| Sumario: | Standardized patients (SPs) are healthy people who portray patients. Acting skills could have a positive impact on their performance. An additional concern is their psychological safety, especially with emotionally challenging roles. In collaboration with the drama faculty from the National Institute of Education, we evaluated the impact of acting training for SPs. 20 SPs without prior formal acting training volunteered to participate in a pilot workshop on psycho-physical acting techniques. The 2- day workshop covered basic techniques as well as application to patient roles. We conducted face-to-face interviews with the SPs immediately (n = 20) and 3 months after (n = 17) the workshop. The immediate benefits of the workshop were increased personal awareness, becoming more critical of their performance as well as being more in control of the character they were portraying. Using their imagination to create the character allowed them to imagine the thoughts and feelings of the character/patient without having to identify with it. Imagination gave them the freedom to develop a more dynamic, multidimensional character with room for modulation and adjustment. In terms of psychological safety, not using their own life experiences as their creative substance made it easier to step out of character after the portrayal. Secondary gains were bonding and mutual support from the experience. They also became more aware of student's reactions during an encounter. The use of psycho-physical acting is a potential method that would help SPs create fully faceted characters and yet be able to step out of character easily.
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