200 counsellors attend Bay conference
Eminent counsellor and author Professor Allen Ivey (L)
with Dr Patrick O’Brien, from USQ Fraser Coast
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Guidance counsellors and youth workers from across Australia gathered in Hervey Bay last week (April 12-14) for a youth counselling conference.
The three-day Rural Training Youth Support Conference at USQ Fraser Coast attracted 200 participants.
Key note speaker Professor Allen Ivey and his partner Mary Bradford-Ivey travelled from the United States for the conference.
Professor Ivey is a renowned counsellor and author of more than 40 books and 200 articles.
He spoke about the link between the physical and the mental state, and the importance of exercise.
He said exercise was the main preventer of conditions such as Alzheimer’s and dementia.
'If you only remember one thing from this conference, I’d like it to be this one thing – exercise, exercise, exercise,' Professor Ivey said.
'The president of the American Psychiatric Association said a few years back that any physician who does not include exercise as part of their treatment recommendation to every client is unethical.
'Do you hear that? Not including exercise as a treatment recommendation is unethical. Now that may be a bit of an overstatement, but it does suggest to me that it is really really important to bring the body back to centrality.'
He said that medicine and psychology and counselling were no longer considered separate entities.
Many of the participants at the conference are guidance officers and counsellors working with children.
Most have some connection to education, with both government and non-government sectors being represented.
Conference co-organiser Patrick O’Brien, from USQ Fraser Coast, said the turnout at the conference had been outstanding.
He said it had been an absolute coup to secure such an eminent person as guest speaker, along with the guest speakers which included: Expressive Therapies educators and authors Mark Pearson and Helen Wilson, from Western Australia; the CEO of the Australian Counsellor’s Association Philip Armstrong, from Brisbane; Fraser Coast teacher Peter Miles; Brisbane-based private therapist Helen Kershaw; and private practitioner Lyn Fox, also from Brisbane.
The biannual conference began in 2001 as a program to deliver professional development and training to rural guidance officers.
Its theme, Authentic Counselling Practices: Challenging Current Thinking, Creating New Knowledge, was produced in direct response to feedback from the last Rural Training conference.
Contact Details:Katrina Corcoran,
USQ Media, +61 7 4194 3167