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*

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (2013–2017) identified Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities as a sub-group of Australia's population that we know very little about. To help heed the call on building knowledge and capacity in the services sector, a cultural competency education program has been developed. It is primarily designed for service providers in sexual assault and domestic violence organisations (e.g. counsellors, social workers, and psychologists), however general practitioners (GPs), psychiatrists, and relevant program trainers, researchers, and policy-makers are also welcome to attend.

The AASW is delighted to be able to offer this continuing professional development program for social work, mental health and welfare professionals around the theme of Building Resilience & Preventing Radicalisation to Violent Extremism - An Awareness Raising Workshop.

This workshop will be offered free to all attendees with priority given to AASW members.

This Amazing and interesting Tool is the "Star" of the Art therapy techniques.

This one-day interactive professional development training provides the trauma-informed information and skills needed by personnel working with people and families with experiences of domestic and family violence (DFV), past and current.

While many of us try to maintain a good therapeutic relationship, this can be difficult. Trauma clients struggle to trust the therapist; many minimise their own traumatic experiences, or become help-rejecting. Others rush into the work, seeking a “quick fix,” despite a long history of interpersonal trauma.

Through the lens of attachment theory, using a relational, integrative approach, Dr Muller follows the ups and downs of the therapy relationship with trauma survivors. How do we tell when we’ve unknowingly compromised safety in the relationship? What happens to the relationship when clients or therapists rush into the process, and how can this be addressed? And how can subtle conflicts in the relationship become useful in treatment? Dr Muller points to the different choices therapists make in navigating the relationship. In trauma therapy, those choices have a strong impact on outcome.

Recovering from trauma is a complicated process. When people reveal too much, too soon, they may feel worse. The pacing of therapy is critical. Here too, the key is in the therapist-client relationship. Dr Muller walks you through the relational approaches that help pace the process of opening up –so that people find the experience helpful, not harmful.

Throughout the workshop, theory is complemented by case examples, practical exercises, and segments from Dr Muller's own treatment sessions. This workshop focuses on clinical skills that are directly applicable in your work as therapists. You will learn specific skills to ensure ethical practice with all clients.

In this one-day event you will learn how to use creative methods to enhance your therapy practice with Sand Play tools with individuals, children and families.

This 2 day Intensive “Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Training” is designed to assist practitioners gain knowledge of how to work with DBT as individual therapists/health care workers and also as skills group trainers/facilitators. Training can be tailored to specific region’s needs and information on how to set up a DBT program including Therapists Consult groups is also detailed. DBT for Adolescents and Children is also detailed in the training.

*Discount for AASW members*

*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. There is also a short pre training to complete online. 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**

In this workshop we will explore how to use Sand Play, Drama, Music, etc in a therapeutic context with children.

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 *

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 enjoyable and information packed seminar will provide participants with new abilities to help clients BPD deal with issues relating to self half, multiple suicide attempts, frequently hurt feelings, intense unpredictable mood swings, shame, trauma, toxic relationships and other problems that impair their ability to function in society.

* FPS Relevant Activity *

Clients with complex needs are often labelled as "challenging" or as "having challenging behaviour." They may challenge your way of working but there are many strategies you can use in order to enhance your practice and achieve best client outcomes. Attend this seminar and learn how you can develop and further modify CBT, DBT and Schema Therapy techniques you currently use to better support clients with complex needs.

*FPS Relevant Activity*

The conference aims to advance the goals of the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2009 – 2020, the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010 – 2022 and advance the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The title of the conference 'Children, Young people, Families | our concern | our responsibility | our future' will be explored through five key themes focused on improving safety and wellbeing while the participation of young people will be a key feature.

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.

This one-day interactive professional development training provides practitioners with the foundational knowledge and skills needed to work in counselling and/or therapeutic relationships with adult survivors of complex trauma.

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 *

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.

Foundation skills for understanding, assessing and responding to cannabis use in young people.

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

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.

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

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.

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

This one-day interactive professional development training alerts attendees to the possibility that their clients and/or co-workers may have experiences of childhood and/or other past or current trauma(s), which are affecting their health, wellbeing, daily interactions and functioning.

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

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 be considered Focused Psychological Strategies. Please refer to the DoH website for further information

This course will help participants develop skills in positive engagement of parents/carers from the outset. The course aims to provide participants with an engagement framework that complements all their existing knowledge and skills. It brings together knowledge of trauma, attachment, shame research, attunement, invitations to responsibility framework, parental ethics, and their role in ethical client engagement.

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

Working with couples can be very challenging and asks a great deal of the therapist in different ways to working with individuals. This training day is designed to give therapists an opportunity to learn systemic concepts when working with couples and participants will learn practical skills and tools to build confidence in this area of clinical work.

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

This one-day interactive professional development training provides the information and skills needed by all personnel working in the legal and justice sector to better assist, advocate for and support the large numbers of their clients impacted by diverse traumas, past and present.

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 to AASW members *

This course will provide the necessary understanding, skills and confidence to manage the difficult discussions 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 course will present a mindful approach to working through loss, grief when learning new ways to cope with a changed world. The workshop will draw on John Kabat Zinn’s (2016) work which suggests that ‘The challenge of mindfulness is to work with the very circumstances in which you find yourself regardless of how discouraging and stuck you feel.’

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

Advanced skills for developing therapeutic action plans and interventions for young people using cannabis.

Join Dr Debra Alvis for a day of cutting edge contemplative and brain based interventions to address a spectrum of clinical disorders. With the seminar's focus on clinician self care, conclude the day feeling renewed energised and ready to apply these new approaches.

* 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 2-day informative, interactive and experimental workshop will offer therapists and understanding of working with couples from a Gestalt and Emotion Focused (EFT) perspective.

• Day 1: Working Confidently with Infidelity
• Day 2: Effective Experiment in Couples Therapy

Participants can attend one day or both days.

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 *

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 *

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 *

Foundation skills for understanding, assessing and responding to cannabis use in young people.

This exciting and newly developed training program provides participants with 39 hours of direct face to face supervision training within a training group over three weekends.
This experiential learning will allow participants to enhance their practice of individual and group supervision within a supportive environment.

Successful participants will be able to apply to be listed as an accredited supervisor on the PACFA National Register.

In this one-day event you will learn how to change the repetitive pattern that emerge in in your client's life using/creating/ modifying mandalas in a symbolic way.

Denise Richman, experienced child and adolescent therapist from Los Angeles will facilitate this serious, yet lively and playful training. Participants will learn about and explore the Violet Oaklander model of Gestalt therapy for children and adolescents. It is more than play and more than art! This workshop will be fresh and relevant for those who attended Part 1, and completely accessible to those who are newcomers.

In this one-day event you will learn how to use creative methods to enhance your therapy practice with Sand Play tools with individuals, children and families.

In this workshop we will explore how to use Sand Play, Drama, Music, etc in a therapeutic context with children.

Advanced skills for developing therapeutic action plans and interventions for young people using cannabis.

As there has been a significant increase in demand for mental health services and a requirement for economical ‘less is more treatment approaches’, skills in brief, focused therapies are becoming necessary. With Psychodynamic Therapy noted for its emphasis on the unconscious, transferences, childhood patterns, and defence mechanisms, one might wonder how it could be adapted to be an effective brief therapy.

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

Weekend Workshop - Using art exercises alongside medical models of psychological and behavioural interventions adds another component to learning, a non-verbal one. Social workers will gain knowledge and experience in attending the 2 Day workshop. 7 Art exercise will be included (no artistic talent required).

*Discount for AASW members*

Gestalt Therapy is an innovative methodology and practice developed by Dr Fritz Perls in the 1960's and 70's.

Schema Therapy has been designed to treat disturbed people, including those with chronic mood disorders and personality disorders. There is now considerable evidence of effectiveness with randomised control trials.

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

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.

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

This workshop will draw from the work of Paul Gilbert, founder of Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), and Dennis Tirch, founder of The Centre for Compassion Focused Therapy. The healing properties of compassion have been written about for centuries, including the Dali Lama who connects compassion with happiness. CFT is an integrated and multimodal approach that draws from evolutionary, social, developmental and Buddhist psychology, and neuroscience.

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

Discover how to manage any kind of Groups: Work groups, School Groups, Groups Therapy, Family work.

This Amazing and interesting Tool is the "Star" of the Art therapy techniques.

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 2 day Intensive “Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Training” is designed to assist practitioners gain knowledge of how to work with DBT as individual therapists/health care workers and also as skills group trainers/facilitators. Training can be tailored to specific region’s needs and information on how to set up a DBT program including Therapists Consult groups is also detailed. DBT for Adolescents and Children is also detailed in the training.

*Discount for AASW members*

*FPS relevant activity*

In this one-day event you will learn how to use creative methods to enhance your therapy practice with Sand Play tools with individuals, children and families.

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.

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

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.

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

In this workshop we will explore how to use Sand Play, Drama, Music, etc in a therapeutic context with children.

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 comorbid 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

Cognitive Processing Therapy for PTSD - A treatment for complex trauma. This two-day workshop aims to train clinicians to deliver CPT. The training is practice-oriented and includes video clips of expert demonstrations. You will also be provided with a comprehensive manual and client handouts (in hard and soft copy) for clinical use.

* FPS Relevant Activity *

Attachment consists of diverse lifespan phenomena. Studies have now expanded including all age cohorts: younger and older children, adolescents, adults and older adults. Both understanding and responding to attachment needs of each group requires knowledge of important differences and similarities, continuities and discontinuities. This seminar provides a unique overview of practical interventions applicable across the full attachment lifespan. For each age group, one evidence-based approach will be engaged whereby specific skills and activities are explored with a focus on applicability for practice. Although fewer practitioners work with every lifespan age group, awareness of the full spectrum remains valuable for understanding clients, their families and their relations.

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

The concept of attachment difference within Attachment Theory has offered a truly valuable framework to understand many of the serious mental health care risks associated with childhood difficulties. This second 2019 attachment seminar extends this focus to addressing a relatively new set of adult differences identified as ‘attachment disorganisation’, something potentially influenced by ‘early and ongoing’ trauma and associated with adult personality disorders. In addition to clarifying current knowledge of ‘attachment disorganisation’ into adulthood, the seminar will also introduce more integrated approaches to treatment that include attachment and might also provide greater direction to our work.

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

In this one-day event you will learn how to change the repetitive pattern that emerge in in your client's life using/creating/ modifying mandalas in a symbolic way.

Foundation skills for understanding, assessing and responding to cannabis use in young people.

Why are some people ageing with a great sense of freedom and others with a sense of despair? Is it just a matter of attitude? What does the current research say about ageing with resilience? Evidence suggests that emotional wellbeing generally increases with age unless the older person is experiencing some major health issue or disadvantage (Centre for Mental Health 2014).

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