Overview
A one-day professional development event and networking dinner, designed to promote depth, integration, and sustainable practice in contemporary psychology. Featuring expert presentations from Dr Rita Younan (schema formulation), Tania Kalkidis (working with client defences), and Dr Shai Hipperson (future directions in psychedelic-assisted therapy), the conference combines evidence-based learning with structured reflective practice. Intentionally designed to reduce cognitive overload, the day incorporates facilitated integration exercises, breakout discussions, and psychologically safe spaces to support application to clinical work. The conference aims to strengthen formulation skills, therapeutic effectiveness, ethical awareness, and clinician wellbeing through thoughtful, practice-oriented learning.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this conference, participants will be able to:
- Apply advanced schema formulation principles to enhance case conceptualisation and guide evidence-based intervention planning.
- Identify and respond effectively to client defence mechanisms, integrating formulation-informed strategies to strengthen therapeutic alliance and treatment outcomes.
- Critically evaluate emerging developments in psychedelic-assisted therapy, including current evidence, ethical considerations, and implications for psychological practice.
- Integrate reflective practice techniques to consolidate learning and translate theoretical knowledge into clinical application.
- Strengthen ethical decision-making and professional judgement in complex clinical presentations.
- Develop strategies to support sustainable psychological practice, reducing cognitive overload and promoting clinician wellbeing.
Presenter(s)
Dr Rita Younan; Shai Hipperson; Tania Kalkidis
About the presenter(s)
Dr Rita Younan: Rita is the Founder and Managing Clinical Director of Schema Therapy Institute Australia (STIA), an AHPRA-endorsed supervisor, Vice President of the Jeffrey Young ST Association - Events and Symposia, and an Advanced Schema Therapy Supervisor/Trainer (ISST). She travels internationally delivering Schema Therapy training and is renowned as an excellent presenter and facilitator. Her keynote will explore Integrated Formulation for Meaningful Change, demonstrating how schema formulation can guide effective, coherent treatment, particularly in complex presentations.
Shai Hipperson: Shai is a proud Ngarigo woman and the Principal and Clinical Psychologist at Conscious Mind Centre, Australia’s first Indigenous and psychology-led Medicine-Assisted Therapy clinic, and the first authorised clinic in Queensland delivering Medicine-Assisted Therapy alongside an Authorised Prescriber psychiatrist.
Tania Kalkidis: Tania is a Clinical Psychologist, Child Psychologist, Psychotherapist, and Board-Approved Supervisor with over 30 years of experience working with adults, children, adolescents, and couples. Her work focuses on understanding the relational and emotional processes that underpin engagement, motivation, and avoidance in therapy.
Drawing on psychodynamic psychotherapy, attachment and relational theory, as well as neuroscience, Tania supports clinicians to work skilfully with resistance and ambivalence, viewing avoidance as meaningful communication rather than opposition.
Notes
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