Overview
Stable Ground professional development sessions have been created by Olivia Downing and supported by many meditation experts in the design and delivery of this program, exclusively for psychologists.
We have seen the pressure that the mental health system is under, for both practitioner and client, these times are unprecedented, and we also know how effectively meditation can support a mental health healing process for clients, while offering the opportunity to build insight, stress-management and resilience for psychologists.
Not just for CPD, the goal of these sessions are three-fold:
- to provide an opportunity for the participants as a psychologist to experience and learn more about meditation, and how it can support in own self-care,
- to responsibly introduce meditation as an additional therapeutic tool for psychologists providing psychotherapy, and
- to introduce the work of Mediation Australia to psychologists as an additional support for both themselves, and their client groups.
Participants will gain an opportunity to experience meditation for themselves, or refresh an existing meditation practice, and learn how to add the benefits of meditation to client care. With new and emergent research showing the mental health benefits of meditation for both clinicians and clients, the program will include theory and science/research, practical activities, and resources to support psychologists and their clients into the future.
This activity involves the following elements and it is expected that these commitments will enhance participants' learning, application and integration:
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Two live webinars - These will support psychologists in their own self-care, explore how to responsibly share meditation as a tool to compliment existing therapeutic and development initiatives, and inform on how meditation can best support both them and their clients.
- Webinar: Monday 13 October 2025, 6:30pm - 8:30pm AEDT
- Webinar: Monday 10 November 2025, 6:30pm - 8:30pm AEDT
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Personal commitment by the participant to a month of daily meditation practice between the two webinars, and
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Each participant will be connected with a “meditation buddy” from within the participant pool.
Resources & support
Participants will receive email support from the facilitator in between the two sessions, and granted access to a learning manual and free online resources.
Level of Learning
Foundational. This activity is targeted to those new to the topic.
Duration of access
These webinars will be recorded. Access to the recording and resources is for two months from the conclusion of the second webinar.
APS CPD-Approved
This activity has been assessed against the APS Standards for CPD activities and approved for its education quality. Learn more about the APS CPD Approval process.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this training, participants should be able to:
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meditate for their own self-care,
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responsibly introduce meditation to clients, and
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know how to work with Meditation Australia for ongoing support.
Presenter(s)
Olivia Downing
About the presenter(s)
Olivia is a registered psychologist, APS member, registered Senior Meditation teacher, Coach, and Mindfulness Educator. She has also served as a Council member of Meditation Australia
She began her career working with children with autism and learning delays and moved into working with adolescents within a psychosocial rehabilitation setting.
After completing her post-graduate studies, she moved into organisational psychology and worked with Hudson Human Capital Solutions. While she loved the buzz of the corporate world, her true passion lay in helping people unlock their potential. So, she hung up her suit and heels and moved back into the clinical space, working in private practice counselling. Here she was trained in Mindfulness-Based Therapy, and she immediately recognised the power of this technique, across sectors. She also began her own exploration into meditation and mind-body medicine.
Following a three-year stay in the United States, where she set up Liv Mindfully (www.livmindfully.com), she returned to Australia and became part of the team to design and deliver the education and corporate programs for Smiling Mind – Australia’s most popular meditation app.
As a mother of two boys, she experienced first-hand the benefits of mindfulness in parenting and developed the Beyond Blue parenting app-based program – Mind the Bump. She has also developed products and programs for The Resilience Project.
After training to become a qualified meditation teacher, she co-founded a meditation studio in Melbourne called Happy Melon.
Now back private practice counselling, Liv continues to deliver mindfulness-based and mental health education workshops to schools and organisations.
She works within the Medical Faculty of Monash University and is a board member of Meditation Australia (MA). She has a podcast on cultivating connection and belonging called You Are Loved (Apple podcasts and Spotify) and her first Children’s book of the same name will be released in Oct 2022. She is the co-founder of a workplace mental health online program called Mind You.