top of page

Training

Training & workshops are a unique blend of acceptance and commitment therapy, mindfulness, therapeutic arts pracitce and somatic experiencing. Canine Assisted Counselling and Psychotherapy can be incorporated into all workshops where desired. 

​

Please contact Linda for more information. 

Alcohol, Drugs & Mental Health

I offer a trauma-informed workshop that explores the intersections between alcohol and other drug (AOD) use, mental health, and neurological challenges such as acquired brain injury (ABI) and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), with a particular focus on complexities arising from problematic AOD use. The session includes Northern Territory–specific data and introduces practical frameworks for understanding and responding to substance use disorders, including the Integrative Model of Substance Use Disorder, the Addiction Tree, and the Stages of Change model.

From there, we move into effective strategies for engaging and supporting people presenting with these overlapping challenges—whether through structured treatment planning or, where culturally appropriate, more holistic healing approaches. I prioritise creating a safe, respectful, and interactive learning environment, recognising that many participants may bring professional and/or lived experience to these topics. Questions and dialogue are encouraged as part of a collaborative learning process, and workshops often blend presentations with activities, large-group discussion, and smaller breakout conversations where possible.

I personally facilitate this training. While I am not Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, I have over 15 years’ experience working alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in both Victoria and the Northern Territory, including within community and justice settings such as corrections. I am mindful of the unique cognitive, cultural, and contextual considerations within these communities, and I am also attentive to cross-cultural and LGBTIQ+ considerations. My approach is inclusive, culturally responsive, and grounded in trauma-informed practice across both group and individual settings.

Enhance Resilience & Wellbeing

This one-day experiential workshop offers a gentle yet powerful space to strengthen wellbeing, deepen resilience, and reconnect with personal values through an integration of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Somatic Experiencing principles, canine-assisted interaction, and therapeutic arts practice. Designed with trauma-informed care at its heart, the day supports participants to slow down, listen to their nervous systems, and cultivate flexible, values-guided ways of responding to life’s challenges.

Across the day, participants will explore practical ACT skills to notice thoughts and emotions with greater compassion while strengthening connection to what truly matters. Somatic practices invite awareness of body sensations, stress responses, grounding, and regulation, helping participants develop a felt sense of safety and capacity. Carefully facilitated interactions with trained therapy dogs offer opportunities to experience co-regulation, playfulness, trust building, and non-verbal connection, while also reflecting on what canine nervous systems can teach us about pacing, safety, boundaries, and relational attunement.

Therapeutic arts activities provide a creative medium for meaning-making, reflection, emotional expression, and integration. Participants will be invited to work with materials such as drawing, painting, clay, movement, or symbolic object-making—not as “art to be judged,” but as a gentle process for expressing experience, accessing insight, and supporting internal resilience.

The workshop typically includes:

  • Guided grounding and nervous system settling exercises

  • ACT-based conversations exploring values, self-compassion, and psychological flexibility

  • Somatic Experiencing-informed practices for regulation, resilience, and embodied awareness

  • Supported engagement with therapy dogs to explore connection, co-regulation, and relational safety

  • Individual and group therapeutic arts experiences to deepen integration

  • Opportunities for reflection, gentle discussion, and shared learning

Participants can expect a warm, respectful, and inclusive learning space that honours lived experience and cultural context. The workshop is suitable for practitioners, community workers, or individuals seeking to nurture their wellbeing, reconnect with themselves, and strengthen their capacity to meet life’s demands with presence, care, and resilience.

​

bottom of page