The Emotional Fluency Training for Actors
Working with Emotions: A Practical Approach for Actors, Acting Teachers, Coaches, and Directors
These transformative sessions will take place in Vancouver, June 6–10, 2025 (and Toronto, July 3–7, 2025 )
EFTA workshops offer a comprehensive, somatic, consent-based, and trauma-informed approach to understanding and working with emotion in theatre practice. Using the Emotional Effector Patterns (EEP), participants will learn to safely and effectively stimulate, manage, and regulate emotions with control and agency. This training enhances the capacity to enter, exit, and regulate emotional states, fostering a deeper and safer connection to the acting process.
Why Attend?
Actors, directors, coaches, and educators worldwide—including participants from Canada, the United States, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom—have benefited from EFTA workshops. Participants report:
• the ability to enter and exit emotions with control and without reliance on personal history.
• a deeper moment-to-moment connection with their scene partners.
• a wider range of emotional expression.
• the confidence to work safely and courageously.
• a greater capacity for performance consistency and repetition.
EFTA was developed through extensive research and practical experience, evolving from the teachings of Alba Emoting™ and the Emotional Body® method. This approach was further refined specifically for actors, during a two-year Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council-funded project led by Ines Buchli, Tom Stroud, and Gayle Murphy. Since then, Stroud and Buchli have continued to innovate and expand their methodologies, making EFTA accessible to a diverse range of participants.
A Timely Need in Theatre Practice
As awareness grows around mental health, actor agency, and the necessity for safe, respectful workplaces, it is increasingly vital to rethink how actors work with emotions. Decades of research show that embodying the emotional lives of fictional characters can adversely impact actors’ emotional health. EFTA addresses these challenges by:
• clarifying the differences between real-life emotions and staged emotions.
• teaching a somatic practice for emotional stimulation, regulation, and self-care.
• offering strategies to support emotional well-being.
Workshop Focus
EFTA workshops cater to professional film and stage actors, recent graduates from acting programs, acting teachers, coaches, and directors.
Participants in the workshop will receive reference material outlining the history and evolution of the EEP, the development of EFTA and the correlation to the current research in emotion science and on a practical level:
• learn the foundational EEPs, create complex emotions, and how to safely enter, exit and regulate them.
• explore somatic exercises for classroom or rehearsal integration.
• practice directing or coaching a scene or monologue using the EEP system.
Workshop Schedule and Location
Vancouver
The five-day in-person workshop will take place at:
B.C. Binning Studios
University of British Columbia, Vancouver Campus
Vancouver, B.C.
Friday to Tuesday
10:00 am – 5:00 pm
June 6 -10, 2025
Cost
In consideration of the financial challenges over the last few years we are offering the 5-day workshop at the following rates:
Full Price - $500 (CND)
Early Bird - $450 (CND) Before May 7th, 2025 for Vancouver
Special Discount – for those who have previously taken an EFTA workshop
How to Apply
Email the following information to emotionalfluency@gmail.com :
1. Briefly summarize your theatre and/or film experience and level of proficiency with the EEP if applicable.
2. Briefly summarize your interest and goals in taking the workshop.
Once your application is submitted you will be notified of your acceptance into the workshop within 3 business days at which point registration is required to secure your place.
Registration
A deposit of 25% of the workshop fee is required to hold your place upon acceptance, with full payment for the early bird price due May 7th, 2025, for Vancouver. Payment can be made via e-transfer tstroud5398@gmail.com or by PayPal.
For more information about the workshops or registration visit https://emotionalfluencyproject.com/ or feel free to reach out to us at emotionalfluency@gmail.com.
Instructors:
Tom Stroud (Emotional Body Lead Instructor/Trainer)
Founding Member: Emotional Fluency Project
emotionalfluency@gmail.com
Ines Buchli (Emotional Body Instructor)
Founding Member: Emotional Fluency Project
emotionalfluency@gmail.com
