Events Calendar

This practicum serves to assist participants to increase their knowledge base in CT RT and LM and importantly increase their skills by focusing on skills development experiences these applications in practice. Participants will be taught the value of questioning techniques through a combination of lectures, demonstration role-plays, practice, experimental exercises and discussions of Dr Glasser's ideas.

* Discount for AASW members *

This workshop focuses on how to better support parents with an intellectual or learning disability by building knowledge of parents' needs and effective use of resources.

The overall educational goal of this One Day Mental Health Module is to consolidate or extend the participants’ ability to provide key aspects of the Focused Psychological Strategies for the treatment of common, disabling and treatable mental health disorders in clinical practice. This module addresses phobias as a template. This training is practical and cost effective and conducted for health professionals, by health professionals.

* FPS Relevant Activity *

The Artistry of Facilitation is an engaging and dynamic one day course that will assist workers to explore the theory and practical aspects of facilitating training groups. The course will ensure workers have the knowledge, practical skills and confidence in preparing, delivering and reviewing training sessions. The training will also focus on becoming an artist of facilitation – in particular, the subtle techniques and aspects of facilitation. The course is applicable to trainers in all areas – it is designed to suit both beginning facilitators as well as those that are more experienced.

* AASW Member Discount *

This interactive and stimulating 2-day course will assist professionals to explore conflict and impart the essential principles and process of mediation. The structured 5-step mediation model and specific conflict resolution skills will be presented and practiced. The course can be utilised in many different areas of conflict e.g. client work, workplace disputes and interpersonal conflict.

* Discount for AASW members *

This 1 day workshop will assist managers, team leaders and team members to develop insight and awareness of their own and others’ emotions (behaviours, moods, reactions) to intentionally improve individual, team and organisational outcomes (wellbeing) in the workplace. It will also discuss and practice the 7 core EI competencies (skills and strategies) that are essential in the development and management of effective and productive interpersonal interactions.

* Discount for AASW members *

This 1 day workshop will assist managers, team leaders and team members to develop insight and awareness of their own and others’ emotions (behaviours, moods, reactions) to intentionally improve individual, team and organisational outcomes (wellbeing) in the workplace. It will also discuss and practice the 7 core EI competencies (skills and strategies) that are essential in the development and management of effective and productive interpersonal interactions.

* Discount for AASW members *

This one day workshop will assist the manager/ worker/ staff member to understand and demonstrate the skills, techniques and model in having difficult but necessary conversations.

A difficult but necessary conversation is anything you find hard to talk about but know that you need to. The issue is often how to start sensitive conversations that will invite open and constructive dialogue. When interactions become difficult, emotions often escalate and communication can break down. We often fear having the difficult conversation as we are concerned that we may make the situation worse - so we may try to avoid it or if we know we have to have it, we may try and blunder through it.

This course will provide the necessary understanding, skills and confidence to manage the discussion effectively. The difficult conversation in the workplace will be necessary for the manager with employees, between colleagues and with clients or students. It is also applicable for challenging interpersonal conversations. This course will explore the difficult conversation utilising the Harvard Negotiation Project model.

* AASW Member Discount *

This one day experiential workshop introduces you to the fundamentals of the Person-Centered/ Rogerian counselling framework and provides real skill training and practice.

Expand your knowledge and skill in play therapy approaches with children in this practical two day workshop.

This one day workshop provides a practical introduction to the use of music in therapy for clients of all ages.

2 CPD hours

The Field Education Practice Group is open to qualified social workers with an interest in field education (e.g. field educators, liaison visitors, external supervisors and university field education staff).

Pauline Coulton and Lyn Krimmer, social workers at Cranebrook Community Health Centre, will present on making co-supervision work in field education.

Video/teleconference available.

Register here

This one day workshop provides you a theoretical and practical introduction to the use of music in therapy for people with neurological disorders such as dementia, Parkinson's, and for those facing end of life.

Supervision is an essential safeguard for clients, a support for counsellors, and a process through which practitioners can develop their skill and competence. 'The Rise Up Supervision Training' course provides a Certificate of Attainment for social workers, and is run by a social worker.

This 3-day face to face course culminates in a formal assessment phase, and has a pre-reading component of 80 hours. Supervision will become more of a necessity in society as the findings and recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse are handed down, and the National Code of Conduct for Healthcare Workers is considered.

Presented by a PhD qualified, accredited Mental Health Social Worker who specialises in complex trauma with extensive supervision experience and currently working in private practice.

1.5 CPD hours

Please join the University of New South Wales and the AASW NSW branch in a discussion led by Emma Searle, Senior Social Worker at the Royal Hospital for Women - Aboriginal Maternal and Infant Health Service, on how to successfully engage with Indigenous women as a non-Indigenous social worker.

Register by 31 July

The Mental Health and Wellbeing of Young People Seminar equips social workers and other frontline professionals with practical knowledge, skills and tools that they can apply directly in their work to support young people improve and maintain their mental and emotional wellbeing.

Responding to the challenges posed by a rapidly changing online environment, Generation Next is hosting a parallel mental health event dedicated to promoting a healthy digital diet, harnessing the benefits of technology for education and supporting professionals help young people stay safe, positive and responsible online.

Supervision is an essential safeguard for clients, a support for counsellors, and a process through which practitioners can develop their skill and competence. This course can be distinguished from other courses as it offers
comprehensive training with opportunities for hand on experience, there is an emphasis on practical knowledge and skills with the content grounded in evidence-based search an years of practice which brings together psychological and management theories within a experiential model

This course is designed to expand your range of clinical skills with hypnotherapy, psychotherapy & counselling. There is a special component of regression and hypno-analytical therapy contained in this course.

* FPS Relevant Activity *

Many people claim that we will die the same way we choose to live. This workshop will explore this premise and the correlation of the attitudes of ageing with finally preparing for our death.

**FPS Relevant Activity**

Dissociation – i.e. disruption to integrated psychological functioning – occurs in a range of forms and spans a wide spectrum of experiences. These range from `normal everyday’ (e.g. daydreaming, absorption in a task, `highway hypnosis’) to protection from overwhelm (i.e. a response to trauma).

**FPS Relevant Activity**

Learn about assessment, treatment and prevention of anxiety in children and adolescents and specific training on how to run the Cool Kids™ anxiety program. Professionals can complete the training only if they don't wish to run the program.

More information and to register: https://openmq.com.au/course/CEH018

The aim of this workshop is to introduce the integration of mindfulness training with core principles of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy to improve our way of addressing chronic conditions, crisis and prevent relapse in a wide range of psychological disorders. It will describe the important theoretical framework underlying MiCBT and introduce participants to the use of these skills across a wide range of chronic and acute conditions

**FPS Relevant ACtivity**

A Specialist Training in Working with Couples Revolutionise your work with couples. Relationship work can be dynamic, stimulating and highly effective using the structured processes inherent in Imago.

Experience the depth and beauty of this work in creating connection between couples. At the same time enable increased passion, greater differentiation, and freedom from painful attachment cycles. Couples want to experience connection, and our work needs to focus on offering safe practices which enable partners to lower defences and speak from a place of vulnerability and honest.

A one-day, practical course that is aimed at developing skills to improve the effectiveness of your communication.

2 CPD hours

SWID is an AASW practice group for social workers working in the field of disability services, both in government and non-government organisations. Its main purpose is to facilitate support, networking, lobbying and professional development. Any social worker in the field of disability, from any organisation is welcome to join.

Register here by 5 September.

A gold coin donation is requested, to go towards morning tea for the next meeting

This workshop provides a framework for understanding and working with the traumatic memories that underpin clients' emotional reactivity. By observing videotapes of actual therapy sessions and through opportunities to practice, clinicians will develop skills in: assessing for PTSD; decreasing arousal; obtaining a trauma history; and practice skills in processing traumatic memories through graduated exposure

* FPS Relevant Activity *

Learn art and play therapy methods ideal for counselling children 2 – 10 years. Explore suitable toys and materials to best engage and work with children in therapy.

How can we differentiate bipolar disorder from borderline personality disorder (BPD), obsessive-compulsive disorder from obsessive compulsive personality disorder, or a cognitive lack of empathy from the emotional lack of empathy that is part of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD)? Although personality disorders are often talked about, their symptoms can be difficult to recognise - particularly by novice therapists who may be baffled by behaviours associated with personality disorders. This seminar will provide an understanding of the ten DSM-5 listed personality disorders, with an emphasis on: learning to identify the symptoms; understanding the lived experience of consumers; and learning to manage some of the difficult behaviours.

**FPS Relevant Activity**

Learn how to implement Prolonged Exposure (PE) and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Associate Professor Maria Kangas will also teach how to incorporate Trauma Focused-CBT approaches with complex trauma.

More information and to register: https://openmq.com.au/course/CEH028

This one-day foundational interactive professional development training alerts attendees to the possibility that clients, staff members and/or practitioners may have experiences of trauma/s, from childhood, or more recently, which are affecting their health, wellbeing, and daily interactions and functioning.

The unpredictability of mood swings and rages associated with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) can be confusing and challenging for family, friends, co-workers and therapists alike. This seminar will provide an in-depth understanding of BPD and NPD.

**FPS Relevant Activity**

Mindfulness and Self-Compassion is an outstanding workshop. The program consist of didactic and experiential training exercises in mindfulness and self-compassion, to improve professional skills and personal lives. Rapidly expanding research shows that mindfulness and self-compassion are strongly associated with emotional well-being, lower levels of anxiety, pain and depression, better healthy habits such as diet and exercise, more satisfying personal relationships and enhanced self-care.

* FPS Relevant Activity *

Mindfulness and Self-Compassion is an outstanding workshop. The program consist of didactic and experiential training exercises in mindfulness and self-compassion, to improve professional skills and personal lives. Rapidly expanding research shows that mindfulness and self-compassion are strongly associated with emotional well-being, lower levels of anxiety, pain and depression, better healthy habits such as diet and exercise, more satisfying personal relationships and enhanced self-care.

* FPS Relevant Activity *

This series of seminars will apply Arnold Mindell’s most current Second Training and Process Mind and Deep Democracy to clinical skills, Leadership, Facilitation and Holistic Health awareness, in a collaborative, alchemical and experimental way, with a variety of facilitators from Portland and Australia.

This two day workshop on Inspired Mindfulness offers a creative pathway to learning mindfulness. A theoretical foundation will be offered as a contextual frame for understanding mindfulness but most learning will come through immersion in creative mindfulness practices.

**FPS Relevant Activity**

The EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) Certification is a 3 day engaging and deeply interactive course. Over the 3 days you will learn how to use EFT for yourself, with individual clients and in groups.

The wide range of benefits of EFT as a therapeutic tool is being increasingly recognised, largely due to numerous research studies conducted to assess the benefits of the modality.

You will learn to use EFT to reduce stress, anxiety, trauma, PTSD, cravings, pain, phobias and more…

The EFT Certification is suitable for participants from all levels of the Social work profession – from student to advanced practitioner.

*AASW member discount**

This dynamic, scientific and holistic seminar reviews evidence based relaxation therapies, for both psychological and physical health. Relaxation therapies are innovative, preventative and focused health strategies. Seminar participants actively practice and teach simple, efficacious relaxation techniques to enhance clients' health and well being.

* FPS Relevant Activity *

PNI examines links between psychological processes, behaviour and immunity.This leading edge seminar outlines PNI research and evidence of mind-body connections. PNI offers evidence that mind and body are best treated together. Dr Judy Lovas highlights effects of anxiety, depression, pain & trauma on health and immunity.

Improve your knowledge of and skill in working creatively with traumatised children and young people (including those with a sexual assault history). Consider art and play therapy case studies and practice suitable methods and tools to work safely and respectfully with children who have been affected by traumatic events.

*FPS Relevant Activity*

Motivational interviewing is a collaborative, goal-oriented style of communication with particular attention to the language of change. It is designed to strengthen personal motivation for, and commitment to, a specific goal by eliciting and exploring the person’s own reasons for change within an atmosphere of acceptance and compassion. Motivational interviewing utilises the principles and practices of person-centred counselling to engage a person in a conversation about change.

**FPS Relevant Activity**

The aim of this course is to enable the achievement by all participants of a satisfactory level of competence for supervising social work staff in an effective, efficient and sensitive manner.

The course will focus on the development of supervisory skills, techniques and knowledge using a variety of methods, including presentations, small group discussion and experiential learning assisted by the use of video.

**Discount for AASW members**

Doctor Chad Wetterneck from Rogers Memorial Hospital in the USA will show you how to promote awareness, courage, and compassion by using the therapeutic relationship to help your clients improve their relationships outside of the therapy room.

More information and to register: https://openmq.com.au/course/CEH026

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is the practical, educational and evidence based, course that much of the mindfulness research has been derived from. The course will provide you with a personal experience of mindfulness practice, and how this can be integrated with educational material to help build resilience and reduce stress. Whilst professionals are encouraged to book-in for their own benefit it is ikely that you will also find it informs your clinical practice.

**FPS Relevant**

CPT is a cognitive-behavioural treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It was developed in the late 1980s and has been shown to be effective in reducing PTSD symptoms related to a variety of traumatic events including child abuse, combat, rape and natural disasters. CPT is endorsed by the U.S. Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defence, as well as the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies, as a best practice for the treatment of PTSD.

* FPS Relevant Activity *

This one day workshop provides a practical introduction to the use of music in therapy for clients of all ages.

Doing Death and Dying Well (Deathwalker Training) is a 3 day strength based training providing pallative care awareness to professionals working with people who are dying, their loved ones and carers. The training provides legal and practical knowledge around death and dying. It is experiantial and educational in it's delivery, building resilience and developing skills that enable you to accompany the dying person, their loved ones, carers and bereaved on their journey during what can be a challenging time.

This one day workshop provides you a theoretical and practical introduction to the use of music in therapy for people with neurological disorders such as dementia, Parkinson's, and for those facing end of life.

Supervision is an essential safeguard for clients, a support for counsellors, and a process through which practitioners can develop their skill and competence. 'The Rise Up Supervision Training' course provides a Certificate of Attainment for social workers.

This 3-day face to face course culminates in a formal assessment phase, and has a pre-reading component of 80 hours. Supervision will become more of a necessity in society as the findings and recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse are handed down, and the National Code of Conduct for Healthcare Workers is considered.

The course is presented by a PhD qualified, accredited Mental Health Social Worker who specialises in complex trauma with extensive supervision experience and currently working in private practice.

Group facilitation is both a science and an art form and nothing beats a facilitator's feelings of satisfaction when it all comes together and group members feel safe in the group, come to learn from each other and move closer to their goals.

This four day course builds participants' confidence in achieving this . We explore group work theories (mutual aid and Yalom’s therapeutic factors) and experience a range of group activities. Participants are also encouraged to bring along their questions, queries and ideas for discussion. This course has been run for many years by the Institute of Group Leaders and consistently receives overwhelming positive feedback.

Doing Death and Dying Well (Deathwalker Training) is a 3 day strength based training providing pallative care awareness to professionals working with people who are dying, their loved ones and carers. The training provides legal and practical knowledge around death and dying. It is experiantial and educational in it's delivery, building resilience and developing skills that enable you to accompany the dying person, their loved ones, carers and bereaved on their journey during what can be a challenging time.

Complex trauma is highly damaging but frequently unrecognised and inappropriately treated. While current research in the neurobiology of attachment has major implications for treatment of trauma, the potential of these insights is not widely operationalised in clinical practice and confusion about the differences between ‘complex’ and ‘single incident’ trauma persists.

**FPS Relevant Activity**

Supervision is an essential safeguard for clients, a support for counsellors, and a process through which practitioners can develop their skill and competence. This course can be distinguished from other courses as it offers
comprehensive training with opportunities for hand on experience, there is an emphasis on practical knowledge and skills with the content grounded in evidence-based search an years of practice which brings together psychological and management theories within a experiential model

This two-day workshop presents a highly practical and interactive workshop (case-based) for treating PTSD patients; the content is applicable to both adult and adolescent populations.

* FPS Relevant Activity *

This practical one-day training workshop begins with a brief review of historical approaches to couples therapy and how research has revealed the ineffectiveness in those approaches. Ari will then present some of Gottman’s (leading couples therapy researcher) findings about destructive patterns in couple relationships and their predictive validity as well as those aspects that enhance satisfying and enduring relationships.

**FPS Relevant Activity**

Sandplay allows for the projective expression of one's personal inner world. Learn how to use sandplay in counselling for children and adults. Practice methods for introducing symbol work, knowing when to talk and not and how to make meaning from this work.

Western psychology focuses on how I am (thoughts, feelings, behaviour and so on) and who I am (identity, personality, etc). These themes are central to most therapies. However, something is missing, something that has traditionally been the focus of the Eastern approach... and that is that I am, the fact of being, the enduring and underlying self that is so intimate, so essential, so unfailing that it is usually overlooked.

**FPS Relevant Activity**

Calling on his upcoming book Triggered: An Integrated Approach to Trauma, Attachment Disturbance, and Risky Behavior (Guilford), John Briere presents an innovative, integrated approach to self-endangering behaviour, the compensatory avoidance model. Approaches to three risky behaviours will be presented in detail: self-injury, risky sexual behaviour, and bingeing and purging.

**FPS Relevant Activity**

The emphasis of this two-day training program is upon imparting practical, accessible skills to use immediately with survivors of complex trauma (especially child abuse and neglect).

* FPS Relevant Activity *

This workshop explores how both supervisors and supervisees provide input towards key processes in supervision. The topics addressed in this workshop are: silence in supervision, triggers in supervision, self-reflection in supervision and preparation for supervision.

**FPS Relevant Activity**

This course aims to introduce participants to existential theory as something inherent in all client presentations, with a view to broaden their practice framework and interventions.

**FPS Relevant Activity**

This course will teach you the fundamentals of CBT, guided imagery, counselling, stress management and relaxation. The emphasis is on using a positive approach with your patients.

* FPS Relevant Activity *

This seminar aims to enhance counselling practitioner’s knowledge, sensitivity and awareness for working with transgender people. Some of the topics covered will be; awareness of language when referring to transpeople, scales of sex and gender, the current DSM gender dysphoria diagnosis, referral requirements for treatment and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health standards. Specifically, this training addresses background information, terms & definitions, diagnosis criteria, the prevalence of gender diversity & aspects of assessment.

**FPS Relevant Activity**

2 CPD hours

SWID is an AASW practice group for social workers working in the field of disability services, both in government and non-government organisations. Its main purpose is to facilitate support, networking, lobbying and professional development. Any social worker in the field of disability, from any organisation is welcome to join.

Register here by 28 November.

A gold coin donation is requested, to go towards morning tea for the next meeting

A Specialist Training in Working with Couples Revolutionise your work with couples. Relationship work can be dynamic, stimulating and highly effective using the structured processes inherent in Imago. Experience the depth and beauty of this work in creating connection between couples. At the same time enable increased passion, greater differentiation, and freedom from painful attachment cycles. Couples want to experience connection, and our work needs to focus on offering safe practices which enable partners to lower defences and speak from a place of vulnerability and honesty.

Learn practical ways to use art exercises in counselling and group work. This hands-on workshop explores the use of 7 different art media so bring your apron.

Learn art and play therapy methods ideal for counselling children 2 – 10 years. Explore suitable toys and materials to best engage and work with children in therapy.