On-demand Webinars

Prof Melanie Turner

Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) is now a pathway of health care available in all Australian States and in New Zealand. The laws are similar Australia-wide, but differ slightly in each State, applying to people who have an incurable, advanced and progressive disease, illness or medical condition, and are experiencing intolerable suffering from that. In this webinar, Prof Melanie Turner will disambiguate the facts and myths surrounding VAD, covering key aspects including a summary of each region’s legislation and key differences; how the VAD process works and how people access it; the diverse teams of health-care professionals who provide VAD; what families and clinicians say about being engaged in the VAD process; as well as areas which need further considerations. The psychiatry/psychology view of ethics, neutrality and possible values-clashes, as well as grief and loss are also covered. 

Dr Joan Haliburn

“To be seen as lacking in value, or of no value is shameful, and therein begins the internalization of shame” – Russell Meares(1998).

The concept of depression in earlier psychoanalytic writings pointed to its origins in narcissistic vulnerability, developmental trauma and conflicted anger which had no possibility of expression. Hostility directed inwards, childhood disappointment of healthy narcissistic strivings, loss of an important other who is ambivalently regarded, difficulties with self-esteem particularly when reliant on others for regulation of self-esteem, to traumatically un-empathic parenting resulting in chronic feelings of emptiness and depression; insecure and unstable parenting, rejecting and critical behaviour on the part of parents, leading to the developmental of internal working models of self as unlovable and inadequate and others as unresponsive and punitive, causing vulnerability to later adversity or loss, and seeing such loss as failure on one’s own part; chronic devaluation from caregivers, creating shame and depression.

In this webinar, Dr Joan Haliburn will discuss the psychodynamics and psychopathology of depression, the types of depression, role of shame and guilt, and describe an approach to psychotherapy and some of the difficulties one can encounter when treating depressed individuals.

Prof Onno van der Hart

Chronic childhood abuse and neglect can be understood as severe attachment or betrayal trauma because it usually occurs in the intimate [trust-based] relationships of parents and/or other caretakers. Consequently, a child may develop so-called disorganized attachment (DA) and/or a complex trauma-related dissociative disorder. In adulthood, those conditions can compromise other intimate relationships, as well as challenge the therapeutic relationship. Dissociative disorders are understood as a division of the personality into distinct dissociated parts. Each part has its own first-person perspective, whereby DA can be understood as [those] different parts perceiving intimate relationships differently, i.e., either as [desperately] longed-for, or as [extremely] dangerous. Those perceptions may test the therapeutic relationship, evoking severe approach/avoidance conflicts among these parts.

Clinical experience has taught us, in such cases, it is better to strive for a collaborative therapeutic relationship—also as a model for fostering collaboration among dissociative parts. In this webinar, Prof Onno van der Hart will discuss the clinical challenges of working with Complex Dissociation, with parts integration as a major therapeutic goal.

Dr Joan Haliburn

Borderline Personality Disorder is the most researched of all the personality disorders, the most prevalent, with rates of 10% in outpatient and up to 20% in in-patient settings. There are many models of psychotherapy designed to work effectively with Borderline Personality Disorder. However, they have more similarities rather than dissimilarities and in general traverse the same paths. To work effectively with Borderline Personality Disorder the therapist must be prepared to deal with rather difficult transference and countertransference situations, and the complexities of the psychodynamics situated therein.

In this webinar Dr Joan Haliburn will discuss that single mechanism theories are insufficient, that co-morbidity must be taken into account, and that the forming of the therapeutic relationship – the singular necessity – depends on an understanding of attachment not only in the formation of the therapeutic relationship with safety and security, but also its effects on how the patient relates with the therapist and what the therapist must do in the face of sometimes inexplicable reactions and interactions.

Prof Onno van der Hart

A survivor with a complex trauma-related dissociative disorder once remarked that therapists should realize that dissociative people have a great capacity for imagination, which often remains greatly under-utilized. However, imagination may also act as a liability, playing a major role in the maintenance of trauma-related dissociation of the personality, which consists of dissociative parts mainly functioning in daily life (Apparently Normal Parts of the Personality; ANPs) and parts stuck in trauma-time (Emotional Parts; EPs). EPs may intensely and involuntarily imagine, even hallucinate, that the traumas of the past occur again. Such experiences can be regarded as malignant hypnotic trance states, in which the involved part of the personality is caught, having no possibility to reflect on the experience. Indeed, hypnotic states are characterized by a narrowed field of consciousness, absorption, and (often but not always) suggestibility. In this webinar Prof Van der Hart will discuss the application of two types of hypnotic-like guided imagery work in which clients are assisted in voluntary and deliberately realize reaching mutually agreed positive treatment goals:

(1) Resolving specific problems or symptoms with concrete or metaphoric images. Regarding metaphoric approaches, language is full of metaphors, with so-called metaphoric kernel statements referring to something essential; e.g., the way a patient may experience a particular problem. Whether concrete or metaphoric, these pathogenic kernel statements will be taken as point of departure for guided imagery.

(2) systemic work for fostering safe communications and increased collaboration among dissociative parts, in particular with regard to the construction and utilization of protective imagery, imaginary inner meeting places, safe or calm places, confrontation with and titration of traumatic memories, fusion rituals among dissociative parts.

In this session (Session One), Prof Van der Hart will cover hypnotic language (narrowing of the field of consciousness, absorption, trance logic, taking suggestions literally) as related to symptom-oriented and problem solving approaches (pathogenic kernel statements, metaphoric kernel statements, protective imagery and imaginary medical procedures).

Prof Onno van der Hart

A survivor with a complex trauma-related dissociative disorder once remarked that therapists should realize that dissociative people have a great capacity for imagination, which often remains greatly under-utilized. However, imagination may also act as a liability, playing a major role in the maintenance of trauma-related dissociation of the personality, which consists of dissociative parts mainly functioning in daily life (Apparently Normal Parts of the Personality; ANPs) and parts stuck in trauma-time (Emotional Parts; EPs). EPs may intensely and involuntarily imagine, even hallucinate, that the traumas of the past occur again. Such experiences can be regarded as malignant hypnotic trance states, in which the involved part of the personality is caught, having no possibility to reflect on the experience. Indeed, hypnotic states are characterized by a narrowed field of consciousness, absorption, and (often but not always) suggestibility. In this webinar Prof Van der Hart will discuss the application of two types of hypnotic-like guided imagery work in which clients are assisted in voluntary and deliberately realize reaching mutually agreed positive treatment goals:

(1) Resolving specific problems or symptoms with concrete or metaphoric images. Regarding metaphoric approaches, language is full of metaphors, with so-called metaphoric kernel statements referring to something essential; e.g., the way a patient may experience a particular problem. Whether concrete or metaphoric, these pathogenic kernel statements will be taken as point of departure for guided imagery.

(2) systemic work for fostering safe communications and increased collaboration among dissociative parts, in particular with regard to the construction and utilization of protective imagery, imaginary inner meeting places, safe or calm places, confrontation with and titration of traumatic memories, fusion rituals among dissociative parts.

In this session (Session Two), Prof Van der Hart will cover systemic approaches in working with dissociative parts (inner meeting place, imagery for comfort and care, safe and calm places, containment of traumatic memory work, titration in traumatic memory work and fusion rituals with parts).

Prof Andrew Moskowitz

Delusions are the paradigmatic symptom of psychosis, the essence of irrationality. And yet, is there a way in which they could be understood? If we knew what a person experienced in their early childhood, could we possibly understand their delusional beliefs? This is the thesis put forward in this seminar. Beginning with a discussion of the flawed concept of delusions, we look at the nature of traumatic memories and empirical evidence that delusions can be linked to (adult) traumatic experiences. Pushing back to early childhood, we look at the complicated question of infantile amnesia and the psychological impact of disorganized attachment experiences. The concept of the double bind is also introduced, in a discussion of the psychological purposes that delusions may serve. As an illustration of these ideas, the case of Judge Daniel Schreber, whose father was a famous German pedagogue, is presented; his ‘memoirs’ of his psychosis were analyzed by Freud, Lacan and others to support their theories of mental illness. Others have recognized in Schreber’s delusions the symbolic expressions of experiences of childhood abuse. Finally, the therapeutic implications of these ideas are explored – can delusions be alleviated by accessing memories of the experiences on which they are based?

Dr Darren Haber

Is psychodynamic addiction treatment an oxymoron? Does a patient’s active addiction undermine therapeutic process—if yes, how to proceed? Is it true that until a patient sobers up, “nothing can happen” in their therapy? What do we do, if addiction is not a specialty, when substance abuse unexpectedly rears its head as a treatment issue? Join addiction expert Darren Haber, PsyD, as he discusses the psychodynamic treatment of addictive processes and their impact on the intersubjective field. Haber, speaking from many years of experience as a former rehab counselor and addiction specialist, outlines different ways of thinking and working with entrenched compulsivity, as patients’ aversion of affectivity can provoke analysts’ feelings of inadequacy, frustration, or even abandonment. Two vignettes will be presented to illustrate cases where addictive processes foreclosed emotional intimacy or reflection, typical of rigidly concrete or strictly antidotal self-organizations. One vignette features a patient whose child was addicted, where the therapist was enlisted to help “get” the child to stop, the patient a chronic caregiver whose selfhood is chronically de-centered or collapsed. Our clinical creativity, including revisiting our notions of empathy, becomes necessary to get a foothold in facing headwinds of chaos, self-destruction, or the emptiness that comes with those enslaved in addictive systems, as we too may be tempted to “rescue” or save a patient barely treading water.

Dr Jackie Amos

This webinar will present an attachment-based model of intergenerational maternal neglect and abuse of children. The model integrates two novel hypotheses with existing evolutionary research in the areas of attachment and interpersonal trauma. The first hypothesis is that ‘shame-without-solution’ is as important as ‘fright-without-solution’ in understanding traumatising attachment relationships in infancy. The second addresses the controlling adaptations to traumatising attachments in middle childhood and the corresponding hostile, helpless states of mind in adults with histories of chronic interpersonal traumatisation in important caregiving relationships. These adaptations are increasing recognised empirically as integral to the transmission pathway, and although attachment theory provides an evolutionary explanation of development during infancy few attempts have been made to extend an evolutionary understanding to these important observations in middle childhood and adulthood. Dr Amos will outline a second hypothesis that suggests as development proceeds, parents and children ‘utilise’ dominance and submission hierarchies conserved during evolution, to stabilise fear and shame without solution. The model has direct clinical utility and has been used to predict fundamental objectives of any effective treatment approach. These objectives provide a useful structure to guide intervention with families caught in distressing intergenerational cycles of relational trauma, neglect and abuse.

Prof Andrew Moskowitz

Almost 20 years ago, psychologist Andrew Moskowitz published a pair of articles on the relationship between dissociation and violent crime (Moskowitz, 2004a, 2004b). At that time, the relevance of trauma to violence had been recognized (e.g., The Cycle of Violence, Widom, 1989), but the important corollary role of dissociation had hardly been noted. In these two articles – a broad review of the relationship between dissociation and violence and an analysis of the role of dissociation in different types of offenders – a range of important issues were considered, including: a) the prevalence of dissociation in violence, b) the frequency of amnesia after violent crime and its relation to dissociation, c) violence committed by individuals with dissociative disorders, d) dissociation as a mediator between childhood trauma and adulthood violence, e) peri-traumatic dissociation during violent episodes, and f) the role of dissociation in violent fantasies and Amok-style mass murders. Since 2004, these two seminal articles have been referenced hundreds of times in subsequent reviews and empirical investigations. The continued relevance and importance of the issues raised there will be discussed in the context of recent research and publications, along with implications for research, clinical work and forensic evaluation. In this webinar, Prof Andrew Moskowitz will provide a comprehensive overview of the links and overlaps between the trauma, dissociation and violence.

Dr Nick Bendit

Much of long-term therapy with clients with long-standing disorders (such as BPD, dissociative disorders, chronic depression, etc) involves the modification of emotionally traumatic experiences from early childhood. These disruptive and disorganising early experiences are held in early memory systems. These memory systems are not available for conscious reflection, yet organise our clients lives in chronically disastrous ways. This explains why short-term therapy, particularly therapy that relies on conscious remembering or psycho-education, simply don’t work for so many clients. This webinar will explain how most models of therapy need to be adapted to work with clients with early attachment trauma and will describe one particular psychodynamic model, the Conversational Model, that illustrates many of those principles.

Dr Daniel Goldin

Before YouTube and TikTok, before books and poetry, before writing, humans put their stories together in conversation in order to share experiences and make sense of them. In our prehistory, the story never became a concrete artifact capable of being reproduced in a precise way and disseminated. It lived only in talk. And our ancestors continually tweaked their stories to meet current circumstances, to understand more and better, whether those stories were mythic explanations handed down from the past or current stories about the goings-on in contemporary life. Therapists and patients put together stories in a similarly dynamic way, intensifying a process we have engaged in since humans began to herd together on this earth.

Dr Paul Martin

Loss, grief and mourning are ubiquitous human experiences that pervade the work of therapists, psychiatrists, counselors, and social workers alike. Helping those who have experienced a significant loss can be challenging and confusing. In what ways can we tailor our interventions to accommodate the specific temperaments and psychological needs of our bereaved clients? Dr. Paul M Martin will explore research on the topics of complicated bereavement and attachment theory. He will then share his thoughts on the importance of taking attachment style into consideration when designing treatment plans for bereaved clients. Lastly, Dr. Martin will discuss how grief-focused therapy can be strengthened by working with clients to create personal grief rituals that are catered to their unique psychological needs and grounded in meaning about the specific relationship they are attempting to mourning.

Dr Joan Haliburn

In this webinar Dr Joan Haliburn  will attempt to clarify the differences between these terms often subsumed in the term Developmental Trauma Disorder. She will elaborate the aetiology, developmental lines and symptomatology presented and the importance of elucidating these in anyone who presents with a history of trauma. Dr Haliburn will also touch on the history of how BPD began to be seen as a pejorative label by some, with attempts to replace it with PTSD, only to be debated as being too simple when complex trauma was involved, changing this to Complex PTSD. This is a compromise diagnosis – it does our patients a dis-service depriving them of appropriate treatment, which she will discuss with case excerpts.

Dr Nick Bendit

In this webinar, Dr Nick Bendit will discuss the etiological factors associated with deliberate self-harm, as well as explain what drives and maintains those client patterns. He will also discuss assessment, severity of risk of deliberate self-harm, as well as the importance of managing countertransference responses in therapists. Dr Bendit will also clarify how to treat deliberate self-harm with psychotherapy.

Prof Andrew Moskowitz

This webinar will present evidence and explanations for the presence of psychotic symptoms in posttraumatic (including ICD-11 Complex PTSD) and dissociative disorders (Moskowitz, Heinimaa & Van der Hart, 2019). While the presence of psychotic symptoms is not useful as a differential diagnostic tool, certain aspects of delusions and hallucinations may aid in differential diagnosis. Dissociative symptoms provide a more solid foundation on which to distinguish between psychotic, posttraumatic and dissociative disorders; the most relevant dissociative symptoms in this regard will be highlighted. These clues to differential diagnosis, and the conceptual and clinical implications of these differences, will be discussed and important unanswered questions raised.

Dr Joan Haliburn

The term narcissism is most often regarded as a triad of vanity, exhibitionism and arrogant ingratitude, but it also needs to be seen as a state of developmental arrest, vulnerability, where the sense of SELF lacks sufficient inner resources to give meaning to life, simply through living it fully. The role of relational trauma needs to also be understood in the precocious attainment of autonomy, early idealization and identification with the other, seen in the developmental psychopathology of some narcissistic personality disorders. They occur on a spectrum and cannot all be lumped together. We must develop this understanding in the psychotherapy of Narcissistic Personality Disorders. In this webinar, Joan Haliburn presents a developmental understanding of Narcissism and Narcissistic Personality Disorders and the complexities of psychodynamic psychotherapy in these disorders.

Dr Nick Bendit

In this webinar Dr. Nick Bendit will provide some didactic information about suicidality, and then explore why patients become suicidal, and what the function of suicidal thoughts and urges are. Dr. Bendit will develop a general psychodynamic hypothesis about the origins of suicidal thoughts, and the relationship between deliberate self harm and suicidal thoughts. He will then differentiate between acute suicidality and chronic suicidality, and briefly outline the different treatment needs of each group. Dr. Bendit will also discuss how the fear of suicide structures the therapy, and influences the therapist’s response. Finally, some important prevailing myths about suicide prediction, assessment and prevention will be described.

Dr Kevin Keith

Case formulation would appear to be a necessary skill for mental health practioners. Nonetheless, exactly how and when such skills are best applied may be more art than science. Case construction emerged from the historical practice of medical science. However, the transformation of psychotherapy into a form of “medicine” remains dissatisfying incomplete, if not a flawed endeavour. After a brief introduction into the history and evolution of case formulation, the webinar will turn to five challenges as defined by Eells (2007) inherent to engaging formulation in practice. A selection of current modality examples will be noted. In addition to exploring context and specific client needs/goals, considerations will also be given to cultural and social challenges. Focus will also be given to how we might practically apply formulations to the common practice of working in pluralistic multi-modality, when we lack any consensus on what might be considered an integrated therapy approach. The webinar concludes with a discussion of differential applications of formulations to a single model case. Individuals will be asked to generate observations and insights from the standpoints of at least four types of psychotherapy: (1) Traditional CBT, (2) third wave-like therapies (e.g., ACT, MBCT, DBT, CFT), (3) Psychodynamic and (4) the more Humanist. The goal is to demonstrate the possible benefits for each approach to formulation.

Dr Joan Haliburn

Shame is Relational. Shame can be seen as a spectrum of feeling – embarrassment, shame, humiliation, mortification – and is different from guilt. Why a spectrum? When you look at shame that one feels because you judge yourself as inadequate it is qualitatively different and has different implications from the shame caused by sadistic abuse. Embarrassment is mildly related to shame, and mortification is at the level of wanting to die, in the moment of shaming. Guilt does not weigh in about one’s self-worth, its about regretting something one has said or done. Contempt and grandiosity are both reactions to actual or potential shaming and loss of sense of self. Contempt for self – that self is less than worthwhile is often difficult to hear and seemingly impossible to challenge. When we look at Shame as a spectrum, we are better able to tailor our reflections in a proportionate manner and appreciate the extent to which physiology and affectivity are highly linked. As therapists we need to take care to be in a certain frame of mind, create a shame-free frame, with empathy and a sense of not knowing, being non-judgemental, aware of our own shame, and a readiness to create a right-brain interaction, in order to give Shame, light and air (DeYoung, 2015) and restore in varying degrees a sense of Self. In this webinar Dr Joan Haliburn discuss Shame, the spectrum of Shame, identifying and working with shame in psychotherapy. Dr Joan Haliburn will also look at what happens when Shame is Dissociated or when Shame blocks the process of therapy, and how one proceeds to rectify this and restore Self.

Dr Daniel Goldin

When children come to therapy, they come to play. Children organize their experiences by pretending and enacting incidents in the here and now. When adults come to therapy, they come to tell their stories, constructing a unitary, continuous sense of being by matching feelings to events and events to sequences in the immediate medium of another’s mind. In this webinar Daniel Goldin will focus on how narrative emerges from breaks in the canonical ways of a culture, whether it is the culture of the home, the workplace, or a way of being together that emerges in the clinical situation. We will look at narrative first from a developmental perspective, considering how children start by describing “timeless” routines of their surround and move only gradually to elaborating particular episodes that have to do with violations of these routines. We will look at telling experiences as falling along a continuum, on one end chaotic and nonlinear, on the other rehearsed and rigidly adhering to a cultural template. We will then consider the ideal middle ground of the coherent narrative that remains stable and yet open to revision. We will also examine how an ever-evolving self emerges from this process. Lastly, we will consider applications of these ideas to the clinical situation, advocating an elaborative rather than an interpretive stance.

Dr Joan Haliburn

Time is of the essence in most people who come for help from mental health clinicians, and STDIP has been proven to help such individuals in 10-20 weekly 50-minute sessions. Based on the Conversational Model, and on a long history of short- term dynamic psychotherapies, Short Term Dynamic Interpersonal Psychotherapy (STDIP) is an integrated, contemporary, relational and dynamic model, suited to the needs of adolescents and adults who present with anxiety and depression and associated relational difficulties. It is also trauma-informed and can be successfully used in those with suicidal ideation and self-harm. As an active, structured, flexible, phase-oriented, focussed and time-limited approach, STDIP provides therapists with additional skills to work with individuals in a goal-oriented manner. STDIP has been proven to help such individuals in 10-20 weekly 50-minute sessions. In this webinar, Dr Joan Haliburn will introduce Short Term Dynamic Interpersonal Psychotherapy (STDIP) using case examples.

Dr David Schreiber

Psychoanalytic theory is continually evolving, with deep and lasting changes regularly occurring in the way clinicians conceptualize psychopathology and treat patients. Intersubjective-systems Theory (otherwise known as Phenomenological Contextualism) has played a major role over the past four decades in bringing attention to the contributions of both the analyst and the patient in the clinical setting, cementing into place the two-person psychology mindset which has been concurrently (and at times conjointly) developed in the broader, contemporary, relational psychoanalytic tradition. As developed by George Atwood, Bernard Brandchaft, Donna Orange, Robert Stolorow and many other collaborators, Intersubjective-systems Theory has evolved more recently into both a philosophically-influenced understanding of the psychoanalytic process, and a reconsideration from a contextualist and phenomenological perspective of all the major themes in psychoanalytic treatment, including unconsciousness, trauma, psychoanalytic action and affective experience. n this introductory webinar we will explore the theory itself, along with consideration of the practical implications for treatment. We will also take into account the broader context of the development of psychoanalytic theory, and where Intersubjective-systems Theory differs, and is similar to, other contemporary psychoanalytic models.

Dr Darren Haber

“To describe a language game is to describe a form of life.” – Wittgenstein

All language, including that of emotionality, assumes meaning within specific contexts and instances of use. Our understanding of emotional experience takes shape via mutually created language games that are intersubjectively situated; we learn spoken meaning in lived contexts. But what happens with patients raised in accommodative or misattuned surrounds, coerced into speaking the scripts of others—alienated from their own mother tongue? Here the therapist may also find themselves estranged, from familiar language worlds of empathic attunement and curiosity, shunted aside in favor of spoken prescriptions or metaphysical ‘cures.’ ‘Talk therapy’ is a misnomer; we are attempting nothing less than transforming patients’ ways of living, a context lived rather than distantly described or conceptualized. In this webinar Dr Darren Haber will explore how Wittgenstein revolutionized our understanding of language, underscoring its bewitchment via our intelligence, when words and phrases carry assumed ‘truth’ through repeated use and familiarity. He will introduce new ways of thinking about the language world of patients, and what hidden assumptions may be at play in what is or is not being said; describe how both participants are vulnerable to reifying bewitchment; and examine how our own theoretical languaging can make us susceptible to becoming frustrated, confused, or otherwise frozen in dyadic processing.

Dr Joan Haliburn

The importance of the therapeutic relationship has occupied scholars, researchers and clinicians for decades; no consensus has been reached as to what comprises the therapeutic relationship; however, a substantial body of empirical research now supports its importance in predicting change in psychotherapy. Transference, countertransference, therapist ruptures and therapist self-disclosure, have been the basis of some studies attempting to describe the process of psychotherapy and the role of the therapeutic relationship, but each is subject to different variables, which need to be further studied. The concept of the therapeutic relationship went mainstream when it moved from psychoanalysis to the field of general psychiatry, namely goals, tasks and bonds and more recently to other approaches, where the relationship is now considered important.

Along with historical information, Dr Joan Haliburn will embark on another aspect of the therapeutic relationship which has not been pursued to any great length, and quoting Bowlby: “the psychotherapist may become a temporary attachment figure for the patient by becoming a reliable and trustworthy person in the patient’s exploration of his/her experiences – a secure relationship”. Dr Joan Haliburn will, with the use of case examples, explore this idea further, drawing from developmentalists – Daniel Stern, Colwyn Trevarthen, Michael Basch and her own interest in this area both as a psychotherapist and supervisor for more than 30 years, and raise discussion around attachment security and the therapeutic relationship – a new experience

Dr Lynne Jacobs

“To exist is to be in relation”

Buber saw the meeting between I and Thou as the most important aspect of human experience because it is in relationship that we become fully human. The I–Thou relationship is characterized by mutuality, directness, presentness, intensity and ineffability. Therapists view the client – therapist relationship as the foundation of all therapeutic growth because it fundamentally affirms of human connection, validation and participation. The attempt at understanding the subjective inner world of the client is not a one-way street because the therapist must account for their own influence upon the client as both participants come into psychological contact. The I–Thou is a relational event that is co-created; it does not fully reside in one participant or the other. This interpersonal encounter contains wonderful potential that far exceeds two separate people in conversation.

Dr Joan Haliburn

Eating Disorders are common in Australia. The conceptualization of eating disorders has expanded rapidly in the last ten years to include binge-eating disorder (BED) and Avoidant-Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) in addition to the existing Anorexia Nervosa (AN) and Bulimia Nervosa (BN). Adolescence is occurring much earlier nowadays and includes children from 10 to 18 years of age and is a time for first occurrence of any of these eating disorders. They are characterised as disabling, chronic and relapsing conditions with high relapse rates, particularly for those treated as in-patients. In this webinar, Dr Joan Haliburn will discuss the clinical features of these disorders and emphasise the need for their early recognition as well as their co-morbidity, the latter often leading to failures in treatment if unrecognized. Treatments will be briefly looked at, and there will be time for discussion.

Dr Kris Rao

The current worldwide Covid-19 pandemic has seen many professionals transition to working online, and away from offices and organisational sites. Even prior to the pandemic, there were already moves worldwide toward online-based therapy; from SMS- and chat-based crisis support to teletherapy using teleconferencing apps like Skype and Zoom. As a therapist or counsellor, you may already be considering moving your practice online. What is online therapy really like? What are the pitfalls and advantages? What should you do to:

Continue working effectively with clients online?
Implement best practice standards online?
Protect client privacy and safety?
Protect your business as an ongoing concern?

This 120-minute webinar, created and delivered by psychotherapist Kris Rao, will cover key aspects of setting up your online therapy practice; including:

What online therapy looks and feels like; the best practices and what to avoid.
Transitioning existing face-to-face clients to online engagement.
Technology to maximise accessibility, privacy, and business continuity.
Appropriate legal protections for your business.
Special ethical considerations in an online environment.
Responding appropriately to likely emergencies.

Best-practices discussed include:

How to explain and demonstrate teletherapy to clients.
Online therapy tips for clinicians
Protect client privacy on your computer and online.
How to manage rapport interruptions from technology failures.
Understand your legal responsibilities with international/interstate clients.

Complimentary materials provided:

Effective online therapy checklist
Online therapy tips chart
Ethical decision-making display chart
Professional Development Portfolio