04 October 2022
Held exclusively online from 14-18 November 2022, PACFA’s Safety Through Diversity Conference will be a ‘collaborative festival of ideas,’ discussing the most important counselling, psychotherapy and Indigenous Healing Practices themes of our time.
Attendees to the conference can obtain up to 6.5 Category A CPD hours per day, with accrued hours based on the participant’s time attending the conference on the Zoom platform.
Register your interest in the conference to be notified when registration opens on 19 October 2022, and to receive updates.
Conference ‘collaborators’ will lead and engage discussions with attendees around 5 themes.
Day 1: Indigenous Healing Practices
14 November 2022
Convened by the College of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Practices, this day will involve First Nations healing practitioners yarning together, sharing their experience and wisdom, exploring the interconnected relationships between self, family and kinship networks while celebrating culture and identity.
Don’t miss this opportunity to hear 6 respected Indigenous Healing Practitioners – 3 men and 3 women – yarning about what Indigenous Healing Practices are and how they are being used to heal the impacts of colonisation for First Nations men, women, children, families and communities.
Collaborators yarning on this day are: CATSIHP Convenor, Jiman and Bundjalung woman, Emeritus Professor Judy Atkinson, CATSIHP Deputy Convenor, Badimaya (Badimia) and Ukrainian woman Bianca Stawiarski, Judy-Kaye Knox, Tod Stokes, Tyson Carmody and Joe Williams.
Day 2: Gender, Body, Kinship and Sexuality
15 November 2022
Convened by PACFA’s Gender, Kinship, Body and Sexuality Interest Group, Day 2 will begin with a morning Listening, Witnessing & Reflecting Space where practitioners and community leaders with GBKS lived experience will share their stories in a safe space.
In the afternoon of Day 2, GBKS practitioners and community workers including the Convenor of the GBKS Interest Group Dr Gávi Ansara will have ‘fireside chats’ about key GBKS themes, including with Professor Damien Riggs about ‘Professional practice with trans young people’: Autonomy violations, coercive control, and anti-oppressive resistance’.
Day 3: The Politics of Mental Health
16 November 2022
The focus of Day 3 is on clarifying where all forms of psychotherapy, counselling, relationship counselling, counselling training, Indigenous healing practices and other forms of psychotherapeutic practice fit within Australia’s health and mental health systems.
PACFA’s CEO Johanna de Wever, Relationships Australia NSW CEO Elisabeth Shaw, and counsellor, author and educator, Adrian Holmes are among key collaborators who will lead discussion exploring the international and Australian history of mental health; the place of counselling and psychotherapy within the broader mental health sector; and challenges and opportunities as we look ahead.
Day 4: Research
17 November 2022
Day 4 will explore how our profession can become more visible; how research can best support the profession and how PACFA can uphold First Nations/Indigenous research methods and processes for healing the impacts of colonisation.
Convened by PACFA’s Research Committee, this day will include Associate Professor Michelle Evans (she/her) and A/Prof Julie Moschion (she/her) from University of Melbourne in conversation with PACFA’s College of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Practices Convenor, Emeritus Professor Judy Atkinson, about a joint research project on historical frontier violence and its impacts on Indigenous Australians today.
Day 5: Summary and review
18 November 2022
The final day will involve previous days’ collaborators weaving together the threads of the conference and discussing the future of the counselling and psychotherapy professions.
Registration for the full five days, from 14-18 November, is only $190 for PACFA members and $90 for student members/ members experiencing financial hardship. Single day registrations will cost $90 for all members.
Register your interest in the conference to be notified when registration opens on 19 October 2022, and to receive updates.