Acting One’s Way to Wholeness: Using the Actor’s Toolkit for Personal Growth
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
What can actors teach us about understanding ourselves, developing our personality and navigating life’s more difficult scenes?
If Shakespeare was right that “All the world’s a stage”, perhaps there is something to be learned from the people who spend their lives performing on it.
This September, BAPT welcomes Cash Keahey (ESFP) for a two-part exploration of personality development, acting and Jungian psychology, looking at how the tools actors use to understand and inhabit a character can also help us better understand ourselves.
Cash will explore this theme in two connected but entirely standalone sessions: an interactive webinar on 10 September, followed by an in-person presentation at the Oxford Type Conference 2026.
Take a look at Cash’s short introduction to the sessions below:
Start with the webinar
10 September 2026 | 19:30–21:00 BST | Online
In this interactive webinar, Cash brings together two of his great passions: acting and Jungian psychology.
Drawing on his lifelong experience on stage, he will introduce the five questions actors must answer to successfully inhabit a role, and explore how these questions can be applied beyond the theatre to the challenges we encounter in everyday life.
The session will invite participants to consider a particular situation or challenge in their own lives and then, working with a partner, to “work their scene”. By approaching a personal situation through an actor’s toolkit, we can begin to explore less-conscious aspects of our personality and uncover new ways of responding.
As Cash puts it, integrating these less-conscious aspects of ourselves can open up powerful possibilities for personal growth.
The webinar will also provide an opportunity to explore the ideas that Cash will develop further at the Oxford Type Conference, although you do not need to attend one session to benefit from the other.
The webinar will be recorded, with the recording shared by email with all registrants within 1–2 weeks following the event.
Booking
The webinar is free for BAPT members and anyone attending the Oxford Type Conference.
BAPT members: log in to your BAPT website account when registering and the 100% discount will be applied automatically.
Oxford Conference attendees: use code CASH100 when registering.
Non-members: £20.
Then take the exploration to Oxford
Acting One’s Way to Wholeness: Personality Development Onstage & Off
25/26 September 2026 | In Person
At the Oxford Type Conference 2026, Cash will take the ideas further in his face-to-face presentation.
If Shakespeare is correct (“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”) and Jung is right (“We don’t so much solve our problems as outgrow them. We add capacities and experiences that eventually make us bigger than the problems.”) then could we not use an actor’s tools to help us grow through our toughest challenges?
It is an intriguing question, and one that sits at the intersection of personality, performance and personal development.
Rather than simply asking us to think differently, Cash invites us to step into the scene. By borrowing techniques from actors, we can experiment with different perspectives, recognise capacities that may be less developed or less conscious, and perhaps discover new possibilities for how we respond to the situations life puts in front of us.
The result is a fascinating meeting point between the stage and the self, using performance not simply as something we watch, but as a way of exploring who we are and who we might become.
Meet Cash Keahey
For 21 years, Cash has facilitated leadership workshops around the world, helping frontline leaders at two technology companies develop greater self-awareness and influence.
Before launching his own consultancy, he enjoyed a diverse corporate career. Alongside this work, Cash has been a lifelong actor and narrator and has recorded five audiobooks, including his own book, Eight Leader Types in the White House.
His experience across leadership, personality development and the performing arts gives him a particularly rich perspective on the relationship between the roles we play, the personalities we bring to them and the parts of ourselves that may still be waiting in the wings.
Two sessions. One fascinating question.
Whether you join Cash online in September, meet him in Oxford, or experience both, this is an opportunity to explore personality development from an unusual and highly practical perspective.
What if one of the most useful ways to understand yourself is to ask yourself the questions an actor asks before stepping onto the stage?
Perhaps it is time to work your scene.
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