Trauma Essentials (level 1)  

A skills-based retreat for clinicians working with trauma

Trauma Essentials (Level 1)

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Trauma Essentials is a clinically grounded, introductory retreat designed for health professionals who encounter trauma in their day-to-day work but have had limited formal training in trauma theory or trauma-informed practice.

This program provides a clear, structured foundation in understanding trauma—what it is, how it presents, and how to respond safely and ethically within your professional scope. Whether your role involves assessment, psychoeducation, referral, or treatment, Trauma Essentials builds the knowledge and confidence required to work with trauma-exposed individuals without overstepping, oversimplifying, or avoiding the work altogether.

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This is not a retreat about “becoming a trauma therapist.”  It is about learning to recognise trauma, understand its impact, and respond well.

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Why Trauma Essentials?

Trauma is pervasive across healthcare settings. It presents in medical consultations, mental health care, disability services, community practice, and acute environments—often without being named. When trauma is misunderstood or missed, it can lead to misdiagnosis, treatment resistance and failure, clinician frustration, and harm to both patients and practitioners.

Many clinicians (whether GPs, emergency staff or psychologists) report feeling underprepared: unsure what is within scope, what is helpful, and when to treat, educate, contain, or refer.  Trauma Essentials addresses this gap.  The program is built on the premise that trauma-informed care is a shared responsibility across health professions, and that good trauma care begins with accurate understanding and recognition, ethical boundaries, and clear clinical decision-making.

What This Retreat Offers

Trauma Essentials combines structured education in mental health and trauma within a reflective, restorative retreat to support learning that is both intellectually rigorous and personally sustainable.  It offers time to step away from learning with your peers to reflect together, integrate and form a lasting professional network to support each other beyong the training.

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Key elements include:

• A clear, accessible introduction to trauma theory and neurobiology

• Understanding common trauma presentations across physical and mental health contexts

• What trauma looks like across the lifespan

• Differentiating trauma responses from other clinical presentations

• Guidance on assessment, psychoeducation, and safe clinical responses

• Clear discussion of scope of practice, boundaries, and referral pathways

• Separate breakout streams to address profession-specific needs

• Opportunities to reflect on how trauma shows up in your own work setting

The emphasis throughout is on clarity, safety, and practical application—not overwhelm or overreach.

Learning Across Professional Contexts

Trauma Essentials is intentionally designed for a mixed professional group to ensure that participants learn from each other about the scope of each profession when it comes to trauma and how to best work together as a team for patient-centred care. At key points, participants will separate into profession-relevant streams to focus on application within their scope of practice.

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For example:

• Medical and allied health professionals may focus on recognising trauma, responding sensitively, providing psychoeducation, and making appropriate referrals.

• Psychologists and mental health clinicians may focus on foundational formulation, stabilisation principles, and preparing for further trauma training or supervised practice.

This ensures learning is relevant, ethical, and immediately applicable—regardless of role. Whilst you're not learning from Alice, join Joel for a cheese tasting or learn about the region's food. Then re-join your peers to integrate both sets of learning in a treatment plan and case discussion.

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Why Starling Health Collective?

Trauma Essentials is designed and facilitated by a clinical psychologist with expertise in trauma, mental health, and systems-based care. Alice brings over 20 years’ experience working across public hospitals and medical teams, community settings, psychiatric hospitals and refugee services, with a strong understanding of the realities clinicians face when trauma does not exist in a silo, but intersects across medical and clinical teams with limited time and resources.  Her honours research focused on secondary traumatic stress in hospital staff and first responders, and she has focussed on providing staff support throughout her career.

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Unlike many introductory trauma offerings, this program is grounded in:

• Evidence-based trauma frameworks

• Real-world clinical decision-making through MDT workshops and case discussions

• A strong public health and systems lens

• Respect for professional boundaries, regulatory expectations and scope of practice

• A focus on recognising and responding to your own vicarious trauma or compassion-fatigue

• Space within a beautiful, restorative setting to integrate your learning and reset the dial.

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The retreat environment is curated with the same care as the educational content, drawing on expertise in food, wine, and hospitality to support learning, connection, and nervous system regulation. Our serene locations are chosen for their ability to offer experiences in nature and connection to others through exquisite food and cultural experiences.

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Education, Standards and Accreditation

Trauma Essentials 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 will be registered on MyCME. Learning activities will support:

• Educational Activities - at least 16 hours of formal educational content

• Reviewing Performance - creating a self-care plan; supervision (optional 6-9 hours post-retreat); case discussions and reflection

• Ethical and professional behaviour

• Cultural safety

Australian Psychological Society (APS)
Content aligns with APS Ethical principles, Codes of Conduct and Core Competencies, including:

• Providing safe and effective services

• Culturally reflective practice

• Teamwork and collaboration/working within systems

• Conducts psychological assessments and interventions

• Practice across the lifespan

• Self-care

Details regarding APS CPD mapping and hours to be confirmed.

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Sample Program (TBC)

Indicative elements include:

• Foundational trauma theory and neurobiology

• Recognising trauma presentations in clinical settings

• Trauma across the lifespan

• Assessment, psychoeducation, and referral decision-making

• Profession-specific breakout sessions (e.g. assess and refer vs stabilise and treat)

• Case discussion and applied reflection

• Structured integration sessions

• Time for rest, reflection, and optional wellness activities

• Curated shared meals and informal facilitated connection

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

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Who This Retreat Is For?

Trauma Essentials is suited to health professionals who:

• Encounter trauma in their work but lack formal training

• Want a clear, ethical, and evidence-based foundation

• Are unsure how trauma fits within their scope of practice

• Wish to improve confidence in assessment, communication, and referral

• Are considering further trauma training in the future

No prior trauma training is required.

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Supervision

All participants will be offered an optional 6 sessions (60-90min) of group supervision with their learning cohort, led by Alice.  Sessions can be counted towards PBA peer supervision requirements and CME reviewing performance hours.  Sessions will be held online after hours, or at a time most convenient to the group.​