Resilience in Practice - Self care for clinicians

Self-Care is now a professional responsibility for Doctors and Psychologists. 
You've Tried the Advice. It Didn't Touch the Problem.

You've been told to have a bath. Take up yoga. Practise gratitude. Maybe you've tried all three in the same week that you also covered someone else's on-call, sat with a family through the worst moment of their life, and went home too wired to sleep and too flat to feel proud of any of it.

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That's not a self-care gap. It's a system that keeps asking more of you than it gives back — and advice built for a stressed-out office worker was never going to fix it. Over time, this doesn't just feel bad. It changes your judgement, your relationships, and how much you have left to give the people you went into this work to help.

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What changes by the end of the Escape?

Resilience in Practice won't hand you another wellness cliché. In five days you'll be able to:

• Tell burnout, vicarious trauma and moral injury apart — and recognise each one in your own body, not just on a slide

• Use ACT, CFT and EMDR-informed tools that work in a 90-second gap between patients, not just in a quiet room

• Name the “shoulds” and the stories you tell yourself that are quietly costing you the most, and learn to leave them be without the guilt spiral

• Walk out with a resilience plan you'll actually use, and someone who'll check that you did

• Leave with a peer group you’re connected to enough to call on when things get tough

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Full learning objectives below.

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How the Escape works:

The training days move from understanding to application:

• Landscape — the neuroscience of burnout, vicarious trauma and moral injury, as lived experience, not theory

• Context — the personal and systemic factors that shape sustainability, including how your own culture, upbringing and values collide with your professional identity

• Skills — ACT-based values work, defusion and psychological flexibility, alongside CFT, positive-psychology-informed strategies, and an optional small-group silent EMDR session

• Boundaries — professional boundaries, responsibility and ethical decision-making, and what they cost you when they slip

• Plan — a personalised, values-aligned resilience plan, paired with an accountability partner

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Throughout, as much of the real work happens over meals and on guided bush and beach walks as it does in the workshop room.

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Who is This Escape For?

Resilience in Practice suits doctors, psychologists, nurses, dentists, social workers, mental health occupational therapists and speech and language therapists who:

• Work in demanding or high-responsibility roles

• Want practical, evidence-based tools rather than generic wellbeing advice

• Feel close to burnout, and might throw their stethoscope at the next person who says “self-care” or “mindfulness”

• Are looking for sustainable ways to care for themselves while continuing to care for others

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Full Learning Objectives

By the end of the Escape, you will be able to:

• Distinguish burnout, vicarious traumatisation and moral injury as distinct constructs, and examine the neuroscience underpinning each as a lived professional experience — how chronic threat-response activation shows up in the body, in decision-making and in relationships, not just in theory

• Identify the personal and systemic factors that affect professional sustainability, including how cultural background, upbringing and professional values interact with clinical identity, and why self-care strategies alone are never enough when the system is part of the problem

• Apply practical emotion-regulation and stress-management tools suited to high-acuity clinical environments

• Apply ACT-based values clarification, cognitive defusion and psychological flexibility to your own clinical identity, alongside CFT and post-traumatic-growth-informed strategies, to address burnout and moral distress

• Take part in an optional small-group, silent EMDR (GTEP-informed) session to process a current occupational stressor without needing to disclose the content verbally

• Reflect critically on professional boundaries, responsibility and ethical decision-making, and their role in sustaining, or eroding, your own wellbeing

• Engage in structured peer reflection and expert dialogue in small groups that lower the threshold for the honest conversations that don't always happen in supervision

• Develop a personalised, values-aligned and system-realistic resilience plan, paired with an accountability partner, framed as collective care rather than individual willpower

Guided bush and beach mindfulness walks run as nature-based practice and sensory reset, and shared meals and informal peer time are the container for the deeper reflective conversations above.

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The emphasis throughout is practical application, not theory for its own sake. The bonus: many of these skills and resources also help your clients.

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Meets your professional obligations

Self-care is now a regulatory requirement, not a “lifestyle choice”. Since 1 December 2025, the Psychology Board of Australia's mandatory Code of Conduct — which replaced the voluntary APS Code of Ethics as the enforceable standard — names “professional reflexivity, purposeful and deliberate practice, and self-care” as a required competency for registration. The Medical Board of Australia's Good Medical Practice code likewise requires doctors to maintain their own health, recognise stress and burnout, and manage fatigue as a condition of safe practice.

Resilience in Practice is built to satisfy both — with documented CPD hours mapped to Educational Activities, Reviewing Performance and Measuring Outcomes.  See the CPD and FAQ for specific information on CPD mapping.

Why Starling Health Collective?

Resilience in Practice is designed and led by a clinical psychologist with expertise in mental health, trauma and systems-based care. Dr Alice Morgan has worked within medical teams for 20 years, holds a Doctorate of Clinical Psychology and a Master of Public Health, and understands the system pressures, hierarchies, power plays, moral injury and difficult conversations that come with practising inside medical and community mental health teams.

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Unlike programs that trade on wellbeing without clinical depth, this one is grounded in:

• Extensive experience in mental health and psychological practice

• A strong public health and systems perspective

• Experience as both a clinician and a healthcare leader (Alice was Director of Psychology and Head of Clinical Psychology at the Royal Children's Hospital)

• A clear understanding of the realities of healthcare work, including risk, accountability and complexity

• Conversations that can lead to change​

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Common questions before you book

• “I don't have time.”  Four days, and you leave with CPD hours logged and a plan you can use on Monday, not a reading list you’ll never get back to. You'll also come home feeling actually rejuvenated.

• “Isn't this just another wellness retreat?”  No. It's structured professional development with a syllabus, an evidence base and documented CPD hours — the food, wine and yoga are what make five days of genuine reflective work sustainable and can deepen an experience with peers to help build connections, but they’re not the point of it.

• “What about the EMDR part — do I have to talk about my trauma in front of the group?”  No. It's a silent, small-group and GTEP-informed, optional group: you process a low level occupational stressor (NOT personal trauma) privately using bilateral stimulation, with no requirement to disclose content to anyone, ever.

• “Will this actually change anything once I'm back at work?”  The Escape will provide you with the tools to make gradual and sustainable change to how you operate within your workplace.  The six-month Community of Practice/monthly peer supervision keeps the plan alive and accountable well past the Escape.

• “Is this evidence-based?”  Yes. ACT, CFT, EMDR and the current burnout and moral injury literature, taught by a clinical psychologist, not a wellness coach.

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Supervision and Integration Package - Community of Practice

Starling Health Collective offers a six-month program of clinical and peer group supervision as an optional package of care. Once a month for 60 to 90 minutes, reconnect online with your Escape peers to consolidate learning, discuss practice issues and cases that have tested your boundaries or regulation, and work through them together, led by Dr Alice Morgan.  Alice is a board-approved supervisor, so some of these sessions may cover requirements for supervision – please check your requirements.

Evidence suggests as little as 7% of workshop content is retained without follow-up. This package protects your investment and gives you a genuine collective of knowledgeable peers to come back to who will quickly start to feel like old friends.

Book this package when you book your Escape and save $200 (our “Early Starling” discount).

Dates, Booking and Investment

9-12th March (Tuesday to Friday)

Margaret River Wine Region, WA 

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Early Starling Prices (until 30/9/26): 

Private Chalet $4,250 pp + GST  |  Shared Chalet $3,850 pp + GST

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Standard Prices: 

Private Chalet $4,500 pp + GST  |  Shared Chalet pp $4,100 + GST.

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Payment collected in 3 instalments to reduce budget pressure. 

Reserve your spot now for $250 + GST and pay nothing more until 2027!

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20 hours documented CPD hours.  

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Need employer sign-off? Download the Employer Brochure for the boss.

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Sample Program

Indicative elements (the exact program for each cohort is on its booking page):

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• Morning mindfulness: an immersive walk through bush, forest or beach, reconnecting to the present moment

• Skills sessions (for example ACT-informed resilience and mindfulness tools) that translate theory into daily practice

• Small-group discussion and applied reflection

• Working within pressured systems

• Protecting boundaries

• Free afternoons to see the region with us

• Curated shared meals and facilitated informal connection: winery lunches, beach breakfasts, short hikes, waterfront dining

• Cheese and wine tastings

• Yoga and mindfulness

• Practical integration sessions applying skills to clinical contexts ​

The program balances structured learning with real space for recovery and integration.​