This show is sold out however we have good news! You can now purchase the LIVE STREAM & RECORDING to the Sydney event on the 12th of April. Please go to the link HERE to purchase.

THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE

Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma in Turbulent Times

Dr Bessel van der Kolk supported by Licia Sky, Tania de Jong AM & Benny Holloway.

Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide & Melbourne – April 12th, 16th, 19th and 26th, 2026

A healing, educational workshop for therapists, practitioners and the general public.

In his best-selling work THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE, Bessel van der Kolk explains how trauma literally reshapes the brain and body, causing lasting effects on mental and physical health.

Trauma is not a story of what has happened in the past: trauma that started outside shapes the filters and perceptions that determine how we currently experience our lives - trauma keeps being replayed inside the theatre of the body.

This workshop may be eligible for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points through your relevant professional college or association (5 hours per event). A Certificate of Attendance is available upon request to Mind Medicine Australia. Please confirm the applicable category and number of points with your professional membership body. If you'd like to receive a CPD certificate for your professional development records, please fill out the form here https://forms.clickup.com/6934242/f/6kkq2-4936/MFEPI0M6ABXDOMUKUO

THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE

Overwhelming experiences continue to be lived out in heartbreak and gut-wrenching sensations. This leaves survivors feeling unsafe, frazzled, on edge, ashamed, overwhelmed and shut down. The bottom line is that they no longer feel safe inside their own skin. Recovery from trauma involves learning how to restore a sense of visceral safety and reclaiming a loving relationship with oneself — one’s entire organism. Awareness of physical sensations forms the very foundation of human consciousness. Healing can only occur if survivors can befriend themselves and be in charge of their feelings and sensations.

The toll trauma takes is immeasurable. It can destroy our ability to focus, engage, and calm down. Treating people who’ve experienced trauma can be some of the most challenging work for practitioners, and all the more so because of the varying causes and types of traumas.

This unique workshop will explore how trauma affects people’s rhythms within themselves and with their surroundings. Trauma changes the way the brain processes information and how the human organism engages with the world. In addition to our individual and ancestral traumas, most of us feel collectively traumatised by what is happening in this tumultuous and rapidly changing world.

Because of biological systems that are altered, traumatized people continue to react in myriad ways, constantly bringing the past into the present. This means that they can never be truly present and design a more positive, healthy and grounded future. When we understand how to integrate the body and brain in the treatment of trauma, we can reduce symptoms and reclaim lives.

Most experiences are automatically processed on subcortical, i.e. unconscious levels in the brain. Therefore, insight and understanding have only a limited influence on people’s control over these processes.

What you can expect:

This special event will explore the neurobiology of self-regulation and examine ways of befriending one’s body, voice and nervous system. These are essential for the integration of traumatic memories: feelings, action patterns and physical sensations derived from the past.

Bessel will explore how the brain is shaped by experience and how our relationship to our sense of self is the product of our synchronicity with those around us. Healing may involve a variety of different approaches. He will share clinical experiences and world-leading research with psychedelic-assisted therapies, EMDR, yoga, meditation and bodywork, music and theatre, and neurofeedback. He will outline the efficacy of these various techniques in helping people overcome a traumatic past and regain the capacity to be fully alive in the present.

Bessel and Licia will demonstrate the cultivation of an embodied orientation: We cannot teach or guide someone else in attuned self-awareness if we are not able to get into that state ourselves. This experiential workshop will help to activate the brain's neuroplasticity to help restore the emotional part of the brain and repair the limbic and nervous system. Body awareness has a major impact on how we process sensations and memories and, thus, how we heal from traumatic experiences. As healers, our own body awareness is an important barometer to track the states of both patient and therapist.

Based on the (upcoming) The Body Keeps the Score Workbook, this program offers an array of non-verbal, experiential exercises drawn from theatre, guided focusing, dance, meditation, yoga, bodywork, and embodied voice.

Tania de Jong AM will share her magnificent, angelic voice and healing energies to warm your heart and connect you to more of your creative self.

Holloway is an Australian-based sonic alchemist, weaving purely expressive music for the soul, and medicinal soundscapes of deep listening, emotion, and re:membrance.

This workshop will explore:

• What neuroscience teaches about self-awareness and trauma

• The nature and essence of human attachment

• New psychotherapeutic treatments that help integrate traumatic memories, including psychedelic-assisted therapies

• Body-centered approaches for dealing with trauma, including EMDR, yoga, play, voice, dance, theatre work and tai chi.

These techniques help people come into the present moment and shift out of fear, numbing and hyperarousal. This allows them to resolve traumatic memories, promote mastery over the post-traumatic legacy of constriction, disconnection, and loss, and reclaim authority over their lives.

Running times:

Doors open 9am for VIP

10:00am – 11:00am: VIP

Doors open 11:00am for general admission

12:00pm – 2:00pm: 1st workshop session

2:00pm – 3:00pm: Interval

3:00pm – 5:00pm: 2nd workshop session

This event is presented by Activate Media Events and charity Mind Medicine Australia.

50% of any profits will be donated to Mind Medicine Australia’s Patient Support Fund to support patients in need to access psychedelic-assisted therapy treatments.

Bessel van der Kolk, MD, is a clinical psychiatrist whose work integrates mind, brain, body, and social connections to understand and treat trauma. His research ranges from the impact of trauma on development and brain imaging, to the use of yoga, neurofeedback, EMDR, psychedelics, and theater for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. He is a Professor of Psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine, President of the Trauma Research Foundation, Author of more than 150 peer reviewed scientific articles and several books including the New York Times best-seller The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain, and Body in the Healing of Trauma.

Licia Sky is a co-founder of the Trauma Research Foundation with Dr Bessel van der Kolk. She is a somatic educator, artist, singer-songwriter, and bodyworker who works with traumatized individuals and trains mental health professionals to explore parts work, mindful meditation, movement, theatre exercises, psychodrama, writing, psychedelic integration, and voice as tools for attunement, healing, and connection. For the past decade, she has been teaching expanded awareness in workshops to clinicians and lay people around the world. She is a regular teacher for the Esalen Institute, Cape Cod Institute, Mind Medicine Australia and the Ketamine Training Centre.

Tania de Jong AM is the co-Founder and Executive Director of Mind Medicine Australia. Tania has garnered an international reputation as an award-winning social entrepreneur, acclaimed soprano, inspirational speaker and storyteller, creative alchemist, philanthropist and spiritual journey woman. She is a passionate leader for social change. Her mission is to change the world, one voice at a time! She regularly presents on creative, innovation, leadership, purpose, psychedelic-assisted therapies, mental health and wellbeing at major conferences and events around the world. Tania is one of Australia’s most successful female entrepreneurs and innovators developing 6 businesses and 4 charities including Creative Universe, Creativity Australia and the With One Voice programs, Umbrella Foundation, Creative Innovation Global, Pot-Pourri and The Song Room. Tania was named in the 100 Women of Influence, the 100 Australian Most Influential Entrepreneurs and named as one of the 100 most influential people in psychedelics globally. Her TED Talk has sparked global interest.

Benny Holloway

Holloway is a sonic alchemist from Byron Bay, Australia, weaving ceremonial music for the heart and spirit. His sound arises through deep listening, crafted intuitively, shaped by emotion, and infused with textures gathered from across the globe, where sacred prayer and ecstatic song have become part of his inner landscape.

T&C’s:

All ages babes in arms allowed.

Filming: Patrons are not allowed to use professional large photography equipment. Filming on phones is discouraged as it effects other patrons.

Refund policy: No Refunds

Tickets for this event are unallocated in 2 tiers.

Covid & force Majeure:

"No Refund Policy for COVID-Related Cancellations or force majeure: Due to the uncertain and ever-changing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are unable to offer refunds for event cancellations that are directly or indirectly caused by COVID-19 or force majeure. However, in the event that we are unable to reschedule the event within 12 months of the original event date, we will issue a refund to all ticket holders. Event times are subject to change. This event will be photographed and filmed. By attending, you consent to being photographed and to these images being used for event documentation and promotional purposes. Professional photography and filming will take place at this event, including during VIP sessions. By purchasing a ticket and attending, you acknowledge and consent to being photographed or recorded. Images may be shared privately with attendees and may be used by Activate Media Events for documentation and promotional purposes.

Contact the host of Dr Bessel van der Kolk Live in Melbourne (April 26) - The Body Keeps the Score - Full Day Workshop