Barbara Christofferson Ph.D. is a professional actor and educator, whose research interest is compassion fatigue and secondary trauma, especially as experienced by caregivers.

Barbara has performed and taught or facilitated workshops across Canada and in Switzerland, Berlin, the UK, Guatemala, India and, most recently, China.

Her own play, Traviata, was devised in Gujarat, India.  It is the story of a mother’s recovery from complicated grief after the death of a daughter on the streets. Traviata was commissioned by the Saskatchewan Mental Health Department and was first performed at their conference on Suicide and Grieving. It was later remounted in Calgary and played at the Ready Room, a center for outreach and new play development, as an awareness initiative in support of Street Teams, a Calgary based organization working to eliminate child prostitution.

Currently, Barbara teaches social work students and offers courses in cultural integration to new immigrants and refugees in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Email address: bchristofferson@shaw.ca