GANZ

An Introduction to Autism for Gestalt Therapists
2025-03-22 09:00 - 12:00 (Australia/Sydney)
Psychotherapy isn’t meeting the needs of the autistic population. Autistic patients often report psychotherapy is unhelpful and at times harmful and suicide is the leading cause of death for autistic adults without co-occurring intellectual disability, occurring at a rate nine times higher than the general population (Hirvikoski, 2016). Gestalt Therapy’s focus on awareness, without trying to fix or change, is well matched to the needs of autistic patients, yet still requires additional training on autism (Narzisi, 2023). Understanding the common attributes and vast diversity of autistic people is a cultural competence that is often overlooked in psychotherapy and psychotherapy training. As Gestalt Therapists, learning about autism can enrich our ground and support us in better serving the autistic patients we work with.

In this workshop, Jen will draw from her clinical and personal experiences, the lived experiences of others, and current research. The workshop will begin with foundational education on autism and autistic ways of experiencing the world. We will then move into the topic of practicing Gestalt Therapy with autistic patients. Workshop participants will explore principles of Gestalt Therapy including dialogue, field theory, and phenomenology, and how the process of therapy may have aesthetic differences when working with an autistic patient.

About your Presenter:

Jennifer Jimenez Leong, LMFT is an autistic Gestalt Therapist certified by the Pacific Gestalt Institute (PGI). She is a former adjunct professor at Antioch University Los Angeles where she taught graduate-level Gestalt Therapy courses and current adjunct faculty at PGI. Jen maintains a private practice specializing in working with autistic patients and runs a consultation group for Gestalt Therapist trainees. Since realizing her autistic neurotype, Jen has sought to learn not only about her own autistic experience but also the diverse and often misunderstood experiences of the broader autistic community. Dedicated to inclusivity, she challenges stereotypes while educating and advocating for autism awareness and acceptance.

Cost: GANZ Members: $55. Non-GANZ Members: $95.

Purchase your tickets here!

Please note: This webinar will not be recorded.

Webinar: Working with illness, disease and dying from an embodied relational stance
2025-03-29 09:00 - 12:00 (Australia/Sydney)
In this Workshop we will focus on the Embodied sensory Atmospheres that are emergent in the presence of those that are ill, experience disease and on the path towards death. Within the larger context of the health care system and Social Construction of illness (Conrad & Barker, 2010) the Gestalt value of interactional relational experience (Clemmens, 2011, Clemmens, 2025) offers a palliative and validating alternative to the isolation that is so common for people who are suffering in these ways. An overview of this phenomenological and somatic emphasis will be explored and practiced in working with clients who are ill or in the process of death. Participants will be invited to experience and acknowledge their own embodied response to illness and death as well as supporting clients in their own journey.

About your Presenter:

Michael Craig Clemmens is a psychologist and trainer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is a faculty of the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland and teaches at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. Michael is the author of Getting Beyond Sobriety (1997), the editor of Embodied Relational Gestalt: Theory and Applications (2019) and numerous articles on Gestalt therapy, body process, and addiction. His main interest is the complex interaction of our bodies and the multi-layered field.

Cost:

GANZ Members: $55. Non-GANZ Members: $95.

Purchase your tickets here!

Please note: This webinar will not be recorded.

Love and Biology, Parents and Stepparents: The Invisible Relational Field in Stepfamily and New Formed Family Situations
2025-05-07 18:00 - 20:00 (Australia/Sydney)
”Stepfamilies bring out the worst in people and challenge them to find the best in themselves” (Papernow 2013).

As couples increasingly choose to separate, or co-parent, we are likely to come across stepfamily and new-formed family situations, either in our clients’ or our own families. With a relational field that includes biological and non-biological relationships, parents, children, stepchildren, ex-partners, full and half siblings, these families are complicated and hard to navigate. When they work well, they can look like a tribe or network rather than nuclear, with children having a mix of adults, parents and others, caring for them. It takes time for this to develop.

Before a stepfamily bonds or blends, they can be difficult for their members, who can be surprised by acting and feeling in ways that are not what they know of themselves. Unforeseen challenges cause emotions to arise that like magnets, attract and repel. This is the invisible relational field of primitive forces beyond reason; the same as those that on a larger scale cause wars and are built-in to us. Examples are the instinct to further our genes, protect our children from harm, keep our families together, push back invaders, hold on to our partners and it’s all happening within the stepfamily group.

The invisible field constellates around the natural connection between parents and their children. It is more than love, they are part of each other, with children being experienced by the parent as a vulnerable extension of themselves. In most cases, this remains the same when parents have separated. It is not the same for stepparents, and other adults who come into the family. They are less likely to stay connected with their stepchildren if the relationship with their parent ends. Step-parental love is more like that of a mentor, uncle or aunt. However, love takes time to develop and as familiarity grows the step-parent and stepchild are competing with the same person for love, attention and time, as if they were brothers and sisters. Stepfamily couples often struggle with each other’s perspective, unable to hear each other, feeling protective of their children.

The start of stepfamily couples working together is for them to listen to each other even when what they hear disturbs them. It then becomes possible to find creative solutions to stepfamily problems that take both parties needs into account, the ground for consolidation. It’s easier said than done for couples, when the feelings each have are natural, and pull in different directions from each other. Supporting this contact with awareness of the dynamics in these diverse family situations is where therapeutic support is invaluable.

In this online workshop, I aim is to raise awareness of the consequences of the stepfamily field and consider ways Gestalt therapists can make sense of the situation and support their clients. I will present a method of illustrating stepfamily relationships based on biology that shows where the lines of attachment and loyalty run. With presentation, exploratory exercises, discussion in small groups and the opportunity for someone to work with me on either their own, or a clients’ situation, we will explore the relational field of stepfamilies.

About your Presenter:

Claire Asherson Bartram is an experienced Gestalt therapist and has been working in the field for over 30 years. Over the years she has been influenced by other modalities, including developmental and attachment theory, family constellations and internal family systems. Since the start of her work as a therapist she has been interested in stepfamily relationships, beginning with her own family becoming a stepfamily, with her and her partner both having children from our previous relationships. In an early placement she worked as a telephone counsellor for the National Stepfamily Association (UK, no longer existing) and discovered that other stepfamily members were also struggling. In 2012 she completed my doctorate ‘Narratives of Mothers in Stepfamily situations’ in 2012 (DPsych Metanoia Institute and Middlesex University) from which she founded the organisation StepIn ASAP, with other therapists with personal experience of stepfamilies and she is currently writing a book aimed at couples in stepfamilies. Claire has a private practice in London as a therapist and supervisor with individuals, couples and groups. She is a mother, stepmother and grandmother.

Cost: GANZ Members: $55. Non-GANZ Members: $95.

Purchase your tickets here!

Please note: This webinar will not be recorded.

Making the invisible visible: Taking Account of Racial Trauma, Diversity and Power in practice and colleagueship
2025-06-11 17:00 - 20:00 (Australia/Melbourne)
How do we do truly anti-racist work within mental health systems rooted in white, Western frameworks? What language acknowledges racial trauma without pathologising? Are we unintentionally reinforcing harm by the way we respond to distress—or bypassing structural issues through an individualistic lens? And how often do we pause to examine how our own identity and privilege show up in the therapeutic room?

These are just some of the challenging and necessary questions we’ll explore in a participatory and dialogic session facilitated by Hári Sewell. Grounded in psychological safety and gentle disruption, this webinar invites open, authentic conversation—because if not in a development space, when are we allowed to ask the curious, even clumsy, questions?

We’ll examine the power dynamics embedded in the very concept of race, while exploring unintentional bias, racialised trauma, and the real-life impacts these have on racialised people.

Participant learning outcomes:

• Understand the history of race as a concept and how it functions in society today

• Understand racism(s) in its various manifestations

• Learn about how the racialisation process is inherently racist

• Learn about how a racial hierarchy is reinforced in society

• Learn about the socio ecological model that links individual experience with systemic processes that mean that racism is often invisible

• Ability to apply learning to specific patterns of racial discrimination in practice and frameworks for addressing them

Date: Wednesday 11th June

Time: 5:00pm-8:00pm (Melbourne/Sydney)

Cost: GANZ Student Members: $15. GANZ Members: $55. Non-GANZ Members: $95.

Please note: This webinar will not be recorded.

About your Presenter:

Hári Sewell is founder and director of HS Consultancy and is a former executive director of health and social care in the National Health Service in the UK. He has worked for the Department of Health in regulation and policy. Hári is a writer and speaker in his specialist area of social justice, equality, race and culture in mental health. Hári is a Specialist Guest Lecturer at University of Bradford and Visiting Senior Lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University. Hari is also a Member of the Scientific Board of the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health. Hári has had various books, articles and book chapters published, with new material emerging regularly.

Intimate Dialogues: Navigating Conversations on Sexuality in Couples
2025-07-09 17:30 - 20:00 (Australia/Brisbane)
This sensitive, important seminar looks to develop your confidence and effectiveness in discussing sexuality with couples. The interactive session creates opportunities for you to discuss and explore the complexities of sexual intimacy in relationships, offering insights and wisdoms from each other and the presenter, wrapped around Gestalt frameworks and sprinkled with other easily assimilated therapeutic modalities. Participants will gain skills in fostering open, non-judgmental conversations, addressing common sexual concerns, and navigating sensitive topics with professionalism and care. We will be discussing:

• The Role of Sexuality in Couple Dynamics

• Cultural & Social Influences on Sexuality

• Therapeutic Skills for Discussing Sexuality

• Practical and Experiential Approaches on Sexuality

• Addressing Common Sexual Concerns

• Ethical Considerations & Therapist Self-Care

Whether you’re new to couples therapy or looking to deepen your expertise, this seminar provides an opportunity to broaden your understanding, skills and confidence to help couples strengthen both their emotional and sexual connection. Don’t miss this opportunity to refine your therapeutic approach and create deeper, more meaningful conversations in your work!

Cost: GANZ Student Members: $15. GANZ Members: $55. Non-GANZ Members: $95.

Date: Wednesday 9th July

Time: 5:30pm-8:00pm (Melbourne/Sydney)

About your Presenter:

Sean Tonnet (MGest) has been working with people for over 30 years and as a full time clinical psychotherapist, clinical supervisor and international facilitator for the past 17 years. His reputed and respected practice reflects his comprehensive training and clinical excellence in therapy and facilitation. Specialising in relationships, Sean has over 10,000 case hours working with couples and exceptional experience in workshop development and delivery. He melds creative, relational Gestalt methods and contemporary psychotherapy, neurobiology and mindfulness practices within a safe and learning environment. His work with the entertainment industry, including international band Parkway Drive, was recently highlighted on the ABC Australia Story “Getting Heavy”. His work has been reviewed in radio, television and in print. Sean is a highly sought after therapist and facilitator across Australia.

Purchase the recording here!

Peer Supervision Group for Autistic Gestalt Therapists
2025-08-16 09:00 - 10:30 (Australia/Brisbane)
This is an online space for autistic Gestalt therapists to come together and explore what makes us us – our unique strengths, needs, and ways of being in the world. Using our awareness and phenomenological experiences, we’ll consider how these qualities shape our clinical work.

We’ll also explore supports that make our work more sustainable. Together, we’ll get curious about what helps us stay regulated, connected, and resourced, so we can avoid burnout and keep showing up in ways that feel true and nourishing.

This group is open to self-identified and diagnosed autistic Gestalt therapists and will be facilitated by Jennifer Leong.

The group is limited to 6 participants.

Time: Saturdays 9am – 10:30am (Melbourne/Sydney)

Dates: 2025: 16 August, 13 September, 25 October, 15 November, 13 December and 2026: 14 February

Cost: $600 for 6 sessions total

Purchase your ticket here!

Procedural and Relational Approaches in Working with Embodiment
2025-09-06 08:30 - 11:30 (Australia/Brisbane)
This three-hour virtual workshop is intended to highlight the inherent polarity of pattern and relationship in Gestalt Therapy. Through discussion and experiential exercises, we will explore the value of focusing on client’s embodied patterns (nervous system, body structure and developmental movements) while remaining curious and immersed in the dynamic of the relationship. In recent decades a wave of nervous system-based approaches has influenced the practice of trauma treatment and therapy. This has led to some tension between the integration of somatic pattern in Gestalt and other therapies. We will focus on this inaccurate rift through embodied phenomenology using present embodiment understanding and the Gestalt practice of figure ground formation.

Some Themes:

• The Myth of the Objective and Challenges of the Relational Approach in working with Physical Process.

• How to hold curiosity of the client in embodied practice as more than a symptom.

• How to see “the forest from the trees”: staying attuned with the organizing ground of the client’s pattern.

• How to approach pattern from a relational stance.

• The importance of Mutual Patterning between the client and therapist.

Cost: GANZ Student Members: $15. GANZ Members: $55. Non-GANZ Members: $95.

Date: Saturday 6th September

Time: 8:30am – 11:30am (Melbourne/Sydney)

About your Presenter:

Michael Craig Clemmens is a psychologist and trainer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is a faculty of the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland and teaches at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. Michael is the author of Getting Beyond Sobriety (1997), the editor of Embodied Relational Gestalt: Theory and Applications (2019) and numerous articles on Gestalt therapy, body process, and addiction. His main interest is the complex interaction of our bodies and the multi-layered field.

Purchase your ticket here!

Experiential Writing for Gestalt Therapists
2025-10-11 09:00 - 11:00 (Australia/Brisbane)
Drawing on my experience in memoir workshops with people from diverse cultures, undergoing stress, loss and dislocation, I will present techniques to utilize experiential writing as an extension of Gestalt therapeutic work. As humans, we need to come to terms with our life experience, losses, our stories and their meaning. As therapists, so much of our work with clients serves as is a catalyst for our ongoing processing of experience. Writing facilitates meaning making. In the experiential segment, we will do personal writing, focused on our experience of being a therapist. We will read some of the writing in the group and discuss how the showing, writing, telling and letting others see, hear and respond grounds our work as Gestalt therapists.

Cost: GANZ Student Members: $15. GANZ Members: $55. Non-GANZ Members: $95.

Date: Saturday 11th October

Time: 9:00am-11:00am (Melbourne/Sydney)

About your Presenter:

Iris Fodor, PhD, Professor Emerita, Department of Applied Psychology, New York University is a Gestalt psychotherapist known for her teaching, workshops and writings about feminism, women’s mental health and integrative psychotherapy. Iris is a life-long social activist and is also a photographer. She has travelled, taught, and run workshops world-wide. She has also participated in digital story telling projects with adolescents from diverse cultures. Recent work focuses on memoir and experiential writing for therapists. She lives in NYC and Woodstock, New York, USA.

Purchase your ticket here!

2025 AGM
2025-11-23 10:00 (Australia/Brisbane)
The GANZ AGM will be held online on Sunday 23rd November. This is an opportunity for us to gather as a community, reflect on the achievements of GANZ this year. It is also a time for you to bring your ideas to Council, and for us to share our plans for supporting and strengthening the Gestalt community across Australia and New Zealand.This year, we are thrilled to have nominations for two of our members, Ash Power and Claire Taubert, for GANZ Fellow Membership. This is a special moment to acknowledge their significant contributions and celebrate this milestone with the community.Please find the agenda, including the Zoom link and time zone information here.As we need a quorum of 20 members for the AGM to proceed, please consider allowing another member to be your proxy if you cannot attend. The proxy form can be downloaded here. This year, one Council position is open for election: the Community and Membership Chair. Current Council member Zoë Webber has expressed her intention to nominate for a further term in this role. Any other nominations for this position must be submitted no later than 21 days before the AGM (by 2 November 2025) using this form and addressed to:The Secretary at contact@ganz.org.au. You can find the role description and requirements for this position here.

We look forward to seeing you at the AGM!

Embodied Self-Support in the Context of a Traumatised World: Self-Regulation and Resilience for Practitioners
2026-02-21 09:00 - 12:00 (Australia/Melbourne)
As practitioners, therapists and ‘contact partners’ with people in this present overstimulating world field, we are faced with the experience of both supporting our clients and managing our own embodied experience. The naïve belief that we can only work on/with our clients and not be impacted, fades in increasingly traumatised atmospheres. Trying only to focus on the client leads to compassion fatigue or a mechanised procedure of ‘healing.’ So then, what can we do to replenish ourselves and allow the impact of intensities of fear, anger and helplessness to move through us? How do we support our own embodiment?

In this webinar, we will discuss and practice shuttling between our own embodiment and the client’s, grounding throughout the work and releasing after and between sessions. These practices (Grounding, Shuttling, Clearing) are analogous to grabbing our ‘own oxygen masks first’ to support being available both in the moment and in our ongoing practice.

Cost: GANZ Student Members: $15. GANZ Members: $55. Non-GANZ Members: $95.

Date: Saturday 21st February

Time: 9:00am-12:00pm (Melbourne/Sydney)

About your Presenter:

Michael Craig Clemmens is a psychologist and trainer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is a faculty member of the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland and teaches at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. Michael is the author of Getting Beyond Sobriety (1997), the editor of Embodied Relational Gestalt: Theory and Applications (2019) and numerous articles on Gestalt therapy, body process, and addiction. His main interest is the complex interaction of our bodies and the multi-layered field.

Purchase your ticket here.

Please note that this webinar will not be recorded.

Couples Therapy Supervision Group
2026-04-02 10:00 - 11:30 (Australia/Sydney)
This is a closed supervision group with Sean Tonnet for a new six-session supervision group for couples/relationship therapists, supporting supervisee’s clinical excellence through a Gestalt Therapy lens. This is an online closed group for practitioners with experience in/currently working with couples. The group is limited to 6 participants.

Time: Thursdays 10am-11:30am (Melbourne/Sydney)

Dates: 2 April, 7 May, 11 June, 16 July, 13 August, 10 September

Cost: $540 for 6 sessions total

Register here.

Race and Racism: From ideology to consequences in client work and colleagueship
2026-05-02 09:00 - 12:00 (Australia/Sydney)
This 3 hour webinar will expose how ideologies around race are consistent, invisible and how racism is reproduced by good people, with adverse consequences. Central to the scene setting is an understanding of the distinction between racial discrimination (people/organisations treating racialised people unfairly) and systemic and institutional racism that is reproduced as we become habituated in expectation of ourselves and other groups.

The session will adopt a participatory and dialogical approach supported by work on creating a safe-enough environment to lean into the uncertain. The facilitator will seek a commitment from participants to support their colleagues present with a non-judgemental mindset.

Date: Saturday 2nd May

Time: 9am-12pm AEST (Melbourne/Sydney)

Cost: GANZ Student Members: $15. GANZ Members: $55. Non-GANZ Members: $95.

About your Presenter:

Hari Sewell is founder and director of HS Consultancy and is a former executive director of health and social care in the National Health Service in the UK. He has worked for the Department of Health in regulation and policy.

Hari is a writer and speaker in his specialist area of social justice, equality, race and culture in mental health. Hari is a Member of the Scientific Board of the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health. Hari has had various books, articles and book chapters published, with new material emerging regularly.

We look forward to seeing you at this important event.

You can purchase your ticket here.

Gestalt in the More-Than-Human World: Practice, Presence and Responsibility
2026-05-23 09:00 - 12:00 (Australia/Brisbane)
This 3 hour online experiential workshop invites Gestalt practitioners into the evolving field of Gestalt Eco-Psychotherapy – an approach that re-awakens our relational intelligence with the more-than-human world.

Grounded in core Gestalt principles of awareness, contact, dialogue, field theory and embodied presence, this workshop explores how our practice extends beyond the therapy room into the living systems that sustain us. Even in online spaces, we remain embedded within ecological field conditions. Together, we will experiment with recognising the Earth not as backdrop or metaphor, but as living context and potential co-therapist.

This work is informed by Indigenous relational worldviews that understand land as sentient, interconnected, and inseparable from identity and wellbeing. We will acknowledge how colonial frameworks have shaped dominant therapeutic paradigms – separating psyche from land, individual from community, and human from ecosystem. Gestalt Eco-Psychotherapy offers a way of making these field conditions visible and interrupting inherited patterns of disconnection.

Through guided experiential processes, reflective dialogue, breakout conversations, and embodied awareness practices participants can engage with from their own environments, we will explore:

How contact processes shift when the more-than-human world is consciously included in the therapeutic field

Ways ecological awareness deepens presence, regulation and relational responsiveness

How colonisation and extractive worldviews influence psychological suffering and therapeutic norms

The relationship between personal healing, collective wellbeing and ecological justice

Practical and ethical pathways for integrating eco-psychotherapeutic awareness into everyday Gestalt practice — including telehealth settings

Participants will be invited to work with whatever elements of the natural world are accessible to them (a window view, weather, soundscape, plant life, memory of place, back yard), making the workshop accessible regardless of location.

In a time of climate disruption and social fragmentation, this workshop asks: how might expanding our field awareness support decolonising practice, psychological resilience, community responsiveness and ecological responsibility?

Suitable for all Gestalt practitioners and trainees. No prior experience in eco-therapy or outdoor practice is required.

Cost: GANZ Student Members: $15. GANZ Members: $55. Non-GANZ Members: $95.

Date: Saturday 23rd May

Time: 9:00am-12:00pm (Melbourne/Sydney)

About your Presenter:

Ash Power is a Gestalt psychotherapist, educator and founder of Gestalt Sydney and The Relational Institute Australia. With over three decades of experience in therapeutic practice, training and group facilitation, her work is grounded in relational field theory, embodiment and trauma-informed practice, and continues to evolve in response to contemporary ecological and social challenges.

Ash’s interest in Gestalt Eco-Psychotherapy arises not only from professional inquiry but from lived experience. As a previous custodian of 100 acres of Australian bushland, she spent many years learning directly from Country – developing a deep respect for land as living context rather than backdrop. This experience continues to inform her therapeutic and teaching philosophy.

She approaches ecological and decolonising perspectives with humility, recognising the influence of Indigenous worldviews while remaining mindful of her position as a non-Indigenous practitioner. Her work invites an expansion of Gestalt practice toward greater relational awareness, ecological responsibility and community responsiveness.

Ash warmly invites participants to explore alongside her, sharing curiosity, openness, and a sense of care for the wider world.

You can purchase your ticket here.

Connection, Conflict and Co-Parenting: Supporting Couples Through the Challenges of Contemporary Parenting
2026-06-04 17:30 - 20:00 (Australia/Melbourne)
Parenthood, at any stage, is one of the most significant challenges couples will face, and one of the most common reason couples come for therapy. Contemporary parenting movements emphasise emotional attunement and responsiveness to children and while these approaches offer enormous benefits, they can also introduce complexity for the couple relationship. Many partners find themselves navigating exhaustion, resentment, identity shifts and a loss of intimacy, alongside differences in parenting values and expectations. Couples may struggle to find space for their relationship while adjusting to the demands and responsibilities of raising children.

This presentation explores how therapists can support couples who are parents. Alongside understanding the pressures parenting can place on relationships, the seminar introduces a practical parenting framework that helps partners clarify, communicate and align their parenting, supporting collaboration rather than conflict.

Drawing from attachment parenting models (like Tuning into kids/Teens and circle of security & S.T.E.P) the seminar offers perspectives and interventions that help couples strengthen both their parenting partnership and their relationship. The seminar will also include opportunities for group reflection and discussion, allowing participants to share experiences and approaches that support couples navigating parenting and family life.

This presentation will benefit you in:

– Understanding the relational impact of parenting on intimacy, identity and emotional connection

– Recognising common couple dynamics that emerge during early parenting and family life

– Learning a parenting framework that supports couples to clarify and communicate their parenting values

– Supporting partners to collaborate rather than polarise around parenting differences

– Helping couples maintain connection while navigating the demands of raising children

– Strengthening the co-parenting relationship while also supporting the couple bond

Date: Thursday 4th June

Time: 5:30pm-8:00pm AEST (Melbourne/Sydney)

Cost: GANZ Student Members: $15. GANZ Members: $55. Non-GANZ Members: $95.

About your Presenter:

Sean Tonnet (MGest) has been working as a full-time clinical psychotherapist, clinical supervisor and international facilitator for the past 20 years. His reputed and respected practice reflects his comprehensive training and clinical excellence in therapy and facilitation. Specialising in relationships, Sean has over 18,000 case hours working with couples and families as a Gestalt Therapist. Sean is a passionate father and has worked with a number of parenting initiatives including the Heart to Heart Parenting Program, the not-for-profit organisation Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond, and as a facilitator for fatherhood programs with Interrelate. His work has been reviewed in radio, television and in print, and he is a highly sought-after therapist and facilitator across Australia.

Purchase your ticket here.

Illuminating Strengths: Celebrating Sparkly Moments in Supervision and Counselling Encounters
2026-06-20 09:30 - 11:30 (Australia/Sydney)
Reflecting on the positives in supervision and counselling isn’t about ignoring difficulties; it’s about strengthening our sense of competency, resilience, and identity. When we notice what shines, we anchor ourselves in the parts of our clinical practice that energise us, sustain us, and remind us of the impact we have. These moments of insight, attunement and connection provide a counterbalance to the emotional labour of counselling. They help us sustain our wellbeing and maintain perspective and purpose.

In this community connection event, we will engage in small and large group strengths-based reflective processes to honor our moments of connection and growth by identifying, sharing and integrating positive experiences – the ‘sparkly’ moments that highlight our strengths and meaningful therapeutic impact.

Date: Saturday 20th June

Time: 9:30am-11:30am AEST (Melbourne/Sydney)

Cost: $35

About your Presenter:

Sarah Forman is a PACFA-registered Clinical Counsellor, Psychotherapist, and Clinical Supervisor with over two decades of experience across the Not for Profit, Private, and Tertiary Education sectors. She holds both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Counselling from the University of New England, graduating with High Distinction, and has completed training in Dance Movement Therapy. Her practice is grounded in a relational, somatic and embodied approach, with clinical training across a range of modalities including Somatic Intersubjective Self Psychology, Systemic Relational Therapy, Clinical Supervision, and Perinatal and Trauma-Informed frameworks.

Sarah specialises in supporting individuals, couples, and families navigating complex relational, psychological, and developmental challenges such as grief, loss, parenting transitions, and mental health concerns. Her leadership experience includes serving as National Manager of Counselling and Wellbeing in higher education, more than a decade as a senior relationship counsellor and clinical supervisor with Relationships Australia Queensland. and recently served as member of Queensland Leadership Group for PACFA. Across her roles, she has championed inclusive, equitable, and collaborative models of care, while designing and implementing responsive and innovative service systems.

In addition to her clinical work, Sarah is an experienced Clinical Supervisor, mentoring both emerging and established practitioners across Australia. She lectures in counselling at the Australian College of Applied Professions and Southern Cross University and provides trauma-informed supervision for Blueknot Foundation. Her therapeutic approach is warm, collaborative, and evidence-based—shaped by extensive professional training and a rich cross-cultural personal history that informs her work with depth, integrity, and presence.

Purchase your ticket here.
