Reconnexion's fifth National Annual Conference on Anxiety and Depression will be held on Monday 17 and Tuesday 18 May 2010 at The Sebel-Albert Park,  Melbourne.

'Standing on the Edge: what is the way of the future?'

If you work with people experiencing anxiety and depression you can't afford to miss this conference!  Reconnexion has a history of delivering excellent conferences which are focused on practical information which can be integrated into practice.  Each conference has been received enthusiastically by the delegates who have commented that they feel better equipped to help their clients after attending. The conference program for 2010 provides diverse and thought provoking approaches to the treatment of anxiety disorders and/or depression from a range of established practitioners and experts in their field. The conference will be a combination of plenary presentations and concurrent workshops giving you the opportunity to attend sessions which suit your practice Two 1 day workshops with be held on Wednesday 19 May 2010 Professor Steve Hollon, Vanderbilt University,USA "Cognitive Behaviour Therapy: From Action to Insight (and Back Again)" Professor Paula Barrett, Pathways Health & Research Centre  “Focus for Life - an evidence based CBT treatments approach to OCD” What people said about our 2009 conference ‘Refreshing to hear new/alternative ways of viewing depression/anxiety and their treatment’. ‘ A fascinating and captivating conference of high quality and diverse presentation’.  ‘This was a well organized, informative and inspirational conference, some amazing presentations’.  ‘Very well organized conference – great cross section of speakers. Found the material more relevant to my work (social work) than initially expected. Great.’   For more information please contact Education & Training Manager Janet Haynes by email janet@reconnexion.org.au or phone 61 3 9886 9400.   Click here to download brochure   Click here to register

Presenters include; Professor Steve Hollon, Vanderbilt University, USA Traleg Rinpoche, Kagyu E-Vam Buddhist Institute Dr Norman Swan, Host of the Health Report Professor Gavin Andrews, CRUFAD, UNSW Associate Professor David Austin, National e-Therapy Centre Professor Paula Barrett, Pathways Health & Research Centre, QLD Associate Professor James Bennett-Levy, University of Sydney & Southern Cross University Steve Brown, Community Health & Private Practice Professor Helen Christensen, Centre for Mental Health Research, ANU Professor Kathy Griffiths, Centre for Mental Health Research, ANU Dr Nicole Highet, beyondblue: the national depression initiative

Professor Jayashri Kulkarni, Monash/Alfred Psychiatric Research Centre Lynne Little, Reconnexion Helen Mentha, Mentha Consulting Associate Professor Tricia Nagel, Menzies School of Health Research Dr Suzanne Nielsen, Turning Point Alcohol & Drug Centre Gretel O'Loughlin, Royal Childrens Hospital Marilyn O'Neill, Australian Narrative Therapy Centre Dr Jerome Sarris, University of Melbourne & Swinburne University Sonja Skocic, Reconnexion Jenni Thompson, Knox Community Health Service Megan Thorpe, Buddist Psychotherapy Iudita Trifa-Schmidt

This conference will give practitioners information and strategies to help them in their practice and explore the way services can be delivered in the future.

 REGISTRATION FEES  (ALL PRICES INCLUSIVE OF GST)

	EARLY BIRD (Closes 31 March 2010)	STANDARD	NEW GRAD	FULL TIME STUDENT
Day One & Two	$445	$495	$328	$228
Day One only	$250	$295	$200	$155
Day Two only	$250	$295	$200	$155

Organisations registering 4 or more people are offered a 10% discount

Canapé Capers – Meet The Experts	Monday 17 May 5:30 – 6:30 pm	$15 (complementary with 2 day registration)
Conference Dinner	Monday 17 May 7:00 pm	$100

   

Wednesday 19 May 1 day workshops 

Cognitive Behavior Therapy: From Action to Insight (and Back Again)  - Presented by Professor Steve Hollon

"Focus for Life – an evidence based CBT treatment approach to OCD” - Presented by Professor Paula Barrett

	EARLY BIRD   (Closes 31 March 2010)	STANDARD	NEW GRAD	FULL TIME STUDENT
Workshop registration	$280	$340	$210	$165 *limited spaces available

Registrations for one day workshop in addition to both days of conference attract a 10% discount
Students bookings require student I.D.           New Grad bookings require copy of registration 

Professor Steve Hollon workshop:  "Cognitive Behaviour Therapy: From Action to Insight (and Back Again)"  

Workshop Overview:   This workshop will focus on the treatment of depression with special attention paid to the way the approach has evolved over time to deal with more complicated patients. Basic cognitive and behavioral techniques will be described that can be applied to all patients and special strategies presented for dealing with patients with more chronic depressions or comorbid personality disorders. These strategies largely revolve around attending to early childhood antecedents and problems that arise in the therapeutic relationship in addition to the usual focus on current life concerns (the “three-legged” stool) and a renewed focus on the identification and modification of core beliefs and underlying assumptions.

Key features include:
(a)       Cognitive conceptualizations
(b)       Training in self-monitoring
(c)        Behavioral activation and experimentation
(d)       Identifying automatic thoughts and biases
(e)        Examining the accuracy of thoughts and biases(
(f)        Core beliefs and underlying assumptions
(g)       Termination and relapse prevention


Professor Paula Barrett workshop:  “Focus for Life - an evidence based CBT treatments approach to OCD for children & adults”  

Workshop Overview:  This workshop will give participants the theoretical and research basis of CBT treatment for OCD treatment of children and adults within a family context. It will also explain the specific CBT techniques for OCD in detail and give case examples for discussion. DVDs of real clinical cases will be shown and discussed.

Continuing Professional Development Points

Continuing professional development points through relevant colleges and associations will be available for attendance at the Reconnexion 2010 Anxiety and Depression Conference, ‘Standing on the Edge: what is the way of the future?’ CPD points will also be available for attendance at the one day workshops.

How to Claim Points

For details on how to claim points for continuing professional development (CPD) for attendance at the conference please see the reporting requirements of your professional association listed below. Members of professional associations not listed here should contact their association directly to enquire about CPD point recognition. 

Australian Psychological Society (APS)
APS members can self-report attendance at the conference. For further details visit the APS website

Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW)
Only actual learning time may be included; one point per hour of learning time, for more information visit the AASW website

Australian Association of Occupational Therapists
By attending this Continuing Professional Development event you may be able to claim points towards the Accredited Occupational Therapist Program CPD points.  Please check the CPD section in your AccOT manual.

Certificates of Attendance
All delegates will receive a certificate of attendance at the conference. If you require additional proof of attendance, please contact Reconnexion.

KEYNOTE PRESENTERS

Professor Steve Hollon          Vanderbilt University, USA

Steven D. Hollon, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychology at Vanderbilt University.  He received his doctorate from the Florida State University in 1977 with an internship at the University of Pennsylvania before joining the faculty at the University of Minnesota.  His research focuses on the nature and treatment of depression.  He has over 175 publications and has placed numerous students in academic and clinical research positions.  He is past president of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and the recipient of a Distinguished Scientist Award from the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology, the George A. Miller Award for Outstanding Article from the American Psychology Association, and the Award for Distinguished Scientific Contribution to Clinical Psychology from the Society of Clinical Psychology (Division 12) of the American Psychological Association. A former director of clinical training, he maintains an active clinical practice in the context of his research program.

Traleg Rinpoche                    Spiritual Director E-Vam Buddhist Institute
Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche was born in Eastern Tibet and enthroned as the Supreme Abbott of Thrangu Monastery by His Holiness Gyalwa Karmapa. He has undergone rigorous scholastic and meditative training under various Tibetan Kagyü and Nyingma masters in India and came to Australia in 1980. Rinpoche is the spiritual director of E-Vam Institute, with centres in Melbourne and New York, Yeshe Nyima in Sydney, Nyima Tashi in Auckland, New Zealand, and Maitripa Centre in Healesville.

Rinpoche has become well known for his erudition, fluency in English and background in western psychology, comparative religion and philosophy. He inaugurated the annual Buddhist Summer School, now in its 27th year, and the bi-annual Mindfulness and Psychotherapy Conferences, which have been hosted for more than a decade. He is the author of a number of books including The Essence of Buddhism now in its third printing.

Dr Norman Swan MBChB, FRCP, DCH, MD (Hon Causa)
One of the first medically qualified journalists in Australia, Norman graduated in medicine from the University of Aberdeen and later obtained his postgraduate qualifications in Paediatrics.  Joining the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1982, he has won numerous awards for his journalism and broadcasting including the Australian equivalent of the Pullitzer, three times (Walkley Awards).

In addition to the Health Report, Health Minutes and Catalyst on ABC Television, Norman was co host of the social affairs programme, Life Matters on ABC Radio National and is frequently a guest host on Late Night Live and Radio National’s news and current affairs Breakfast programme. He also edits his own newsletter, The Choice Health Reader, which is published in partnership with CHOICE, Australia’s leading consumer organisation.  He hosted Health Dimensions on ABC Television, and created, wrote and narrated a four part series on disease and civilisation, “Invisible Enemies”, shown in twenty seven countries. He also co-wrote and narrated “The Opposite Sex”, a four part series for ABC Television.

Norman Swan has been the Australian correspondent for the Journal of the American Medical Association and the British Medical Journal and consults for the World Health Organisation. In late 2008 Norman co-facilitated, with Richard Horton (editor in chief of The Lancet) a ministerial forum in Bamako, West Africa which aimed to advance the global health research agenda.

PRESENTER PROFILES

Professor Gavin Andrews                  CRUFAD
Gavin Andrews AO, MD is professor of psychiatry at the University of New South Wales at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney. He features in the ISI MostHighlyCited list. His work circa 2010 is concentrated on the classification of mental disorders and on the treatment of people with anxiety and depressive disorders over the web.

Associate Professor David Austin    National e-Therapy Centre
Associate Professor David Austin is a clinical psychologist and Co-Director of the National eTherapy Centre at Swinburne University that focuses on the use of information technologies to deliver efficacious health services to patients. He is recognised both nationally and internationally for his work on the development, delivery, and evaluation of internet-based treatments for psychological disorders. Prof Austin’s team were funded by the federal Department for Health and Ageing in 2008 to establish ‘Anxiety Online’: Australia’s first full service virtual psychology clinic.  'Anxiety Online' was launched in October 2009.

Professor Paula Barrett         Pathways Health & Research Centre, QLD
Professor Paula Barrett is Director of Pathways Health and Research Centre, a Queensland-based International consultancy clinic founded in 2003, providing resilience and life-skills programs to families and schools.  Pathways also provide prevention and treatment programs for a broad range of psychological issues, including Autistic Spectrum Disorders, educational psychology and sports psychology. The Internationally recognised FOCUS program is endorsed by the Cochrane Review as one of the world’s top three preventative treatment programs for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders.   Paula’s FRIENDS for Life program for the prevention and treatment of anxiety and depression in children, adolescents and adults, has been recognised by the World Health Organisation as best practice and is available in 12 languages and used in 18 countries by: government departments for the education and health sectors, psychological and research-based clinics, academic institutions, and non-profit organisations.  

In 2009 she was invited by the Board of the Mental Health Foundation of Australia and the Steering Committee of Resilience Australia to develop a resilience plan for children in Australia, including plans for a National Summit of Childhood Resilience.

Assoc Professor James Bennett-Levy         Northern Rivers University Department of Rural Health, University of Sydney and Southern Cross University
James Bennett-Levy is Associate Professor at the Northern Rivers University Department of Rural Health, University of Sydney and Southern Cross University, based in Lismore, Northern NSW.  He initiated and co-edited the Oxford Guide to Behavioural Experiments in Cognitive Therapy (Bennett-Levy, Butler, Fennell, Hackmann, Mueller & Westbrook, 2004), which is a core text on many CBT courses in Australia and Europe.  He is a leading researcher of CBT therapist training, and is currently engaged in writing two other Oxford Guides to CBT.  He directs a CBT training program in Byron Bay (www.cbttraining.com.au) for therapists from novice to advanced levels, and is passionate about expanding capacity to deliver evidence-based therapies in Australian rural and remote communities.

Steve Brown
Steve has worked as a counsellor and social worker in Melbourne for over twenty years.  In the 1980's he took a break from the welfare sector to spend a year in Asia practicing and studying Buddhist meditation. He returned to Australia to  complete a Fine Arts degree in Sculpture and worked for several years as a practicing artist.

Steve returned to the sector to work in hospice/palliative care and grief and loss in the early 90's and and works now as a counsellor in community health and private practice.  Over the past 12 years he has been teaching meditation to groups and individuals and utilising meditation and mindfulness techniques in his counselling practice.

Professor Helen Christensen,                    Director, Centre for Mental Health Research, ANU
Helen Christensen is Director of the Centre for Mental Health Research at The Australian National University, and an NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow.  She is the author of over 250 refereed journal articles, seven books for the general public, and five open-access, self-help websites.  Her areas of interest include: the evaluation of internet applications/online programs for the prevention and treatment of mental disorders, the quality of health-related websites, the integration of new technologies into health care, the development of evidence-informed health policy, and methods to measure the impact and dissemination of prevention programs.

Associate Professor Kathy Griffiths          Director, Depression & Anxiety Consumer Research Unit, ANU
Professor Griffiths is Director of the Depression and Anxiety Consumer Research Unit, and co-Director of ehub: emental health research and development at the Centre for Mental Health Research at the Australian National University. She is the author of approximately 120 books, chapters and academic articles and she has co-developed a number of mental health websites for consumers including the multi-award winning MoodGYM (moodgym.anu.edu.au) and BluePages (bluepages.anu.edu.au), as well as e-couch (ecouch.anu.edu.au) and BlueBoard (blueboard.anu.edu.au).  Her research interests are in the area of e-mental health (including large scale randomized controlled trials of internet applications), prevention and mental health literacy, stigma in depression, and mental health consumer priorities and needs. 

Dr Nicole Highet                  beyondblue: the national depression initiative
Dr Nicole Highet is the deputy CEO of beyondblue: the national depression initiative.  Nicole has a Doctorate in clinical psychology, specialising in the treatments for depression.  In her role at beyondblue, Nicole’s portfolio includes the management of beyondblue’s community awareness and destigmatisation portfolio.  This includes campaign development, monitoring and evaluation across the Australian community. 

Nicole also manages beyondblue’s consumer and carer portfolio.  To date, this has included conducting extensive research with people who live with, or care for persons with depression and related illnesses, together with the management of beyondblue’s consumer and carer reference group blueVoices. 

Other areas of specialisation include education and training programs including the development and evaluation of the beyondblue national depression in the workplace program.  Policy work in includes the national screening for postnatal depression and discrimination in insurance. 

Professor Jayashri Kulkarni             Director – Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre (MAPrc)
Professor Jayashri Kulkarni founded and directs a large psychiatric research group, the Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre (MAPrc).  The aim of the research centre is to develop new treatments, new understanding and new service deliveries for people with mental illness. MAPrc is a clinical psychiatry research centre that translates cutting edge neuroscience discoveries into innovative treatments.  As a psychiatrist, Jayashri has extensive clinical experience in many broad areas of practice.

Women’s Mental Health is a major area of Jayashri’s research and she has worked in this area for 25 years to improve the quality of care for women with mental illnesses by developing specific treatments that are tailored to suit women’s needs biologically, socially and psychologically. She runs a women’s mental health and tertiary referral clinic at the Alfred Hospital and Victoria Clinic.

Lynne Little                            Reconnexion
Lynne Little is a consultant psychologist with Reconnexion. Lynne has been running treatment groups for postnatally depressed women for many years. As part of a project funded by the Telstra Foundation Lynne delivered a state-wide training program to enable health professionals to set up treatment groups. This group work has been a solid foundation for individual treatment of women with postnatal depression, over many years.

Helen Mentha                        Mentha Consulting
Helen Mentha is a clinical psychologist and runs training on Motivational Interviewing nationally through her private practice, Mentha Consulting.  She became a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) after being trained by William Miller and Theresa Moyers in the USA in 2007, and has since completed further specialist training with MINT in both coding treatment integrity and supervising in MI.

Associate Professor Tricia Nagel                 AimHi Project, Menzies School of Medicine
Associate Professor Tricia Nagel is a psychiatrist with Top End Mental Health Services and Head of the Healing and Resilience Division at Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin. The division is focused on research across the spectrum from prevention to treatment. The research program includes understanding of wellbeing and mental health promotion, testing effective strategies for early intervention of mental illness and comorbid substance misuse, and investigation of new approaches to service delivery and treatment. She has led the Australian Integrated Mental health initiative in the NT for the past 5 years and works with a team of Indigenous researchers.

Dr  Suzanne Nielsen              Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre
Dr Nielsen is a Senior Research Fellow in Clinical Research and the Senior Pharmacist in Clinical Services at Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre. She has been working in the alcohol and drug field for over 10 years. Dr Nielsen completed a PhD on the use and safety of benzodiazepines in opioid substitution treatment clients. She has conducted a range of studies examining the use, related harms and cognitive effects of benzodiazepines. Her current research interests include understanding pharmaceutical dependence, to inform treatment and prevention strategies.

Gretel O’Loughlin                  Royal Children’s Hospital
Gretel O'Loughlin is a senior social worker and family therapist at the Royal Children's Hospital integrated Mental health program at the Banksia Unit. Gretel also works as a private practitioner at Reconnexion. She has worked for 15 yrs with young people and their families and her areas of specialty are adolescence, family work, mental health and dual diagnosis. Gretel has a Bachelor of Social work and a Masters in clinical family therapy.

Marilyn O’Neill                     Australian Narrative Therapy Centre
Marilyn explored the use of Narrative Ideas for her work in community psychiatry in the late 1980's. She worked as a counsellor for hospital and Mental Health Services until 1995 when she went into private practice with colleague Gaye Stockell. That practice continues today and provides counselling, training and supervision to individuals, families and services.

Over the last twenty years Marilyn has trained in, developed, researched and taught narrative ideas both in Australia and overseas. Occasionally she has written and published some of this work.  To complement the study of a Narrative perspective Marilyn also completed a Masters in cultural psychologies.

Much of the clinical work that Marilyn deals with involves the issues of anxiety and depression. It is also a common feature of the work presented to her for consideration in supervision and team consultations.

Dr Jerome Sarris                University of Melbourne & Swinburne University of Technology
Dr Jerome Sarris PhD(UQ), MHSc(UNE)  is an NHMRC Clinical Research Fellow at The University of Melbourne Department of Psychiatry, and Swinburne University of Technology Brain Sciences Institute. Jerome researches, lectures and publishes in the area of CAM and Integrative Mental Health. He is the co-editor of Clinical Naturopathy: An Evidenced-Based Guide to Practice (Elsevier) due out in April 2010

Sonja Skocic                         Reconnexion
Sonja Skocic is a consultant psychologist to Reconnexion where she provides counselling for clients of all ages. At Reconnexion, Sonja also facilitates the 12 week CBT based group for people with Social Phobia as well as additional short courses for those who have completed the program. Sonja is currently conducting a research project at The University of Melbourne that will be examining future directions of understanding Social Phobia and its treatment.

Jenni Thompson                     Knox Community Health Services
Jenni is a Gestalt Psychotherapist, specialises in working with alcohol, tobacco and other drug addiction work. Jenni worked as Program Director for residential drug treatment service and has 12 years experience in clinical service delivery in the alcohol and other drug treatment sector and over 20 years experience in social services in management and clinical work. She established smoking cessation program at KCHS and has implemented mindfulness based therapies to this work. Jenni trained in Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy with Professor Mark Williams and Acceptance & Commitment Therapy with Dr Russ Harris. She has commenced Mindfulness Based Relapse Prevention group Program for clients with AOD issues based on the work of Professor Alan Marlatt – Professor of Psychology and Director of Addictive Behaviour Research Centre, University of Washington

Megan Thorpe                       Buddhist Psychotherapy
Megan Thorpe practises as a psycho-spiritual psychotherapist at the Metta Clinic in Sydney. She trained in Core Process, a Buddhist-based psychotherapy, at the Karuna Institute, in England. She also works as a bereavement counsellor at Sacred Heart Hospice in Sydney.  Megan has worked as a teacher, trainer and group facilitator in the areas of education, health and social welfare for many years.

She is the Vice President of the Australian Association of Buddhist Counsellors and Psychotherapists (AABCAP) and a  faculty member of AABCAP’s Professional Training Course in Buddhism and Psychotherapy. Over the last 20 years she has had experience in a number of different Buddhist traditions, and since 2003 she has been practising in the Thai Forest tradition. http://www.buddhistpsychotherapy.com.au/

Iudita Trifa-Schmidt               CEO, Outdoors Inc
Iudita Trifa-Schmidt  is the CEO of Out Doors Inc., a not for profit community managed mental health organisation that delivers a range of adventure, recreation and respite programs to people living with a mental illness.  She has worked within various community sectors and local government for over 17 years in both grassroots and various management positions. Iudita obtained a Bachelor degree in Science (Psychology and Social Research Methods), Grap.Dip. in Addiction Studies, Master in Social Science (Policy and Management) and is currently studying towards completion of MBA. In 2009, she was recognised by Strathmore’s Who’s Who for demonstrated leadership and achievements in her industry. 

Supported by

Reconnexion would like to thank the following organisations for their generosity in supporting the conference.

ORGANISING COMMITTEE

Janet Haynes, Conference Coordinator/Education & Training Manager, Reconnexion
Gwenda Cannard, Chief Executive Officer, Reconnexion
Steve Brown, Social Worker
Associate Professor Britt Klein, Co-Director e-Therapy Unit & Co-Director National e-Therapy Centre
Professor Ron Rapee, Professor, Dept of Psychology, Director Centre for Emotional Health, Macquarie University,
Tomi Redman, Psychologist
Gail Ward, Project Manager, Improved Services Initiative, VAADA
Reconnexion Psychologists:  Sonja Skocic, Dr Wendy Knight, & Kerstin McKay