Australian Psychology Society This browser is not supported. Please upgrade your browser.

Workshop Event

The missing link: Integrating somatic approaches into clinical practice - 20-25 August 2025, Bali

Organiser Banner

Overview

Within psychology, the body and even emotion, has sometimes been sidelined with a focus on the thinking mind, in line with current cultural values. However, when used in isolation, this approach can result in the shoring up of old, previously necessary, but ultimately limiting, avoidance mechanisms, so that authentic change does not occur. This can also lead to ‘stuckness’ in therapy and burn out in professionals who experience the limits of the traditional paradigm, when faced with clients who may have addressed a symptom and come to ‘understand’ why they feel and behave the ways they do, but still can’t seem to change how they feel and what they do.

Developments within the field of trauma therapy and research have begun to place, front and centre, the body, including our nervous system and our emotions, both as a container of trauma, and as a means to heal and re-connect with our ‘true selves’, our truth, our values, and our uniqueness.

Through learning to mindfully tune into the body, and to be with, with compassion, what is held, deeper and more profound healing and growth can occur within our clients and ourselves. Integrating these approaches can allow both ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ processing, encompassing thoughts, beliefs, emotions, implicit memories and the ‘felt sense’, and offering a truly integrative and holistic approach.

Participants will learn how to integrate somatic awareness practices into their usual evidence-based clinical practice, tapping into what is held in the body; trauma, emotion, deep wisdom, and the ability to heal and rediscover wholeness.

Schedule

  • Monday - Friday: Learning component will be from 8:30am to 1:30pm (with a break)

  • Afternoons and evenings:  This time is yours to do with as you wish, whether that be taking a yoga class, swimming in the pool or ocean, joining an excursion (such as local hikes/ temple visits, depending on availability) or just relaxing in the beautiful surroundings of this gorgeous part of Bali. 

Target audience

Psychologists, Therapists, Counsellors, and anyone working with people in a healing or caring capacity. 

Level of learning

Foundational. This activity is targeted both to those new to the topic of somatic work and those with some experience seeking to deepen their knowledge.

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.

Registration & price inclusions**:

  • 20 hours APS CPD Approved learning

  • A limited number of registrations are available, so don't delay in registering.

  • 6 nights accommodation at the Gaia-Oasis Beach Resort, Jalan Singaraja-Amlapura, Dusun Tegal Sumaga, Tejakula, Buleleng Regency, Bali, 81173

    • Earlybird until 31 March 2025 - Resort room:  AUD$3790.00. Secure your place now with a deposit oif AUD$550

    • From 1 April 2025 - Resort room: AUD$4,250

  • 3 delicious buffet style meals per day

**Excludes flights, transfers, or any additional activities you may choose to participate in.

You may also be interested in

For participants who have completed this Level 1 training, immediately after this training, Level 2 training is offered in a 16-hour workshop-style format. Refer to the Provider website for details about enrolling into this additional training and extending your stay to enjoy this experience.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to:

  • recognise the impact of trauma on their minds, psyche and bodies,

  • interpret current psychological approaches (e.g. ACT, IFS and Attachment Theory) through a somatic lens,

  • implement techniques from Sensory Motor, Somatic Experiencing, Internal IFS, iRest and others, to address their client’s body-mind, 

  • distinguish, through experiential methods, the difference between ‘being with, with compassion’ and ‘fixing’.

  • identify work-related beliefs and attitudes that protect against burn-out, and

  • utilise somatic exercises to develop a more compassionate relationship with their own bodies.

Presenter(s)

Dr Kirstie Missenden

About the presenter(s)

Dr Kirstie Missenden
A Clinical Psychologist with over 25 years of post-qualification experience of working with adults in a variety of settings.
Dr Missenden qualifying through the University of East London in the UK, has worked in Community Mental Health teams, on an acute care ward, outpatient psychology services, a primary care psychology service, women’s health service and a trauma clinic, within the National Health Service, before moving to Australia in 2006 and establishing a private practice.
Co-founder and Co-Director of South Sydney Psychology and Trauma-recovery Service since 2018, she works with 10 other practitioners to provide services under Medicare, PSS and Victim Services, to people in our local community in the Sutherland Shire.
Kirstie's post-qualification training includes Cognitive Analytic Therapy practitioner and supervisor training, EMDR, ACT, and Mind Body therapies training (including Internal Family Systems and Sensory Motor Psychotherapy).

Online Registration

CPD Approved

2024-25

In-person Workshop/Retreat

20-25 August 2025
APS members: $4,250 AUD
Prices excludes flights, transfers, or any additional activities
This activity is not an APS event; it is the property of and managed by a Third-Party Provider. Its educational content has been assessed and CPD approved in accordance with the APS Standards for CPD activities.

Bali

Gaia-Oasis Beach Resort

Jalan Singaraja-Amlapura, Dusun Tegal Sumaga, Tejakula, Buleleng Regency,
Bali , 81173
Indonesia
Venue is wheelchair accessible


20 Aug - 25 Aug 2025

8:30am-1:30pm


Show Location

Organiser

Organiser Logo

Dr Kirstie Missenden

Dr Missenden is a Clinical Psychologist, Somatic Therapist, Trainer, and Mentor, with over 25 years of experience in working with adult clients in a wide range of settings and with a variety of issues. She supports her clients in making deep, lasting changes, and creating new, compassionate relationships with themselves and others. She shares her client work experiences, examples of what works well, as well as what hasn’t, and also shares some of her own experience of somatic therapies, since receiving what we offer to clients is invaluable for professional, as well as personal, growth, and allows us to know this work from an embodied place. She aims to de-shame our own experiences as therapists - first and foremost, and with her trainees strives to co-create a safe, supportive space where making mistakes is welcomed and honest reflection on our human experience is supported and encouraged.

Contact: Dr Kirstie Missenden