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Friday 18th June, 2027 8:15am to 5:00pm
Stronger Together
Peer Support Conference 2027
Learning • Skills • Stories
Stronger Together: Peer Support Conference 2027
Mental Health and Wellbeing Conversations
Peer Support for Emergency Services, First Responders, Health Workers & Veterans,
counsellors, psychotherapists, hypnotherapists, psychologists,
general local community members and those with Lived Experience
A one-day conference on peer support, trauma, and practical ways to look after each other and ourselves.
Plenty Ranges Arts & Convention Centre
South Morang
(City of Whittlesea, VIC)
Friday 18th June, 2027
8:15 am - 5:00 pm
Peer support isn’t an abstract concept it’s what happens when people who’ve carried the load for others find a safe place to belong again.
The AAMHP is proud to partner with a growing network of providers across the mental health, education, training and professional development space. Together, we share a commitment to practical, trauma-informed support that strengthens peer capability while also ensuring people can be connected to qualified help when needed.
This partnership approach reflects the purpose of Stronger Together: peer support works best when it is not left to chance. It is most effective when it is backed by clear pathways, supervision options, professional standards, and a wider ecosystem of care so peers can show up with confidence, boundaries, and real follow-through.
If your organisation provides training, supervision, clinical services, peer workforce support, or wellbeing capability-building, we welcome partnership conversations that strengthen the quality and reach of this event.
Why this conference, why now
Trauma doesn’t always show up on the day it happens.
For many people working in high-stress helping and protection roles such as veterans, first responders, healthcare workers, and those supporting others welfare, the impact of trauma can emerge later, and in unexpected ways. It can build quietly through repeated exposure, vicarious trauma, moral injury, and accumulated stress… Many don't notice until it starts showing up in our relationships, our work, our health, and our sense of self.
Stronger Together is a one-day, practical conference focused on peer support: how we notice when someone’s not okay, how we start the conversation, how we listen well, and how we connect people to the right supports, without asking peers to carry what belongs to the system.
A common theme on on the day borrows from the spirit of the R U OK? conversation model (Ask • Listen • Encourage action • Check in), and exploring what it looks like when that approach is strengthened through peer-to-peer practice and backed by institutions, clinical pathways, and qualified support.
Hosted by AAMHP
The Australian Association of Mental Health Practitioners (AAMHP) represents and supports vocationally trained mental health practitioners across Australia strengthening practice, advocacy, professional development, and pathways to safe, accessible care.
This conference is part of AAMHP’s commitment to practical, community-connected mental health solutions that recognise the realities of frontline work and the importance of peer support as both a protective factor and a structured practice.
We’re excited to confirm that our Master of Ceremonies for the day is Richard Hill (MA, MEd, MBMSc, DPC) an experienced psychotherapist, educator and author known for making complex ideas about the brain, stress and wellbeing feel practical, human, and usable. Richard brings warmth, clarity and momentum to conversations that matter, with a strong focus on how people change, heal, and grow through connection.
Meet our Keynote Speaker
About Matt Newlands Frontline Mental Health
Matt Newlands is a former South Australia Police officer, registered counsellor, speaker and Co-Founder of Frontline Mental Health. After more than a decade in frontline policing, Matt's own experience of PTSD, depression and career loss profoundly changed the direction of his life.
Today, he combines lived experience, professional practice and compelling storytelling to explore mental health, identity, peer connection and post-traumatic growth. Matt is a national R U OK? Community Ambassador and has previously represented first responders on the South Australian Government's Suicide Prevention Council. His work challenges audiences to look beyond simply surviving adversity and consider what growth might make possible.
Meet our PRESENTERS
Richard Hill Specialist of Mind, Brain and the Human Condition
MA, MEd, MBMSc, DPC
Richard Hill has emerged from a diverse and fascinating journey to become an innovative speaker on the mind, brain and the human condition. From a satisfying, if not quite famous, early career in the creative arts, Richard returned to intellectual studies at 42 (1996) beginning with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in linguistics. This triggered a curiosity that led to a diploma in counselling and a new career in psychotherapy. Studying continued and he has added three Masters degrees – an MA in Social Ecology; an MEd in Social Ecology; and a Masters in Brain and Mind Sciences (MBMSc) from Sydney University.
Richard is also fortunate to be mentored by the esteemed Ernest Rossi PhD who has invited Richard into the International Psychosocial Genomics Research Team to study the impact of therapeutic practice on the genetic level.
His fascination with the disturbing problem of stress and anxiety has resulted in his unique theory - The Winner-Loser World Theory – and the positive positive counterpoint – The Curiosity Approach: which highlights our Curiosity for Possibility. These theories revolutionize the way we deal with stress and anxiety and how we approach standard therapeutic practices.
About Martin Taylor Barrister and Solicitor and General Counsel of AAMHP
As a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria and the High Court of Australia, Martin brings a wealth of experience to the legal field. His distinguished career includes serving as Senior Counsel Assisting, prosecutor, and as a Senior Member (Chairperson) of a quasi-judicial administrative appeals tribunal. Martin's legal expertise spans complex areas of law, including civil and criminal investigations and the law, where his deep knowledge and strategic acumen have been instrumental in high stakes environments. His leadership and counsel have proven invaluable in these roles, enabling him to navigate intricate legal challenges with confidence and precision.
In addition to his legal career, Martin has an impressive record of military service, having served for 22 years, both fulltime and in the reserves. He currently holds the rank of Major in the Australian Army Reserve, where he has demonstrated exemplary leadership and dedication to national service and has deployed on several occasions. This military experience is complemented by his significant contributions to law enforcement, further underscoring his commitment to public safety and national defence.
Martin's presentation and panel discussion titled “Beyond the EAP Referral: Employer Responsibilities for Psychological Health and Workplace Trauma,” Martin will examine whether referring an employee to, or providing access to, an Employee Assistance Program is sufficient when workplace trauma or psychosocial risk has been reported.
Drawing on Victorian workplace safety law, practical hypothetical scenarios and key case law, this session will explore employers’ obligations to identify and assess psychosocial hazards, address workplace conditions contributing to risk, implement appropriate control measures, and evaluate the effectiveness of those measures.
This session will be relevant to mental health practitioners, EAP providers, allied health professionals, medical practitioners, emergency services personnel, healthcare and community services workers, organisational leaders, local government, state government and human resources professionals.
About Julie Millard AM Julie Millard Consultancy
Julie Millard AM is a consultant, educator and Australian Credentialed Mental Health Nurse with a distinguished career in mental health advocacy, education and systemic reform. Awarded a Member of the Order of Australia in 2024 for significant service to the mental health sector, Julie’s work is grounded in human rights, trauma-informed practice, community empowerment and reducing barriers for people who are disadvantaged or vulnerable. She has contributed nationally and internationally to mental health reform, including through leadership roles with the World Federation for Mental Health, the Global Mental Health Action Network and the Global Alliance for Mental Health Advocates.
At Stronger Together, Julie will present “The Power of Advocacy: Bridging Gaps Over Time”, reflecting on how informed advocacy, long-term vision and collaboration can bridge service gaps, uphold human rights, foster hope and strengthen connection across mental health systems and communities.
About Dr Roheena Tahir Flinders University, SA, Lecturer
Dr Roheena Tahir is a mind coach, PhD-qualified public health and mental health researcher, and Lecturer at Flinders University, with a strong focus on refugee mental health, cultural safety, counselling education and trauma-aware practice. Her doctoral research explored mental health understanding among refugee women and service providers in South Australia, with particular attention to resettlement stressors, systemic barriers, cultural and linguistic access, and the complexity of delivering care across migration contexts. At Stronger Together, Dr Tahir will present “Mental Health Service Providers’ Perspectives on Working with Middle Eastern Refugee Women in South Australia”, sharing qualitative research insights from mental health professionals working with Middle Eastern refugee women.
This session will explore the limits of standard Western assessment models, the role of religion and culture in help-seeking, and the workforce capability needed to provide more culturally responsive, trauma-informed and person-centred care.
About Bianca and Kritz Sciessere The Big Sister Experience
Bianca and Kritz Sciessere are real-life sisters and co-founders of The Big Sister Experience, an organisation delivering mental health, wellbeing and life-education workshops to young female-identifying people, schools, educators and families across Victoria and beyond. Both former teachers, Bianca and Kritz bring together education, lived experience, storytelling and practical wellbeing facilitation to help communities build self-agency, adaptability and connection. At Stronger Together, they will present “Prioritising Your Wellbeing: Removing the Overload to Prevent Burnout in Mental Health Practice”, a practical and reflective session for mental health and wellbeing professionals who are carrying increasingly complex demands. Rather than adding another list of self-care tasks to already full lives, this session asks what can be removed, released or rebalanced so practitioners can create genuine space for sustainable wellbeing, model healthier practice, reduce isolation and continue doing meaningful work without losing themselves in the process.
About Sharon LeFort Le Fort Consultancy Advice
Sharon Le Fort is a lived and living-experience speaker, author, advocate and mental health peer practice lead based in Queensland. Her work is grounded in both professional practice and personal experience, drawing on her journey as a survivor of childhood trauma, sexual violence, domestic and family violence, and as a person living with dissociative identity disorder. Sharon brings a powerful and compassionate lens to trauma, recovery and peer practice, shaped by her work in crisis support, suicide prevention, counselling and community mental health. At Stronger Together, Sharon will present “Survival Intelligence: Reframing Trauma, Dissociation and the Behaviours that Kept Us Alive”, a lived-experience session exploring how behaviours often labelled as dysfunction are more accurately understood as intelligent survival adaptations.
Through storytelling, professional insight and reflections from her memoir Unravelled, Sharon invites participants to replace judgement with curiosity, recognise survival responses without shame, and support healing in ways that honour the parts of people that helped them stay alive.
About Carly Bush Impact Advisory Studio
Carly Bush is an executive leader, board director, speaker and Founder of Impact Advisory Studio, with more than 20 years’ experience across finance, philanthropy, governance, leadership and the not-for-profit sector. Alongside her professional career, Carly brings lived experience of chronic illness and endometriosis, offering an honest and deeply relevant perspective on what it means to keep leading, deciding, supporting teams and meeting professional expectations while privately managing pain, fatigue and medical uncertainty. At Stronger Together, Carly will present “The Invisible Load: Leading When Nobody Can See What You’re Carrying”, a lived-experience session exploring the pressure to appear capable, the impact of invisible illness on professional identity, and the role of kindness, boundaries, peer support and psychologically safe workplaces.
This session invites participants to look beyond the capable exterior and consider how to support colleagues, leaders and peers without diminishing their dignity, ambition or sense of self.
About Lyndall Briggs Our Purple Patch
Lyndall Briggs sits on the AAMHP Advisory Committee. Lyndall is a counsellor, clinical hypnotherapist, supervisor, trainer and President of the Australian Society of Clinical Hypnotherapists, with more than 25 years’ experience in private practice and professional education. Her work brings together clinical hypnotherapy, reflective supervision, neuroscience-informed practice and trauma-informed communication to support helping professionals who are carrying the emotional weight of frontline work. At Stronger Together, Lyndall will present “The Therapist, the Client and the Trance: Understanding the Hidden Patterns That Shape Frontline Practice”, an interactive workshop exploring the unconscious “trances” that can quietly shape professional identity, stress responses, burnout, decision-making and self-care.
Participants will be invited to reframe hypnosis as a practical, ethical and trauma-informed process of focused attention — leaving with strategies to support nervous system regulation, sleep, emotional recovery, therapeutic communication and sustainable practice.
About Emily Mah Sexual Health Victoria - Schools and Community Educator
Emily Mah is a Schools and Community Educator with a background in primary and secondary teaching and a strong passion for Relationships and Sexuality Education. Holding a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Teaching, Emily has worked with young people, professionals and families to strengthen confidence, communication and primary prevention approaches that support young people to care for themselves and others. At Stronger Together, Emily will present “Understanding Young People and Online Sexual Content”, a practical session exploring the changing digital landscape, how young people encounter and interpret sexual content online, and how trusted adults can respond with curiosity, confidence and care.
Drawing on Sexual Health Victoria’s work with young people, this session will focus on co-engagement rather than restriction alone, offering strategies to build digital literacy, critical thinking, help-seeking pathways and open, non-judgmental conversations in professional practice.
About Pamela McConchie PMC Counselling and also at
Life Vision Counselling
Pamela McConchie is a Master and Bachelor qualified counsellor, Level 4 ACA Counsellor, and lived experience advocate in the area of domestic and family violence. She is the creator of Breaking Your Mold, a leadership and self-empowerment program for women survivors of domestic violence, funded through the Victorian Women’s Trust. Drawing on both professional expertise and lived experience, Pamela brings a compassionate, trauma-informed lens to supporting victim-survivors and helping practitioners better understand the unique dynamics of domestic violence, coercive control, ongoing abuse and chronic post-traumatic stress.
At Stronger Together, Pamela will present “What Do I Say? Practical Skills for Counselling Domestic Violence Survivors”, an interactive workshop offering practical language, reflective discussion and immediately usable strategies for responding safely to disclosure, asking supportive questions, and creating a therapeutic space where survivors feel heard, believed, respected and empowered.
About Rodney Vlais Psychologist, Trainer, Supervisor
Rodney Vlais is one of Australia’s leading presenters, trainers, supervisors and writers in responding to men who use domestic, family and sexual violence. A psychologist and experienced men’s behaviour change practitioner, Rodney has contributed to violence response and prevention initiatives across Australia, working with NGOs and governments in almost every state and territory. At Stronger Together, Rodney will present “Responding to Clients in Mental Health Service Settings Who You Know or Suspect Are Using Domestic and Family Violence”, an interactive workshop for mental health practitioners and peer responders who may encounter clients using violent, controlling or harmful behaviours. The session will explore how to open non-collusive, non-shaming conversational pathways when it is safe to do so, while keeping the safety and wellbeing of adult and child victim-survivors firmly in view.
Participants will be introduced to foundational concepts and skills for shame-sensitive engagement, risk awareness, accountability, and safer practice within the limits of their role.
About Amy-Ruth Lewis Mental Health Facilitator
Amy-Ruth Lewis is a professional speaker, mental health facilitator and suicide prevention advocate who brings together personal lived experience and professional experience across the mental health sector. With work spanning workplace and community mental health education, crisis support, lived experience advisory roles, and organisations including Black Dog Institute, Beyond Blue, Lifeline and the Danny Frawley Centre, Amy-Ruth is deeply committed to creating safe, purposeful conversations that challenge stigma and build connection. At Stronger Together, Amy-Ruth will present “Conversations That Change Things: Turning Lived Experience into Connection and Impact”, exploring how lived experience can be shared safely, intentionally and with purpose to create trust, hope, agency and meaningful change.
This session will help participants understand the barriers that stop people reaching out, strengthen confidence in starting difficult conversations, and offer practical ways to listen with curiosity, stay present, and resist the pressure to have perfect words or immediate answers.
About Sam Alameh Author and Speaker
Sam Alameh is a Melbourne-based writer, author and late-diagnosed autistic/ADHD adult whose work explores masking, burnout, sensory load, executive function, grief, recovery and the practical redesign of life around neurodivergent brains. Through books including The Manual That Never Came, Man. You. Well., and Small Lights for Long Nights, Sam writes from lived experience with plain language, systems thinking and a grounded honesty about what it can cost to appear capable while privately struggling. At Stronger Together, Sam will present “Looking Fine Was Not The Same As Being Well”, a lived-experience session exploring late-diagnosed neurodivergent adulthood, masking, burnout and the hidden cost of functioning.
This presentation invites peer supporters, practitioners, carers and community members to think differently about support — moving beyond “are they coping?” toward the more useful question: what is the coping costing?
About Toni Knight Psychotherapist
Toni Knight is a degree-qualified psychotherapist and presenter specialising in burnout, anxiety and trauma. She has worked with organisations including Occupational Therapy Australia, Dementia Australia, Relationships Australia, government Area Health Services and a wide range of smaller organisations across Australia and internationally. Toni supports high-achieving professionals to build practical, sustainable strategies for personal and professional wellness, effectiveness and resilience. At Stronger Together, Toni will present “Advanced Stress and Burnout Management: The High-Performance Blueprint for Personal and Professional Success”, a 90-minute intensive exploring how professionals can move beyond generic self-care advice and develop a more systematic approach to stress, nervous system regulation and sustainable performance.
Drawing on the Stop Burnout, Be Brilliant framework, this session will help participants understand the shift from reactive survival to more grounded, self-led and effective practice.
About James Podhorodecki Alpha Hypnotics
James is a clinical hypnotherapist. He is also an author with two books published to an international audience, one a collection of poetry and the other a novel.
His practical therapeutic interests lay in gestalt hypnotherapy, parts therapy, and the implementation of existential phenomenology in a therapeutic setting.
He is a published and peer-reviewed philosopher of Hegelian dialectical ontology.
He has academically researched and written on hypnotherapy for ADHD in one of the worlds leading peer reviewed hypnosis journals (American Journal for Clinical Hypnosis), coming up with a highly original and natural method for managing ADHD symptoms, making him a leading global expert in hypnotherapy for ADHD. He is continuing his post graduate philosophical research focusing on phenomenology, ontology, aesthetics, and authenticity in Sartrean existentialism. He has found that these subjects directly tie in with his therapeutic work.
About Michelle Hunt Blue Wren Therapy
Michelle Hunt is the senior practitioner at Blue Wren Therapy and creator of the Unstuck Method and Unstuck Card Deck, a creative five-step process designed to help people move through feeling stuck, reconnect with perspective, and create new pathways forward. Working in private practice since 2017, Michelle brings together clinical experience, lived experience, creativity and a deep curiosity about what helps people make meaningful change. At Stronger Together, Michelle will present “Getting Unstuck Together: A Creative Approach to Burnout and Change”, sharing both the practical framework of the Unstuck Method and her own journey through burnout and compassion fatigue toward renewed purpose, creativity and hope.
Participants will be invited to explore how curiosity, play, reflection and perspective-shifting can support self-awareness, peer support, professional wellbeing and more sustainable helping practice.
About Andrei Satcau STEO Pty Ltd
Andrei Satcau is a Melbourne-based entrepreneur, producer, editor and multidisciplinary creative whose work sits at the intersection of storytelling, mental health, mindfulness and human transformation. As the founder of STEO, a personal development platform supporting self-reflection, conscious habit change and deeper awareness, Andrei brings a creative and lived-experience lens to the patterns that shape how we think, feel and respond. At Stronger Together, Andrei will present “From Autopilot to Awareness: Mindful Practice, Self-Observation, and Shaping Your Reality”, exploring how perception, inner dialogue, emotional regulation and daily choices influence the way we experience ourselves, our relationships and the world around us.
This session invites participants to consider how small, intentional practices can help move us from unconscious patterns and reactivity toward greater awareness, choice and meaningful personal change.
Three streams on the day
This conference is structured around three complementary streams that you can move between on the day:
1. Learning Dialogue
Grounded talks and facilitated conversations that explore what trauma is, how it accumulates, and how it often shows up later... personally, professionally, and relationally.
2. Skills You Can Use on Monday Morning
Practical tools, frameworks and skills labs designed for real-world settings such as what to say, what not to say, how to listen well, and how to support someone without becoming their only support.
3. Lived Experience Stories
Stories that build understanding, reduce stigma, and remind us what hope, recovery, and community can look like, especially when systems are stretched.
Who this conference is for
Stronger Together is for anyone working in, or supporting those working in, high exposure, high responsibility environments, including:
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Military veterans and veteran support organisations
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Police, paramedics, firefighters and emergency services
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Healthcare workers and hospital/clinical teams
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Animal welfare workers and veterinary professionals
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Peer support workers, lived experience leaders, and community support teams
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Counsellors, coaches, psychotherapists, hypnotherapists, and allied health practitioners supporting these communities
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Leaders and supervisors responsible for staff wellbeing and safe workplaces
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Members of the community who have an interest in mental health and peer support
What we’ll explore
Topics across the day will include:
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Trauma that emerges later, delayed impact and cumulative exposure
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Vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue: the “slow build” effect
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Moral injury, shame, and the hidden layers of distress
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The ripple effects: relationships, family life, workplace conflict, isolation and withdrawal
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Trauma as a precursor to other issues such as domestic violence, separation, friendship strain, suicide risk, and disengagement from work and society
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What peer support can (and cannot) responsibly hold
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How institutions can back peer support with safe pathways, supervision, and clinical escalation
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How to build a culture where checking in is normal and follow-through is real
Safety & Wellbeing on the day - The Chill and Create Space
Safety and wellbeing are built into the conference experience: sessions will be trauma-informed, with clear content advisories and the option to step out or opt out at any point (no explanations, no penalties).
A dedicated quiet room known as the Chill and Create Space is available throughout the day, staffed by qualified clinicians, with debrief pods offered after skills labs for anyone who wants to ground, process, or reset. After the event, we’ll send a follow-up check-in email with supports, resources, and pathways to further help if needed.
Some of the conversations at Stronger Together may be powerful, personal or emotionally activating. We are designing the day with this in mind, and delegates will have access to a dedicated Chill & Create Space throughout the conference.
This is a calm, low-pressure area where you can step away from the program, sit quietly, have a tea or coffee, doodle, use your hands creatively, or simply take a moment to breathe.
The space will be supported by Kait Luker from The Poppet Centre, whose creative work is grounded in the idea that making can offer people a gentle way to pause, settle and reconnect. The Poppet Centre’s creative programs emphasise relaxed participation, connection, simple materials, and mindful making without pressure or perfection.
The Chill & Create Space is not a formal workshop and it is not therapy. You do not need to be artistic, skilled or ready to talk. You can come in for five minutes or stay longer. You might sketch, doodle, make something small, sit with a cuppa, or simply use the space as a quiet reset. Sometimes when ideas, emotions or memories feel difficult to process, doing something simple with the hands can help create a sense of grounding, rhythm and return.
Kait Luker from The Poppet Centre
Partner with us
If your organisation supports veterans, first responders, healthcare workers, welfare teams, or peer support practice we’d love to explore partnership opportunities for promotion, participation, and on-the-day involvement.
Please contact us now.
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Contact
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