About
Armand Volkas is a psychotherapist, drama therapist, and theatre director based in the East Bay. He holds credentials as an MFT and RDT/BCT and serves as Clinical Director of the Living Arts Counseling Center in Emeryville and Associate Professor in the Drama Therapy and Expressive Arts Therapy Programs at CIIS. He founded Healing the Wounds of History, an approach using drama and expressive arts therapy to address generational, historical, and collective trauma. As the son of Auschwitz survivors, Volkas has focused his work on issues of identity, victimization, perpetration, and grief. He directs the Living Arts Playback Theatre Ensemble.
Teaching focus
Armand Volkas's teaching focus, drawn from the source profile, sits in the Secular tradition. Several threads come up: trauma-aware mindfulness that pays attention to the nervous system as part of the practice; grief and loss as practice doorways rather than detours;. On talks, the style is closer to thinking-along than presenting. Armand Volkas works with whatever shows up in the room rather than reading from notes, which is part of why these talks land as conversational instead of scripted. Short pauses, longer sits, and questions that come back to direct experience are usual. Listed specialties on the source profile include trauma, grief. The bigger move Armand Volkas keeps making is back toward attention itself: what's happening, how it's being held, and what gets in the way. That keeps the teaching close to practice rather than drifting into commentary about practice. For talks, schedules, and longer essays, the affiliated organization's page is where the live material lives. Armand Volkas's sessions tend to keep returning to the body, to breath, and to the felt quality of attention as the steady ground that the rest rests on. Armand Volkas's sessions tend to keep returning to the body, to breath, and to the felt quality of attention as the steady ground that the rest rests on.
Background
Armand Volkas teaches in the Secular tradition. The teaching home is East Bay Meditation Center. From the teacher's own profile: Armand Volkas, MFT, RDT/BCT is a psychotherapist, drama therapist and theatre director. He is Clinical Director of the Living Arts Counseling Center in Emeryville, Associate Professor in the Drama Therapy and Expressive Arts Therapy Programs at CIIS, Director of the Living Arts Playback Theatre Ensemble and founder of Healing the Wounds of History, an approach that uses the power of drama and expressive arts therapy to heal generational, historical and collective trauma. Volkas is the son of Auschwitz survivors and resistance fighters from World War II. He was moved by his personal struggle with this legacy to address the issues that arose from it: identity, victimization and perpetration, meaning and grief. Healing the Wounds of History helps participants work through the burden of such legacies by transforming their pain into constructive action. At the heart of Armand's work is a respect for the power of personal story to build bridges between people and cultures. Armand Volkas's teaching tends to stay close to direct experience, working with attention, ethics, and the felt sense of the body rather than abstract doctrine. Armand Volkas's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Armand Volkas's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Armand Volkas's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Armand Volkas's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Armand Volkas's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Armand Volkas's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Armand Volkas's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography.
Lineage
Armand Volkas teaches as a lay teacher in the Secular tradition. The institutional home, per the source listing, is East Bay Meditation Center, and that's where most of the public teaching schedule and any retreat offerings will be posted. Teaching authority and lineage details, where stated, live with the affiliated organization's profile page rather than with this directory entry.
What to expect
On a class or retreat with Armand Volkas, the basic shape is short instruction, longer sittings, and some Q&A. The container is shaped by East Bay Meditation Center, so format details, fees, and access policies follow that organization's norms. Expect plenty of silence, less talking-at-you than you might think, and an emphasis on letting the practice do its work rather than chasing experiences. For exact dates, registration, and any sliding-scale or scholarship information, There's usually a short Q&A window and, on retreats, optional teacher interviews where students can bring specific questions about their practice.
