Events Calendar

The Queensland Centre for Mental Health Learning (Learning Centre) is a Queensland Health based training provider, offering a range of education options to mental health professionals and other health professionals who are seeking core mental health education.

Online and face-to-face learning opprotunities avaiable.

*FPS relevant activities*

*Free content for QLD Health staff*

Peaceful Kids Facilitator Training. ‘Peaceful Kids’ is a Mindfulness and Positive Psychology based program to lessen anxiety and stress and increase resilience in children from Prep to Year 12. The program gives children the skills, practice and support to utilise coping strategies that lessen the symptoms of anxiety and stress. This program helps children to build their emotional resilience and lessen anxiety and stress symptoms through Mindfulness and Positive Psychology.

This two full day workshop is designed to encompass Focused Psychological Strategies which can benefit the quality and efficacy of casework relationships by adding a deeper Psychological dimension to social work and other practices.

Help couples in your practice manage conflict and deepen intimacy! This is the first step in learning Gottman Method Couples Therapy. A truly inspiring workshop, Level 1 Training will give you new insights into treatment for couples who struggle, using research-based assessments and effective interventions.

The Society’s Postgraduate Training Course in Clinical Hypnosis content, structure, format and inbuilt exercises and assessment will provide social workers with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills that will enable them to effectively utilise clinical hypnosis in their specific professional setting. The Diploma course is unique in that it consists of online study modules undertaken in the home or office, but which are built into a framework of collegial face-to-face training days to promote actual skills acquisition.

Harnessing the fairytale of Snow White as a metaphor, this workshop provides practical strategies for the treatment of complex trauma. The concepts outlined are applicable to all trauma-related symptoms, behaviours and diagnosis.

* FPS Relevant *

Males make up approximately only 30% of therapy clients and when they do attend, it’s not uncommon for them to experience some struggle to engage with the counselling process. If attending as an obligation feeling pressured to attend, they may present with overt resistance and/or aggression. Many therapists feel underprepared to work with men and do not recognize how ‘therapy-as-usual’ can violate some models norms of traditional manhood.

*This training may qualify for Focussed Psychological Strategies (FPS) CPD. Please refer to the Dept. of Health for more information.

Developed by Sue Johnson and Les Greenberg in 1985, Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT) is a short-term systematic intervention designed to reduce distress in adult love relationships while creating more secure attachment bonds

*This training may qualify for Focussed Psychological Strategies (FPS) CPD. Please refer to the Dept. of Health for more information.

In recent years, Chair-Work and among other active interventions have experienced a revival in their clinical application. These methods have been utilised in a range of current therapies including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Schema Therapy.

*This training may qualify for Focussed Psychological Strategies (FPS) CPD. Please refer to the Dept. of Health for more information

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

Domestic violence is often complex: the intersection of multiple lives, histories and contexts. When it comes to prevention/intervention, this heterogeneity presents formidable challenges. When viewed from a few selected perspectives the evident complexity offers new opportunities. One promising approach to such complexity has been research into the identification of developmental pathways and risks associated with domestic violence (DV) and family violence (FV). Such an approach provides at least two benefits: (1) an understanding of antecedents and possible risk (sometimes causal ones via longitudinal studies) and (2) a model to comprehend complexity in current experience.

* This training may be considered Focused Psychological Strategies. Please refer to the DoH website for further information

Narratively oriented therapists take the position that our lives are shaped by stories. We never see the world as it is, we always see through a narrative ‘lens’, we give value to certain aspects of experience and neglect other aspects, we are constantly interpreting what is happening in, to and around us. It is through the stories we have about ourselves, others and life in general that we make sense of things and navigate our way in the world. And how we see the world clearly shapes how we act in the world.

* This training may be considered Focused Psychological Strategies. Please refer to the DoH website for further information

Participants are expected to bring to the workshop a de-identified case of a person in treatment for narcissistic issues. This will be shared in small peer groups and provide a focus for working clinically with such clients.

*This training may qualify for Focussed Psychological Strategies (FPS) CPD. Please refer to the Dept. of Health for more information.

Mindful 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 *

Deepen your understanding of Gottman Method Couples Therapy and expand your strategies and interventions in your work with couples. Practice using Gottman Method interventions in group role-plays while receiving personal, supportive coaching from trainers. This workshop provides a wealth of information about relationship theory, observation, couple dynamics, relationship assessment, treatment planning, when and how to use interventions, and working with co-morbidities. All materials may be used in clinical settings.

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 *

Most people enjoy being heard. If they engage in therapy, they need to be heard. Regretfully, the experiences of individuals are often unintentionally minimised and their realities denied, not only by family and friends but also by professionals. Not being heard, in turn, can increase a person’s feelings of aloneness and create a roadblock to their recovery.

*This training may qualify for Focussed Psychological Strategies (FPS) CPD. Please refer to the Dept. of Health for more information.

CFT was developed for mental-health issues linked to shame and self-criticism, and for work with those who often come from difficult (eg. neglectful or abusive) backgrounds (Gilbert). The focus is not the content of the client’s problems but the affect and attitude the client takes towards themselves in their suffering. The absence or presence of self-compassion has potential to amplify pain or soothe emotional pain, respectively. Kindly & non-judgmentally relating to oneself & one’s emotional experiences is a worthwhile therapeutic target (Germer & Neff, 2013).
*This training may qualify for Focussed Psychological Strategies (FPS) CPD. Please refer to the Dept. of Health for more information

The aim of this one-day workshop is to increase the awareness of the impact of co-occurring substance use and mental health conditions. The workshop will provide opportunities for participants to gain skills for supporting people to reduce the impact of AOD and mental health conditions on their lives.

*This training may qualify for Focussed Psychological Strategies (FPS) CPD. Please refer to the Dept. of Health for more information.

The Adolescent Culture workshop will provide participants with the opportunity to engage and be a part of an informative and experiential/interactive session about young people today. This workshop will include discussions, activities and information on adolescent culture, highlighting what young people are experiencing, feeling, participating in and experimenting with. In addition, participants will walk away with a tool belt with skills and strategies to best engage with and motivate young people.

*This training may qualify for Focussed Psychological Strategies (FPS) CPD. Please refer to the Dept. of Health for more information.

Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) is a chronic disorder characterised by excessive worry, accompanied by somatic symptoms such as restlessness, sleep disturbance, muscle tension and fatigue. It is one of the most common co-morbid disorders, particularly with major depression and other anxiety disorders. GAD is also frequently associated with chronic pain conditions, medically unexplained symptoms and sleep disorders. Estimates of lifetime prevalence range between 4.0% and 7.0%. Because of its frequently chronic course, GAD has the potential to create greater disruption in peoples' lives than other anxiety disorders. Historically, it has been less responsive to psychological treatment than other anxiety disorders, and until around 2000, studies reviewing treatment outcomes based on standard CBT interventions found limited improvements.

* This training may be considered Focused Psychological Strategies. Please refer to the DoH website for further information

In this two-day workshop, the first day gives theory and practice of group therapy. The term 'group therapy' can be applied to a variety of theoretically and practically different kinds of groups from the psychoanalytic to the CBT.

* This training may be considered Focused Psychological Strategies. Please refer to the DoH website for further information

In this two-day training we will explore the function and processes of dissociation and learn why mindfulness is so terrifying yet fundamental to healing. We will take a tour of the most primitive and most expansive areas of humanity in order to learn how to bring quality and peace to our own, as well as our clients, life.

Motivational interviewing is a collaborative, goal oriented style of communication with particular attention to the language of change.

*This training may qualify for Focussed Psychological Strategies (FPS) CPD. Please refer to the Dept. of Health for more information.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy is one of the fastest-growing approaches to psychotherapy. It has developed over the past twenty years into a way of understanding and treating human problems that is empowering, effective, and non-pathologising with an understanding that symptoms are actually the coping mechanism of Parts (sub-personalities/ego-states) trying to protect us from pain. IFS is a powerful model of therapy that enhances mindful awareness and self compassion through getting to know our Parts in a methodical yet intimate way.

*This training may qualify for Focussed Psychological Strategies (FPS) CPD. Please refer to the Dept. of Health for more information.

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

Day One of this two-day workshop provides a historical look at the development in our understanding of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), which includes current epidemiological studies and clinical presenting features. Day Two takes a more in-depth focus on the four
modules, and the general therapeutic stance taken by a DBT practitioner.

*This training may qualify for Focussed Psychological Strategies (FPS) CPD. Please refer to the Dept. of Health for more information.

A growing body of research suggests that health professionals benefit from Mindfulness Based Interventions and Loving-Kindness Meditations that increase their Self-Compassion, since these practices can strengthen their relationships with clients, reduce the chances of burnout and increase overall wellbeing (Bellinghasu, Jones &Hutton, 2014). Applying Mindfulness and Self-Compassion practices in personal life, has the capacity to enhance professional effectiveness and increase longevity.

*This training may qualify for Focussed Psychological Strategies (FPS) CPD. Please refer to the Dept. of Health for further information

This is a rare opportunity to develop understanding and skill in the use of art as visual processing in therapy and particularly in trauma treatment and recovery. When clients find it difficult to talk about an event, situation, relationship, feeling etc. a nonverbal expression can open up expression and make way for therapeutic work. Trauma memory can be a visual reoccurrence or recollection, that is triggered unexpectedly at times and using art becomes a relevant approach regardless of a person’s artistic ability.

* This training may be considered Focused Psychological Strategies. Please refer to the DoH website for further information.

This course will provide clinicians with an overview of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Participants will experience the difference ACT can make and will gain experience applying ACT to a variety of different clinical issues.

*This training may qualify for Focussed Psychological Strategies (FPS) CPD. Please refer to the Dept. of Health for more information.

This interactive session will move beyond the limits of the Recovery Model and Trauma Informed Care to articulate key principles for supporting progress towards recovery from sexual violence in ways that are both effective and accessible. Participants will be equipped to immediately apply their learning in therapeutic practice.

*This training may qualify for Focussed Psychological Strategies (FPS) CPD. Please refer to the Dept. of Health for more information.