Resistance and Re-traumatisation – First Cut is the Deepest

Together Apart BAHRA ACS: Assyrian youth from Syria and Iraq Zoom meetings

Understanding Child Maltreatment Across Ethnic Minority Communities in Australia: Physical Abuse, Neglect, Witnessing Domestic and Family Violence and Child Sexual Abuse

Working with Culture and Trauma when Child Protection Issues Emerge in a Refugee Family

A Review of Trauma Theory Developments over 20 years: Implications for Torture and Trauma Services.

Group Pregnancy Care: Improving Access, Health Literacy and Social Inclusion.

Refugee Children’s Perspectives on Life in Australia: Using Computer-Assisted Interviews to Enable Children’s Expressions.

Supporting the Resilience of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Minors in Australia.

Storytelling and the Refugee Experience.

Assessment and Programme Evaluation Issues in Early Childhood Work With 0-6 Year Olds from Refugee Families.

The Right to Be: Persecution due to Sexual Orientation.

Dialectic Behaviour Therapy (DBT) with Torture and Trauma Clients at STARTTS (Case study)

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) was implemented in a treatment of a female client from Sierra Leone, who had been experiencing symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and who has been experiencing suicidal thoughts.

Why we should aim to cure anxiety disorders, not manage them.

Anxiety disorders', as a category, constitute the most prevalent mental health problem in many modern societies. Efforts to understand the phenomenon of troubling anxiety have been made by many branches of psychology and psychotherapy, from classical psychoanalysis to behaviourism to neuropsychology. Today, in Australia and elsewhere, many individuals are engaged in some form of psychotherapy for assistance with a diagnosed anxiety disorder, and cognitive behaviour therapy remains the dominant endorsed approach to helping these individuals. Many more are utilisjng Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors in an effort to manage the problem. It remains the case that many medical and mental health professionals elect to work with anxiety sufferers to minimise and manage their anxiety, rather than seeking to 'cure' or remove the problem altogether.   

Why we should aim to cure anxiety disorders, not manage them.

Anxiety disorders', as a category, constitute the most prevalent mental health problem in many modern societies. Efforts to understand the phenomenon of troubling anxiety have been made by many branches of psychology and psychotherapy, from classical psychoanalysis to behaviourism to neuropsychology. Today, in Australia and elsewhere, many individuals are engaged in some form of psychotherapy for assistance with a diagnosed anxiety disorder, and cognitive behaviour therapy remains the dominant endorsed approach to helping these individuals. Many more are utilisjng Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors in an effort to manage the problem. It remains the case that many medical and mental health professionals elect to work with anxiety sufferers to minimise and manage their anxiety, rather than seeking to 'cure' or remove the problem altogether.   

Emotion mining: Investigation of conscious and unconscious motivations related to health and wellness

Harnessing the intangibles, catalyzing personal transformation, and connecting patients to support networks are new imperatives in behavioral health care in the United States. These unrealized goals often compete with cognitive, rationalized perceptions and decision making in society. Capturing and harnessing the conscious and unconscious motivations underpinning health and wellness behaviors is critical in developing treatments, awareness programs, and public policies.

Family therapy in Iran: an OCD case study

Iranian clinical psychologists have devised family therapy methods, based on cognitive behavioral models, fitting their collectivist, Islamic culture. We review Islamic-based strategies and describe family therapy in a culturally-specific childhood OCD case. In %80 of adults diagnosed with OCD, obsession is observed to have started in childhood and adolescence. Studies showed that cognitive-behavior therapy, although efficient in treatment of OCD, fails in the case of children, due to their limited cognitive ability and their lower level of development. On the other hand, since childrens response to medication cannot be anticipated, and because of the side-effects and the probability of recurrence after termination of medication, parents do not agree to medical treatment for their children.

Feedback informed treatment utilized practice based evidence

Resolving guilt and shame after trauma: Utilising CBT and ACT techniques.

Shame and guilt are significant facets of post trauma reactions, frequently found in the presentations of many of STARTTS’ clients. Often these require culturally informed interventions.

Working with offender populations: A framework for effective engagement and counselling

In providing counselling to offender populations, cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT) is the model of choice, given the focus is on behaviour change and social skill development. Recent developments have incorporated mindfulness into a CBT framework, to raise awareness of what is occurring in the present moment by intentionally attending to and changing the relationship with, thoughts, feelings and sensations via non-judgmental observation. For many practitioners, the key issue in working with this cohort lies with the decision about where to sit on the continuum between rehabilitation and criminal justice goalhile general counselling practices make the clients' wellness the focus of the treatment process, within the forensic counselling sphere, the key goal in the treatment process becomes the protection of society and the client's treatment goals must be pursued within this context.

Developing and Maintaining Resilient and Effective Therapists: The Role of Supervision.

Providing psychotherapy can be extremely rewarding but can also make a range of different demands on the therapist. These demands may vary as a function of the stage of development as a therapist, the type of caseload, the context in which the therapist works, the volume of work, and the interactions with other situations or events that may be happening elsewhere in the therapist’s professional and personal life. Supervision can have a range of functions, but one important function is supporting the therapist.  Effective supervision is thought to be a key contributor to ensuring not only safe and effective therapy but also to maintaining resourceful and resilient therapists. While other forms of psychotherapy have well established models and traditions of supervision, CBT is relatively lacking in these areas and there is relatively little literature to guide CBT supervision, especially in contrast to the vast literatures that exist for cognitive behaviour therapy.   

What is said and what is heard:

Developing a Community of Practice in Child & Youth Refugee Mental Health.

‘They have no way to get their voices out’: Community Discussions Concerning the Need for Humanity and Inclusion in Australian News Representations of Asylum Seekers.

Interventions for Building Bridges between Police and Torture and Trauma Survivors.

Society, Catholicism and the human person as complex systems and sub-systems

Complexity theory is recognised as the New Science that conceptualises the universe as a system of communicating systems. As such, everything in the universe is better understood by exploring the dynamic, nonlinear relationships between the parts that make up the whole. Psychoanalytic Complexity Theory provides a new, but familiar contribution to contemporary psychoanalytic theory and practice.

Social marketing as a way of communicating social change in social work practice

Social work is broad discipline, incorporating a wide range of different perspectives and theories such as sociology, psychology, social anthropology, political sciences and others. Theories drawn from these disciplines are important for the development of social work theory and practice, offering heterogeneous interpretative framework for social work theory building. They are ranging from micro, individually based approaches dealing with the questions of interaction, communication, or networks between individuals, towards macro approaches focusing on power relationships and social change by and for individuals, groups and communities and within social agencies (Staub-Bernasconi 2009).

Increasing effectiveness of counselling people with disability.

Effective counselling is tailored to meet the special needs of people with disability particularly those with intellectual disability and Autism. Including pictorial aids, drawing therapy and simple communication skills building exercises are helpful. Grief counselling can assist people to deal with their disability, family dysfunction or being raised in residential care. When there is disclosure of past abuse clients are entitled to accessible therapy. Increasing awareness of indicators of loving and safe versus abusive relationships, is also essential. 

The role of emerging communication technologies in experiences of sexual violence and concurrent responses

The Australian Institute of Family Studies explored the role of emerging communication technologies in experiences of sexual violence. These discussions were based on roundtables and included participants from sexual assault services, and the education, criminal justice and youth sectors. 

The Power of Apology

Therapeutic Group Work and even Relationship Counselling itself frequently focus on developing communication and conflict management skills. But as therapists, sometimes we ‘miss the boat’

What is said and what is heard:

Communicative Exchange, Psychotherapy and the Resonant Self

The therapeutic conversation as musical composition

What is Said, what is Heard and what is Felt

Together Apart BAHRA ACS: Assyrian youth from Syria and Iraq Zoom meetings

Group Pregnancy Care: Improving Access, Health Literacy and Social Inclusion.

Partnerships that Work – How Collaboration between Service Providers Leads to Positive Client Outcomes in Regional Tasmania.

Inter- Continental Bridges on Service Development: Community Approaches and Staff Support, When Working With Survivors. Knowledge Exchange Between Equitas-Colombia and QPASTT-Queensland, Australia.

Future In Our Hands: Volleyball Project which Empowered Girls from Refugee Background.

Woven: Weaving Connections across Cultures.

The Role of Community in Recovery.

Challenges and Opportunities of Working with Temporary Visa Holders.

Engaging the Disengaged: Reflections from Bicultural Professionals on Supporting Marginalised African Youth and Communities Involved in Justice and Protection Systems.

Empowerment of Men and Women Survivors of Torture in Countries of Origin and the United States.

Refugee Children’s Perspectives on Life in Australia: Using Computer-Assisted Interviews to Enable Children’s Expressions.

Refugee Settlement, Social Media and Responding to Trauma.

The Figure 8 Trauma Cycle and the Conversational Model

An Examination of Intergenerational Conflict in Families from Refugee Backgrounds and Parent’s Perception of Family Counselling.

T.E.A Gathering (Talking. Empowering. Advocating) - African Young Women Perspective and Experiences on Issues Related to Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence.

Interventions for Building Bridges between Police and Torture and Trauma Survivors.

The Power of Apology

Therapeutic Group Work and even Relationship Counselling itself frequently focus on developing communication and conflict management skills. But as therapists, sometimes we ‘miss the boat’

Meaning Making in Conversion Disorder

Defining the concept of spirituality among Filipino counselors and clients.

Refugee Trauma Clients with Suicidality: The case of Nadia

The Figure 8 Trauma Cycle and the Conversational Model

Providing Clinical Interventions for Refugees during the COVID-19 Pandemic: European Perspectives

Lost and Found in Interpretation.

An Evaluation of Physiotherapy for the Management of Chronic Pain in Torture and Trauma Survivors.

Using Creative Arts and Play in a School Group for Children from a Refugee Background.

The Psychological and Social Trajectories of Refugees and Asylum Seekers Receiving Support from Specialist Torture and Trauma Counselling Services in Australia.

Developing a Community of Practice in Child & Youth Refugee Mental Health.

Inter- Continental Bridges on Service Development: Community Approaches and Staff Support, When Working With Survivors. Knowledge Exchange Between Equitas-Colombia and QPASTT-Queensland, Australia.