The Bouverie Centre, La Trobe University

09/03/2026

Adolescent Violence in the Home | 6 & 13 May
2-day workshop | Online via Zoom
Systemic Practice Consultant: Jo Howard

Understand the systemic and relational context to adolescent family violence and explore trauma-informed interventions

On completion of this workshop, you will be able to:
✔ Identify the determinants which contribute to the use of violence by adolescents against parents/carers, with a particular emphasis on the experience of family violence
✔ Identify co-occurring issues including neurodiversity, alcohol, drug use and mental health challenges
✔ Develop skills in assessment and safety planning
✔ Demonstrate skills to enhance engagement in change with adolescents and parents/carers
✔ Learn and practice a model of intervention that is developmental, trauma-informed and relational
👉 Register now https://bit.ly/BC-PD2026-AVITH

04/03/2026

Child’s Play | 30 April
1-day workshop | In-person
Systemic Practice Consultants: Kate Cordukes & Tara Schintler

This experiential workshop focuses on creative and expressive ways of working systemically and therapeutically with children and families.

By attending this workshop, you will be able to:
✔ Describe the therapeutic rationale for using play and other creative techniques in the context of clinical work with families with children
✔ Describe a range of child-focused activities and therapeutic modalities and apply these to your work with families
👉 Register now https://bit.ly/BC-PD2026-CP

25/02/2026

Families and Trauma Work | 24 April & 1 May
2-day workshop | In-person
Systemic Practice Consultants: Nella Charles & Patrick Carroll

Enhance your practical skills in applying systemic, trauma-informed approaches in your therapeutic work.
By attending this workshop, you will be able to:
✔ Articulate important and useful features of systemic approaches to therapeutic work
✔ Identify systemic interventions — based on a trauma-informed assessment — appropriate to your role and context
✔ Foster strong connections with family members when navigating challenging conversations by creating and maintaining a space that encourages openness, trust, and respectful dialogue
✔ Utilise single session principles as they apply to trauma-informed practice.

👉 Register now https://bit.ly/BC-PD2026-FATW

24/02/2026

The Bouverie Centre is thrilled to share the recently published scoping review:
“Early Relational Health and its Impact on the Developing Brain”
appearing in Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review (2025).

What this review explores:
This work synthesises emerging evidence on early relational health—the quality of early caregiver–child relationships—and its profound influence on brain development. The review highlights how early interactions shape neural architecture, emotional regulation, and long-term wellbeing.

Why this matters:
Supporting caregiver–child relationships early in life strengthens developmental foundations, informs preventive mental health strategies, and contributes to healthier life trajectories.

Full article available here https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-025-00545-3

22/02/2026

Working with adolescents and families? This workshop is for you.

Join us on 20 & 27 March for a powerful 2‑day in‑person training with Systemic Practice Consultant Jo Howard.

Deepen your understanding of adolescent violence in the home and build practical, trauma‑informed skills in assessment, safety planning, and engaging both young people and caregivers.

Don’t miss this opportunity to strengthen your practice and support safer family relationships.

Register now via the link below

Adolescent Violence in the Home: Systemic Interventions with Families workshop, professional development workshop

17/02/2026

“Family-Centered Support for Women Prisoners to Reduce Recidivism Risk: The ‘Strengthening Connections’ Service” published in the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology (2025).

What’s it about?
This article describes a family-centered intervention designed to support women in prison by strengthening their relationships with their family members or other close supports—an approach that shows promise in reducing recidivism risk and supporting better post-release outcomes.

Why it matters:
Family connection is a powerful protective factor. By centering support around relationships, the ‘Strengthening Connections’ service offers an innovative pathway to more humane, effective reintegration for women leaving custody.
Read the article here https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X251389984

11/02/2026

📰 NEW Research Publication

We’re excited to share our latest publication:
MERTIL for Parents: Pilot Study of an Attachment and Trauma-Informed Online Parenting Program

MERTIL for Parents is a brief, online, attachment and trauma informed program designed to strengthen early relational wellbeing.

The pilot study highlights strong potential for broad, scalable impact.

Key Findings:
1️⃣ Highly acceptable to parents — Most participants found the program useful, the length appropriate, and all were willing to recommend it to others.

2️⃣ Meaningful improvements at 3 month follow up — Parents reported increased parenting confidence, better parent–child attunement, greater enjoyment of the relationship, more help seeking readiness, and reduced irritability, with medium-to-large effect sizes.

3️⃣ Strong promise as a scalable early relational health intervention — The program fills a major gap in accessible, brief, evidence informed online relational support for families with young children.

🔗 Access the full publication here https://doi.org/10.3390/children13010007

10/02/2026

📰 Research Publication!

Proud to share another important contribution to the Early Relational Health evidence base:
“Mapping the Influence of Infant–Parent Relational Quality on Life Course Relationships: A Scoping Review of Prospective Cohort Studies” published in Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review (2025).

What this review examines:
This scoping review synthesises longitudinal evidence from prospective cohort studies to understand how the quality of infant–parent relationships shape relational patterns across the lifespan.

Key insights:
1️⃣ Early infant-parent relational quality lays the groundwork for later relationship functioning
2️⃣ Patterns of attachment and caregiver responsiveness are linked to the quality of relationships not only with parents, but also with the broader social world – including peers, romantic partners, and others in a child’s expanding environment as they grow
3️⃣ Findings highlight the long-term importance of supporting secure and attuned early relationships

Full article available here: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-025-00527-5

Another meaningful step in advancing understanding of how early caregiving experiences echo across the life course.

08/02/2026

Shame, Trauma and Family Relationships | 26 March
1-day workshop | In-person
Systemic Practice Consultants: Deb Mountjoy & Liz Malone

Drawing on attachment and trauma theories, and narrative and family therapy concepts, learn how to enhance your therapeutic work by exploring how shame can be a by-product of complex relational trauma.

By attending this workshop, you will be able to:
✔ Understand shame as a manifestation of complex relational trauma
✔ Develop skills in identifying how shame impacts your clients and adversely affect family
✔ Learn specific strategies to discuss shame with clients and families and to promote healing and enhance connections
✔ Address shame with greater confidence with your clients

👉 Register now https://bit.ly/BC-PD2026-STAFR

02/02/2026

📰 New research publication

The Bouverie Centre is pleased to share our latest research, Refining a Single Session Thinking Approach for Trauma Affected Families: A Delphi Study.

This study draws on expert consensus to refine Single Session Thinking (SST) approaches to better support trauma affected families through timely, trauma informed practice.

Three Key Findings
1️⃣ Expert consensus supports the safe and effective use of SST with trauma affected families
2️⃣ Trauma specific adaptations to the SST session map are essential
3️⃣ An adapted SST framework is likely to improve engagement in brief, high pressure service settings

Read the full article here:
🔗 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10591-026-09776-0

29/01/2026

Adolescent Violence in the Home | 20 & 27 March
2-day workshop | In-person workshop
Systemic Practice Consultants: Jo Howard

Understand the systemic and relational context to adolescent family violence and explore trauma-informed interventions

On completion of this workshop, you will be able to:
✔ Identify the determinants which contribute to the use of violence by adolescents against parents/carers, with a particular emphasis on the experience of family violence
✔ Identify co-occurring issues including neurodiversity, alcohol, drug use and mental health challenges
✔ Develop skills in assessment and safety planning
✔ Demonstrate skills to enhance engagement in change with adolescents and parents/carers
✔ Learn and practice a model of intervention that is developmental, trauma-informed and relational

👉 Register now

Adolescent Violence in the Home: Systemic Interventions with Families workshop, professional development workshop

29/01/2026

Clinical Supervision Training | Beginning 10 March

In this workshop, you’ll learn how to build supervisory relationships that foster psychological safety while providing developmentally appropriate challenges. Explore a range of supervision modes, methods, and models—and refine or develop your own approach.

You’ll deepen your understanding of the roles, tasks, and professional foundations of effective supervision, and gain practical techniques for giving and eliciting meaningful feedback.

This training also supports you to work with an intersectional lens, considering how factors like culture, power, class, age, and gender shape supervision. You’ll reflect on organisational influences, strengthen your “use of self,” and explore strategies for both self‑care and collective care.

Ideal for supervisors committed to reflective, ethical, and growth‑focused practice.

Training details: Online modules + 4 in-person workshop days
Location: The Bouverie Centre, Brunswick
Systemic Practice Consultants: Angie Nyland and Olivia Dwyer

Learn more and register at https://bit.ly/BC-PD2026-CST