Offered by Strategic Interventions, Politicizing Your Practice is an intensive, one-day hybrid workshop for frontline workers, counsellors, social workers, mental health practitioners, legal system players, and community organizers who want to align their practice with social justice and collective liberation.

This training invites participants to critically examine the political and structural conditions shaping both gender-based violence and the systems survivors are forced to navigate. We look beyond individual pathology to explore how trauma is socially produced and sustained, and how our responses—both as individuals and institutions—can either reinforce or resist harm.

Participants will engage in deconstructing dominant trauma theory, challenging approaches that isolate trauma within individuals while ignoring the collective, historical, and systemic nature of violence. Together, we will explore the concept of healing the collective soul wound, address the intergenerational transmission of trauma, and deepen our understanding of mental health through the lens of collective grief, rage, resistance, and survival.

Learning Outcomes:

• Situating Practice in Power: Analyze how colonialism, capitalism, white supremacy, ableism, and patriarchy shape both violence and our responses to it.
• Deconstructing Trauma Theory: Challenge individualized models of trauma and integrate analysis that centres collective harm, historical context, and social violence.
• Understanding the Soul Wound: Explore how structural violence creates and sustains deep collective and ancestral trauma.
• Mental Health and Collective Grief: Reframe mental health struggles in the context of collective grief, rage, and systemic dispossession, rather than pathologizing individual responses.
• Rejecting Neutrality: Recognize the risks of “neutral” practice and how depoliticized approaches can uphold institutional harm.
• Sustaining Political Practice: Learn strategies to resist institutional pressures, understanding co-optation, and ways to stay rooted in community-accountable frameworks.
• Call to Action: Leave with a clear understanding of how to politicize your practice, engage in collective healing, and contribute to structural and cultural change in your field and community.

This workshop is for those who know that supporting people is not neutral work—it is political, it is urgent, and it requires an intentional, justice-driven response. If you are ready to move beyond compliance, this is your call to action.

Meet Your Trainer: Angela Marie MacDougall – Leading Expert in Gender-Based Violence Advocacy & Training

For over 30 years, Angela Marie MacDougall has been a highly sought-after trainer, educator, and advocate, equipping frontline workers, service providers, and community members with the skills needed to support survivors of domestic violence, intimate partner violence, and gender-based violence.

Angela’s expertise is rooted in real-world experience, evidence-based practices, and a deep commitment to intersectional, trauma- and violence-informed approaches. She has trained thousands of professionals, including anti-violence workers, social workers, legal advocates, counsellors, mental health practitioners, and community organizers, ensuring they have the tools to respond effectively to survivors’ needs.

Comprehensive, Evidence-Based Training Rooted in Real-World Experience

With over 30 years of frontline experience, Angela has designed and led high-impact training programs that equip professionals with proven, victim and survivor-centred advocacy strategies. Her expertise is built on leading teams, conducting community-based research, and driving advocacy efforts to improve responses to gender-based violence. Angela ensures that every trainee gains practical, evidence-based tools drawn from real-world practice, frontline engagement, and cutting-edge research—preparing them to effectively support survivors and navigate complex systems.

Why Train with Angela?

• Decades of Training Experience: Angela has designed, developed, and delivered training programs since the 1990s, shaping how professionals across Canada, the U.S., and internationally respond to gender-based violence.
• Intersectional, Trauma- and Violence-Informed Approach: Angela’s training integrates a feminist, anti-oppression lens that recognizes the impact of colonialism, systemic racism, mental wellness, and substance use on survivors.
• Engaging, Practical, and Transformative Learning: Trainees gain hands-on, actionable skills through interactive workshops, case studies, and expert guidance on safety planning, lethality assessment, advocacy strategies, and systemic navigation.
• A Trainer Who Understands Systemic Barriers: As a bi-racial Black woman who grew up confronting racism, misogyny, and systemic violence, Angela brings lived experience and political analysis to her training, making her an authentic and relatable educator.

Who Has Angela Trained?

Angela has led training for a wide range of professionals and organizations, including:

• Community-based anti-violence organizations
• Transition house workers and frontline service providers
• Legal advocates, lawyers, and justice system professionals
• Social workers, counsellors, and mental health practitioners
• University faculty, students, and researchers
• Government and policy-makers working to improve gender-based violence responses

Recognition & Leadership

Angela’s longstanding leadership in the gender equity movement has earned her numerous accolades, including being named a Remarkable Woman by the City of Vancouver and one of Vancouver Magazine’s most powerful people. She is a founding member of organizations like Feminists Deliver, the February 14th Women’s Memorial March, and the Intersectional Feminist Justice Research and Organizing Collaborative, all dedicated to advancing justice for survivors.

As the Executive Director of Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS), Angela Marie MacDougall has been a driving force in developing trauma- and violence-informed interventions across crisis response, counselling, legal advocacy, and systemic change initiatives. Under her leadership, BWSS has expanded its frontline services and advocacy efforts, designed in the interest of victims and survivors receiving comprehensive, survivor-centred support while advancing policy and systemic reforms to address gender-based violence at its root.

Train with an Expert. Advocate with Confidence.

If you’re looking for a trainer with deep expertise, a commitment to empowerment, and a track record of transforming advocacy efforts, Angela Marie MacDougall is the instructor you want. Her dynamic, engaging, and high-impact training sessions will equip you with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to effectively support survivors and drive meaningful change.

Join one of Angela’s training programs and become a stronger advocate in the fight against gender-based violence.