Past events

Responding to clients at risk of suicide can be difficult and challenging. Many of us don’t have a practical framework for responding to clients experiencing suicidality and we can become stressed as a result. This workshop will be experiential and practical, and participants can expect to come out with the basic skills to respond to client risk, and refer effectively.

Simply Presenting’ is a well-established, highly sought after, powerful program that demystifies and de-stresses the process of presenting – whether that be in the form of stand-up, group presentations or simple one-on-one discussions across the desk.

Over the course of the day we will explore the meetings and presentations you are involved in, supporting you to be more clear, confident and effective.

This course is open to all Gambler's Help managers and staff, this includes local Gambler’s Help, Aboriginal Gambler’s Help, In-Language Gambler’s Help services and prevention workers. It is ideal for new staff members as it provides a good introduction to gambling in Victoria and an overview to the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation.

Upcoming course dates:
18 June 2019
17 September 2019
10 December 2019

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is an innovative and emerging way of working with trauma in therapeutic settings. This 3-day training course is aimed at clinicians working with people who gamble problematically will provide participants with:

- A comprehensive understanding of IFS theoretical principles
- Applied knowledge in the application of the IFS model when working with addictive behaviours
- Skills to competently address trauma through the practice of the entire IFS model
- An increases awareness of clinician parts that impact on therapeutic work

This course runs for three days over three weeks:

- Monday 17 June, 9.00am - 4.00pm

- Monday 24 June, 9.00am - 4.00pm

- Monday 1 July, 9.00am - 4.00pm

In this workshop, participants will learn three specific strategies that separate the good from the great.  Attendees will not only learn a simple method for determining their effectiveness but also how to develop a profile of their most and least effective practices--what works and what doesn't.  Step-by-step, evidence-based instructions will be given for using the profile to identify and eliminate weak spots while enhancing their effectiveness and efficiency.

The Mental Health First Aid for Gambling course will teach you how to identify, approach and support someone experiencing gambling harm using a practical, evidence-based action plan.

Gambling mechanics are more and more used to make a profit. This session will provide an overview of how video games and gambling products are converging, the current state of regulation, reflections on discussions with representatives of the video game industry in Australia, latest research about the similarities between ‘gaming disorder’ and ‘gambling addiction’ and a look at the resources available to gambler’s help counsellors in this space.

The workshop will cover what gambling can be linked to, such as:

* Employment and education, mental, spiritual and physical health, relationship problems, money problems, legal problems and crime
* Barriers - why Aboriginal people do not seek help
* Advice on effective service delivery to Aboriginal people

Critical Incident Management is an important process for organisations to have in place so that difficult events outside the range of normal experience are managed well and the impact on staff is minimised. These events can lead to staff being affected physically and emotionally and possible decreased functioning, normal reactions to an abnormal event.

This workshop will provide information about the different aspects of the Critical Incident Process including pre and post incident management, situational stress, debriefing models, organisational roles, boundaries and risk management.

This workshop will explore the professional boundaries of helping roles and why we need them, issues around ethical principles, challenges to maintaining boundaries, triggers of our emotional and physical reactions, transference of our ideas to others, when to refer to other professionals and self-care, including separating ourselves from our work.

People can have a range of responses to significant grief and loss in their lives and therefore, will be impacted differently. This workshop will work through the stages of grief/loss, common responses to grief and loss and how to provide a safe and supportive environment for clients.  The workshop will also discuss cultural contexts for expressing grief, dealing with trauma and dislocation, and identifying appropriate therapeutic interventions to match clients’ needs and goals.

The one-day workshop will cover some of the basic principles of applying behavioural science to project design, including the utility and application of a systems approach to fully unpack the initial problem. The workshop will provide an introduction to some core concepts from behavioural science and how they may be incorporated into project design.

This session will identify perspectives, culture and experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Victoria and highlight practical strategies to providing effective and respectful assistance when working with Indigenous clients in financial distress. It will provide an insight into Indigenous cultures in Australia with a focus on economic and financial themes.

Evaluation is a key component of project, program and service delivery – it helps to tell us what works, what needs changing and whether the desired changes and outcomes are occurring. This introductory-level workshop is aimed at staff who are interested in increasing their knowledge and skills in understanding, designing and implementing evaluation.

The art of successful negotiation is the careful exploration of opposing positions with the goal of achieving a positive outcome. Through a series of case studies, role-plays and self-reflection, this course will provide you with a greater understanding of what it takes to engage in principled negotiations and get the outcome both you and the other parties desire.

This session for both therapeutic counsellors and financial counsellors will establish a clear understanding of the different roles of each, then look at ways the two can or should collaborate in producing the best possible outcomes for clients. The workshop will develop shared understandings of what best practice collaboration looks like, including teamwork processes, information sharing and privacy issues.

This workshop will focus on working with members of culturally and linguistically diverse communities. Our ISA workshops are designed to provide all members of the Gambler's Help workforce and our prevention partners with knowledge and skills that they can immediately apply to their work.

Persuasion and influence are both ways of bringing about change in the behaviour of others. While persuasion requires you to communicate, influence works silently. This course will give you the skills to present your case persuasively and an understanding of how the psychology influence works, so people are motivated on their own to do what you want them to do.

This workshop will explore the professional boundaries of helping roles and why we need them, issues around ethical principles, challenges to maintaining boundaries, triggers of our emotional and physical reactions, transference of our ideas to others, when to refer to other professionals and self-care, including separating ourselves from our work.

This training will provide some expert thoughts and insight on best practices when working with couples and facilitate a discussion around ethical boundaries. It will also give some practical advice on how to prepare for working with a couple and look at identifying when referral to others services is appropriate. The session is grounded in practical casework scenarios.