PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS

Cost:
Member - $240.00
Non Member - $280.00

Talking to Dads: Exploring effective communication with fathers
Speaker: Associate Professor Jacqui Macdonald, Australian Fatherhood Research Consortium & Deakin University, Ali Peipers, Plus Paternal Network, Healthy Male and Karen Wynter, Australasian Marce Society & Monash University
Date: Thursday, 4 September 2025
Time: 9.00am - 12.30pm (including morning tea break)

Effective communication is at the heart of meaningful healthcare. In perinatal services, and in healthcare across the early years, words, messages and images can serve to include or exclude new parents. In this workshop, we specifically examine the varying ways that healthcare professionals and services engage and communicate with fathers.Father-inclusive practice is increasingly recommended. However, many healthcare providers report lacking sufficient training and confidence to effectively connect with dads and are often not resourced to offer support. Additionally, dads do not always feel supported by healthcare providers. Some report feeling “invisible”, “in the way”, or that they “do not belong”.In this workshop, we will reflect on common practices, beliefs and barriers that influence how healthcare providers talk to dads. We will explore how language and other forms of communication can reinforce traditionally gendered stereotypes that may influence roles within families, as well as confidence in parenting. Attendees will become familiar with a range of feasible strategies for meaningful conversations with dads, to ensure they feel valued and supported in their role as father. 

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy with Toddlers (PCIT-T): Improving Emotion Regulation and Attachment Relationships
Speaker: Associate Professor Jane Kohlhoff, University of New South Wales & Karitane
Date: Thursday, 4 September 2025
Time: 9.00am - 12.30pm (including morning tea break)

Child Interaction Therapy-Toddlers (PCIT-T) is an attachment-based parenting program that uses live coaching during parent-child play sessions to increase positive parenting skills and sensitivity, parent-child attachment security, and child emotional and behavioural regulation. Ultimately, the program seeks to support parents and set toddlers on positive social-emotional and mental health trajectories. PCIT-T comprises two sequential phases, ‘Child Directed Interaction – Toddler’, which aims to enhance parents use of positive parenting skills, reflectiveness, and capacity to support toddler emotion regulation through sensitive, responsive caregiving, and ‘Parent-Directed Interaction – Toddler’, designed to encourage parental use of developmentally appropriate language and toddler listening skills. PCIT-T is supported by a growing evidence-base, with two randomised trials showing improvements in parenting capacity and child behaviour, and emerging pilot work pointing to the effectiveness of PCIT-T delivered preventatively, e.g., as 8-session telehealth and community-based group programs for families with psychosocial risk factors.This workshop will provide an overview of the PCIT-T model and summary of supporting empirical evidence. Case study material (videos and vignettes) will demonstrate the major treatment components, therapeutic approach and outcomes. Participants will also have the opportunity to practice core PCIT-T coaching skills and will receive information about further resources and training.

Reflective Supervision: What truly matters
Speaker: Patricia O'Rourke, Senior Lecturer, University of Adelaide
Date: Thursday, 4 September 2025
Time: 9.00am - 12.30pm (including morning tea break)

Working with parents and infants is inherently relational. It requires us to develop a capacity to observe moment-to-moment changes in emotional and mental states - our own and those of our clients - so we can best meet the needs of infants and their families. Reflective supervision provides space to explore any immediate intense experience in the moment and a relationship within which to reflect on that with openness and curiosity. It is a shared exploration of perinatal, infant and family work as experienced in relationships between infants and parents, parents and practitioners and practitioners and supervisors.

Writing your Journal Article
Speaker: Deb Sims, 
Date: Thursday, 4 September 2025
Time: 1.00pm - 4.30pm (including afternoon tea break)

This group-work format, based on the famous Writing Your Journal Article In 12 Weeks workbook by Wendy Belcher, offers support, encouragement and evidence to submit successful journal articles.  The 3.5-hour workshop is designed to overcome productive procrastination, support academic writing confidence, and avoid endless perfecting. Dr, Deborah Sims has facilitated this program for the past 6 years at both UTS and CSU as well as providing this workshop at the International Marcë Society Conference in 2020.  The interactive and practical session will support both novice and seasoned writers. Please bring along an abstract, some research results or findings or a good idea that you would like to publish.  The group members will support each other to develop the article significance and argument, determine the most important results/findings, and advance a practical discussion/conclusion to place your findings in the light of the findings of others. The group members will also acquire tools to discern the most appropriate target journal, strengthen the manuscript macro and micro structures and complete a dynamic and focused article for submission.   

From Practice to Theory and Back:  A South African Experience
Speaker: Emerita Associate Professor Astrid Berg, MBChB (Pret), FFPsych (SA), MPhil (Child & Adolescent Psychiatry), University of Cape Town, A/Prof Extraordinary, University of Stellenbosch, President World Association for Infant Mental Health
Date: Thursday, 4 September 2025
Time: 1.00pm - 4.30pm (including afternoon tea break)

This workshop will cover engaging with a community impacted by apartheid and the HIV epidemic.  While this is based on the South African experience, the insights are applicable to similar situations elsewhere.The establishment of the parent-infant mental health service, as well as subsequent academic research, was grounded in cultural humility, reflective practice, and scholarly enquiry. Collaborating with cultural brokers and mentors was one key aspect of this Service. A locally produced DVD addressing relevant community issues has proven useful in several other countries. This DVD will be shared and utilized as a foundation for interactive discussions on the clinical and cultural aspects that need to be considered.The second half of the workshop will show how a bridge was built from the clinical to research and academic practice.A Community Based Participatory research with Yale Medical School highlighted the importance of considering context in interventions from the Global North. The reflective parenting intervention that was examined could be useful in multiple contexts – through discussion with the audience, commonalities will be found.Another entry point into learning is Infant Observation, which allows us to see the infants’ lives as really lived, the light and shadow side. This method, combined with theoretical input, helps to establish a solid foundation for multidisciplinary clinical work and offers students a comprehensive understanding of various contexts.

Walking with families: Connecting care across the perinatal loss continuum
Facilitated by: The Centre of Research Excellence in Stillbirth
Date: Thursday, 4 September 2025
Time: 1.00pm - 4.30pm (including afternoon tea break)

Join us for an insightful workshop that brings together interdisciplinary insights to explore the comprehensive care needs of bereaved parents across the perinatal loss continuum. This session will highlight the opportunities and challenges in connecting care – from the moment of receiving bad news through to supporting future pregnancies and beyond. The workshop will feature clinical insights and experiences, personal experiences of perinatal loss, support options, and the national research program of the Centre of Research Excellence in Stillbirth (Stillbirth CRE) which aims to optimise care and support for all families who experience the death of a baby during pregnancy or soon after birth. Engage in interactive discussions and practical case studies and explore innovative solutions, share experiences, and shape pathways to best care after perinatal loss.