Helping Families through Tough Times was a free 1-day regional workshop for counsellors across disciplines. It focused on responding effectively to the emotional needs of families and communities affected by natural disaster.
The project newsletter is available for downloading below (click on image).
Throughout the length of the project, The Bouverie Centre has held workshops in Brunswick, Ballarat, Shepparton, Traralgon, Mildura, Wangaratta, Bendigo, Stawell and Camperdown.
This training was provided to counsellors working in a range of organisational contexts, including: Community Health, Primary Health, Division of GP’s, local government, non-government and not-for-profit organisations.
We combined our own family therapy expertise with workers’ acquired practice wisdom about effective ways of engaging with and attending to the needs of people impacted by recent natural disaster. The day’s agenda included:
- Research outcomes from our 2007-2008 work with Drought Counsellors across Victoria, focused especially on providing accessible and effective practical and emotional support to individuals and families struggling through hard times.
- A recommended model of working to engage people who are reluctant to seek help: successful community development strategies; combining practical and emotional support; using key practice principles from No Bullshit Therapy and Single Session Work).
- Concepts from family therapy and trauma theory, focusing on the impact traumatic events have on family relationships, and providing sound therapeutic principles for working with families recovering from such events.
- Debriefing and discussions of effective ways of managing the impact of secondary trauma and worker burnout.
- Opportunities for practical skill development and networking across services.
Please contact Karen Smith (karen.smith@latrobe.edu.au) for additional information about this project.
