Core Concepts in Working with Children and Adolescents from Refugee Backgrounds

This essential workshop is designed to put a conceptual and practical framework of understanding around working with children, young people and their families from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds.

You will understand about the link between the traumatic experiences of young refugees, the impact of trauma on learning and behaviour, and the stressors of resettlement and cultural transition.

Engaging with real life examples, you will learn how to work in a trauma informed and culturally safe way that promotes recovery and fosters feelings of trust, safety and control, while minimising the risk of retraumatisation.

You will be encouraged to think about how to apply the concepts to your own workplace or school, and will leave the workshop feeling more confident in utilising your skills and experience with young people who have experienced war, torture, persecution and other types of human rights violations, recover from their experiences and rebuild their lives in Australia.

Content includes:

• Refugee children and forced displacement
• The global refugee situation for children
• Traumatic events commonly experienced by refugee children
• Trauma and the developing brain
• Attachment and refugee children
• Impact of trauma on learning and behaviour
• Resettlement challenges
• Importance of the school support system
• Refugee trauma recovery practice and its practical applications
• Cultural safety
• Engagement and using interpreters
• Trauma triggers and how to minimise their impact
• Setting boundaries
• Vicarious trauma, burnout and self-care

Who should attend?
Essential for anyone working or volunteering with refugee children, young people and their families, such as school staff, school/child counsellors, youth workers, case workers, family support workers and child health nurses.

Who should attend?
Relevant to anyone interested in the issues faced by children and adolescents from refugee backgrounds.

Our Trainer - Holly Cutcher
Senior Child and Adolescent Counsellor/Trainer, STARTTS

Holly is a Senior Child and Adolescent Counsellor who has been at STARTTS since 2022. Holly has worked therapeutically with children and families in the trauma field for many years. She trained as an Integrative Child Psychotherapist at the Institute for Arts in Psychotherapy and Education in London and has worked with children with complex presentations across mental health, social care, schools and private practice settings in Australia and the United Kingdom. Holly brings passion and reflectiveness to her training and clinical consultancy, supporting participants to digest often complex stories and ideas and apply them in practical and supportive ways in their own work with trauma survivors.  Holly is registered with PACFA.

Workshop delivery
STARTTS workshops are delivered by trainers experienced in the trauma field. They are interactive and normally include small group discussions via breakout rooms, case studies, self-reflections, videos and other types of activities. This workshop is delivered via Zoom. The Zoom link will be included in the registration confirmation email and the reminder emails.

Certificates and handouts
A PDF of the slides will be emailed to you a day before the event. A certificate of completion will be emailed to you the day after the event.

CPD points – 6 CPD hours
This workshop adheres to the continuing professional development standards of most professional bodies. Please check the CPD policy of your professional body.

Note that there are 5 Early Bird Tickets available for purchase 2 months and earlier before the workshop date.

Terms and conditions
Payment of the registration fee is online by credit card and a receipt/confirmation will be automatically emailed to you. An administration fee of $30 applies to all cancellations made more than 14 days the day before the start of the event. Registration once paid cannot be cancelled 14 days or less the day before the start of the event, regardless of personal circumstances. Registration can be transferred to another delegate only if STARTTS is informed of the name change. Registration cannot be transferred to another workshop. The concession price is for full-time students, seniors and the unemployed. A photocopy or pdf of a valid concession card must be forwarded to the STARTTS training team upon registration. Registrations will not be confirmed until full payment is received. The deadlines for the early bird and standard prices cannot be extended. Sometimes STARTTS will need to change the trainer of a particular workshop. The STARTTS Training Team can be contacted at stts-training@health.nsw.gov.au or (02) 9646 6700.