping children, youth and adults who experience thoughts of suicide, both professionally and personally. In 2022 Megan took the five day intensive course in order to become a certified LivingWorks ASIST Trainer and has been facilitating training regularly at Marymound since. Megan has loved facilitating this training and believes that everyone has the ability to make a difference in helping individuals who are struggling with thoughts of suicide.

Healing Trauma and Loss

Albert McLeod
June 13, 2023
Marymound Training Centre Main Campus, 442 Scotia Street
Registration $199 per person

Albert McLeod is a Status Indian with ancestry from Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation and the Metis community of Norway House in northern Manitoba.

He has over thirty years of experience as a human rights activist and is one of the directors of the Two-Spirited People of Manitoba.

Albert began his Two-Spirit advocacy in Winnipeg in 1986 and became an HIV/AIDS activist in 1987. He was the director of the Manitoba Aboriginal AIDS Task Force from 1991 to 2001. In 2018, Albert received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Winnipeg.

Albert lives in Winnipeg, where he works as a consultant specializing in Indigenous peoples, cultural reclamation, and cross-cultural training.

This workshop addresses the Healing of Multiple Ongoing Trauma-related Loss and Community Devastation. Participants will learn how to support people who experience multiple losses due to alcoholism, homicide, suicides, colonization, child apprehension, conflict zones, and opioid overdoses.

Introduction to Harm Reduction and How Systems Create Harm

Introduction to Harm Reduction & How Systems Create Harm
Manitoba Harm Reduction Network
June 19, 2023
Marymound Training Centre Main Campus, 442 Scotia Street
Registration $199 per person

Rather than focus on individual behaviour, our approach to harm reduction focuses on how systems create and exacerbate harms to people who use drugs and other oppressed groups, often by design and with intent.

This session will be an introduction to Harm Reduction; definition, principals and examples. It will challenge the concept of ‘non-judgmental care’ and explore how values and beliefs contextualize our work while increasing our knowledge of risk-taking and why we engage in behaviours that we know could harm us.

We will look at how racism and colonialism are built into our institutions, our own roles in these systems, and how best to serve people today while working for systemic change.

We know that it is not enough to be non-racist, but that we must be actively anti-racist every day.