Resilience in Practice - Self care for clinicians

A skills-based self-care retreat for clinicians...

Resilience in Practice is a clinically grounded, skills-focused retreat designed for clinicians (doctors, nurses psychologists, allied health) working in complex, high-demand systems. It offers practical, evidence-informed tools to support wellbeing, clarity and sustainability.

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This is not a retreat to escape work - although we promote this too! - it is an educational course that will teach you how to remain effective, grounded and human within the work that you do.  It provides facilitated discussion to recognise how the values, culture and belief systems you come from will impact you psychologically - changing how sustainable your work is.

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Why a Resilience Retreat?

Medicine and healthcare are demanding professions. Ongoing exposure to responsibility, emotional load, time pressure, and system constraints places even highly capable professionals at risk of burnout, moral distress, vicarious trauma and cumulative stress. Over time, this affects not only personal wellbeing, but decision-making, relationships, and capacity to care for others.

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Resilience in Practice is built on a simple premise: caring for yourself is not a luxury—it is a professional responsibility. Sustainable practice requires skills that support psychological flexibility, emotional regulation, and values-based decision-making, particularly under pressure.  It steps away from "just practice meditation" or "just have a bath" towards clarifying what meaningful change looks like to you; and short, sharp practices that you can practice whilst washing your hands or changing wards.

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This retreat creates structured space to pause, reflect and build practical skills that can be taken directly back into clinical and professional environments.

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What This Retreat Offers

Resilience in Practice combines high-quality professional education with a carefully curated retreat experience. Participants engage in structured learning alongside restorative experiences that support integration, reflection, and nervous system regulation.

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Key elements include:

• Practical, evidence-based skills grounded in contemporary mental health science

• ACT-informed strategies for managing stress and burnout, values alignment to your work, and psychological flexibility

• Mindfulness-based tools that are usable in real clinical settings

• Opportunities for reflection, discussion, and application to individual practice contexts

• Optional Group EMDR (silent) session aimed at processing and understanding a current occupational stressor

• Guided reflective practice on what increases risk of burnout, moral injury and vicarious traumatisation - and what helps

• Develop a self-care plan that you might actually use and pair with an accountability buddy

• Time to rest, recharge and reflect on what gives you vitality

• Thoughtfully curated food and wine experiences that support restoration and connection to peers - you'll leave feeling like you've had a real experience of the area, have been thoroughly spoilt and have made lasting connections.

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The emphasis throughout these workshops is on practical application, not theory for its own sake.  The bonus takeaway is that many of these skills and resources can also help your clients!

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Why Starling Health Collective?

Resilience in Practice is a resilience course designed and led by a clinical psychologist with expertise in mental health, trauma, and systems-based care.  Alice has worked within medical teams for 20 years, has a Master of Public Health and understands the system pressures, hierarchies/power plays, moral injury and tough conversations that come with practicing within medical and community mental health teams. 

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Unlike many retreats that focus on wellbeing without clinical depth, this program is grounded in:

• Extensive experience in mental health and psychological practice

• A strong public health and systems perspective

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

• Conversations that can lead to change

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The retreat is intentionally designed to bridge evidence-based psychological knowledge with the lived experience of healthcare professionals... And then it gives you what you desperately need - a break. 

A break from clinical decisions, food decisions and activity decision - sit back and let us take care of you!  

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We have curated a balanced program of rest, rejuvenation and incredible experiences to wrap around the professional development.  Drawing on extensive in-house expertise in food, wine, and luxury hospitality, the retreat environment is curated with the same care as the educational content so that the conversation flows as easily as the wine!  Meals and experiences are designed to support restoration, enjoyment, and connection - all wrapped up in beautiful locations (think beaches, wineries, and farmhouses).  We recognise that how people are cared for matters.

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Supervision and Integration Package - Community of Practice

Starling Health Collective offers a 6-month program of clinical and peer group supervision as part of its regular package of care.  Once a month for 60-90min, reconnect online with retreat friends and colleagues to consolidate your learning, discuss relevant practice issues and clinical examples that have challenged your boundaries or ability to regulate, and work through these issues in real time. 

Evidence demonstrates that as little as 7% of workshop content is retained per day without a follow up session.  This supervision and integration package will solidify your investment and allow you to have a true collective of knowledgeable peers to come back to who feel like old friends.   ​​​

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We offer an "Early Starling" Discount for participants who pay for this package at the time of booking your retreat.  

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Education, Standards and Accreditation

Resilience in Practice is designed to meet professional education and ethical standards, with formal accreditation details to be confirmed.

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Continuing Medical Education (CME)
This retreat is structured to meet CME requirements and is registered on MyCDP Home.  It will address the following areas:

• Education activities: educational development, short format learning, wellbeing education sessions, (Category 2: Knowledge and Skills)

• Reviewing performance:  The Retreat focuses on reflective practice spaces that allow thoughtful insight into your own practices and areas of challenge. It allows you to examine how your own background/culture, values and beliefs systems interact with your ability to work sustainably.  Skills will be taught formally and then 'released to the wild' to experiment with in real-life settings, with peers helping to review performance in areas such as communication.  Supervision groups will allow for ongoing review of performance with your peers, alongside problem solving of difficulties, discussions of challenging cases, ethics and professional practice.     

• Measuring outcomes: Measures of burnout, self-compassion and team cohesion will be administered, with consideration as to how these may be applied to your own teams and your own practice.  Participants develop an implementation plan for sustaining reflective capacity in their work and care for their own needs. Indicators will be monitored (e.g., emotional reactivity, supervision needs, or client engagement) and measured throughout the following six months as part of the supervision program.  Participants also evaluate the impact of the program on their professional wellbeing and clinical functioning through structured pre- and post-retreat measures and guided outcome reflection. This allows clinicians to assess changes in burnout, compassion fatigue, and their capacity to sustain reflective and regulated trauma-informed practice.

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Australian Psychological Society (APS) Requirements
Content is aligned with APS ethical principles and Codes of Conduct, including reflective practice, professional competence, and self-care as an ethical responsibility.

• Provides education on the impact of vicarious trauma and secondary traumatic stress on clinical functioning.

• Develops strategies for maintaining therapeutic presence and reflective capacity during high-intensity clinical work.

• Enhances clinicians’ capacity to regulate emotional responses, reducing risk of impaired judgement in complex clinical situations.

• Supports practitioners to maintain psychological wellbeing necessary for safe and effective client care, and encourages awareness of how stress, fatigue, or emotional dysregulation may influence therapeutic interactions.

• Strengthens clinicians’ ability to maintain clear boundaries and ethical decision-making.

• Promotes reflective awareness of power dynamics and relational processes in therapy.

• Encourages psychologists to monitor their own professional functioning and recognise early signs of fatigue or burnout.

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Sample Program (Exact program is on Event page here)

Indicative elements include:

• Morning mindfulness - join us for an immersive mindful walk through the bush, rainforest or beach and learn to reconnect to nature in the present moment.

• Morning skills-based sessions (e.g. ACT-informed resilience and mindfulness tools) that translate theory into how health professionals can use this every day to transform not only their practice, but their outlook on life.

• Small-group discussion and applied reflection

  • Having difficult conversations with family​

  • Working within pressure systems

  • Protecting boundaries

• Free time in the afternoon for rest and reflection - or jump on the bus and see the region with us!

• Curated shared meals and facilitated informal connection

  • Join us for winery lunches, beach breakfasts, short hikes or incredible waterfront dining experiences.​

  • Cheese and wine tastings

  • Yoga and mindfulness

• Practical integration sessions focused on applying skills to clinical contexts

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

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Optional Experiences

Participants may choose to include additional restorative experiences, such as:

• Massage or bodywork

• Yoga or movement-based sessions

• Guided mindfulness or reflective practices

These are offered as optional enhancements and are not required to benefit from the core program.

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Who is This Retreat For?

Resilience in Practice is suited to Doctors, Psychologists, Nurses, Dentists, Social Workers, Mental Health Occupational Therapists or 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 but might throw their stethoscope at the next person who mentions the words "self care" or "mindfulness".

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

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Please note: we periodically offer specialist Resilience programs tailored specifically towards one craft group - e.g. doctors, psychologists, nurses.  If this is of interest, please check our Retreats page, or make an enquiry with us.

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Are these wellness retreats?

No. Starling retreats are structured, evidence-based clinical training programs designed for qualified health professionals. Each retreat includes formal teaching sessions aligned with CPD requirements, followed by curated cultural and restorative experiences.​

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“Do the retreats count as CPD?”

Yes. Our educational programs are designed to meet CPD requirements for medical and allied health professionals, with structured learning outcomes and documented hours.  We are currently registered with My CPD Home and RACP as approved providers.  We are working on approvals with other psychology and medical bodies - please ask us if there is something specific you need. 

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​Employer Brochure​

Need approval from your employer in order to access funding?  Download a brochure for the boss here!