Challenging and Overcoming our Self-imposed Barriers as Therapists and Catalysts for Change
Held on 24 September 2025 | → View Recording!
Explore how reflective practice and psychoanalytic insight can deepen therapeutic engagement with trauma survivors. This free clinical master class delves into the emotional and unconscious dynamics that shape how we listen, respond, and relate to clients affected by trauma, displacement, and cumulative stress.
LEARN FROM LEADING EXPERTS IN TRAUMA AND CLINICAL SUPERVISION
Join Rise Becker, Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst, and Deb Gould, Clinical Psychologist and STARTTS Consultant, as they share rich clinical insights and reflective techniques drawn from decades of working with refugee communities and complex trauma presentations.
WHAT YOU’LL GAIN
✅ Understand how trauma fragments relational and symbolic capacity — and how clinicians can respond
✅ Explore the unconscious defenses that interfere with therapeutic listening and presence
✅ Learn how countertransference emerges in trauma work and how to navigate it ethically and effectively
✅ Gain tools for reflective supervision and collaborative decision-making in moments of clinical uncertainty
✅ Direct engagement in a live expert Q&A panel moderated by Jorge Aroche, STARTTS CEO and Clinical Psychologist
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
This webinar is ideal for:
- Clinical psychologists, psychotherapists, counsellors, and social workers
- Supervisors and trainers in trauma-informed or cross-cultural settings
- Professionals supporting refugee and asylum seeker communities
- Mental health clinicians working with complex or cumulative trauma
- Academics and students in clinical psychology, trauma therapy, or psychoanalysis
- Anyone interested in trauma-informed, reflective, and relational approaches to healing
- Anyone seeking deeper understanding of unconscious processes in trauma therapy
Rise Becker
Rise Becker is a Clinical Psychologist and Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst with the Australian Psychoanalytical Society (APAS), part of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA). She currently works in private practice in Sydney. Rise migrated from South Africa in 1990 to become the inaugural Clinical Director of STARTTS, where she was instrumental in establishing clinical services. She continued as a senior supervisor until 2004 and still facilitates a group of senior clinicians. Her work focuses on human rights, refugee trauma, and psychoanalysis. She co-initiated Two-Way, a workshop series on Indigenous and non-Indigenous relationships through the Sydney Institute for Psychoanalysis, and has written on the Juukan Gorge destruction and collective trauma.
Deb Gould
Deb Gould is a South African-trained nurse, midwife, and Clinical Psychologist. She has worked in community psychiatric settings since the 1980s and has been a clinical consultant and counsellor at STARTTS since 1998. Deb has taught Clinical Psychology at universities in South Africa and Australia and contributed to journals and textbooks. While her core therapeutic orientation is psychodynamic, her work at STARTTS has expanded her practice to include DBT, EMDR, and Jungian Sandplay Therapy. Deb works across the lifespan and brings deep clinical insight to her training delivery at STARTTS, where she draws on decades of frontline experience and the collective wisdom of her colleagues.
Jorge Aroche
Jorge Aroche is a clinical psychologist and STARTTS’ Chief Executive Officer. Jorge was born in Uruguay and has worked with migrants and refugee survivors of torture and organized violence since before 1989, when he joined STARTTS. He has led the organization since March 1997, through some of the most challenging times for refugee services in Australia, helping STARTTS grow from a dozen staff to more than 200, assuming a truly state-wide role and becoming a world leader in this field in the process, while continuing to learn from its clients, its culturally diverse staff and the latest scientific advances. Jorge has also held a number of honorary positions in international humanitarian organizations, Australia government advisory bodies and NGO boards. He was the President of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) from 2016 until November 2020.
FORMAT AND INCLUSIONS
Online delivery
Presented by experts in the refugee trauma field
Includes real-life scenarios, practical tips and a Q&A panel
Claim 1.5 CPD points
Receive a certificate of completion and a PDF of the presentation slides
Free access to the webinar recording
WATCH THE RECORDING
Watch the recording now via the on-demand replay and watch at your convenience. The full catalogue of recorded webinars is available here.
CONTACT US
stts-training@health.nsw.gov.au
(02) 9646 6700 Ask for the Training Administration Officer