Dr Judith Beck

Judith S. Beck, PhD, is President of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy (beckinstitute.org), a nonprofit organization that provides state-of-the-art training in Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and Recovery-Oriented Cognitive Therapy (CT-R).The Beck Institute also offers certification in CBT, and online courses on a variety of topics, in addition to conducting research and providing CBT resources around the world. Dr. Beck is also Clinical Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. She has written over 100 articles and chapters, workbooks, pamphlets for professionals and nonprofessionals, and 7 books, including Cognitive Behavior Therapy: Basics and Beyond, 3r dEdition (2021) and Cognitive Therapy for Challenging Problems: What to Do When the Basics Don’t Work. She has made hundreds of presentations nationally and internationally on various applications of CBT and is the primary developer of the Beck Institute’s on demand CBT training courses, which have been taken by more than 28,000 health and mental health professionals in over 130 countries. Dr. Beck also provides supervision and treats clients.

Dr Emily Holmes

Adventuring into imagination –from interventions for psychological disorders to technology.

Emily Holmes grew up in Surrey, England, and earned a BA in Experimental Psychology from the University of Oxford in 1993. She then pursued a master's degree in Social Science at Uppsala University, Sweden, focusing on haptic perception in blind individuals. After a year at art college, she spent several years in New York, working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, leading touch tours for visually impaired visitors, and supporting homeless individuals with mental health challenges. This experience influenced her career path. Holmes returned to the UK, completed her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Royal Holloway University of London in 2000, focusing on PTSD and intrusive memories, and earned a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience from Cambridge University in 2005. She was awarded the Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship in 2005, and in 2010, she became a Professor of Clinical Psychology at Oxford. From 2012 to 2016, she led a program at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at Cambridge.

Patricia Purnell - Webb

Healing Together: Why Every Therapist Should Master the Art and Science of Relationship Therapy.

Trish Purnell-Webb is a Clinical Psychologist, Certified Gottman Therapist, Advanced Clinical trainer and Consultant for the Gottman Institute. She has also undertaken training in emotion-focused therapy for couples, schema therapy for couples, and a range of other couple therapy approaches. Trish has been in private practice on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, since 1997 and is a founding partner of Relationship Institute Australasia. She provides various clinical psychological services to adults and couples, including individual therapy, couples therapy, intensive marathon couples therapy, online couples therapy, and couple workshops. Because of Trish’s expertise in couples therapy and clinical mental health disorders, especially Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Mood Disorders and complex personality presentations, Trish has been involved in the development and delivery of several couples’ programs for Military Veterans, First Responders and their families. She is an active educator, board-approved supervisor (AHPRA), and Supervision Masterclass Facilitator. Trish regularly provides professional development workshops for many community and professional organisations throughout Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the USA. She has co-authored 365 Simple Ideas to Improve your Relationship (2020), a self-help book for couples, and a chapter Relationship Difficulties (2023). In Beel, N. et al. (Eds.) Common Client Issues in Counselling: An Australian Perspective. University of Southern Queensland. She regularly teaches into Clinical Masters programs for Bond University in Clinical Couple Therapy and has previously tutored and lectured at Griffith University. Her first novel exploring the experience and devastating impact of domestic violence in a small community is due to be published in 2025.

Adam Guastella

Professor Guastella is a Clinical Psychologist and the Michael Crouch Chair in Child and Youth Mental Health. His position is based both at the Children's Hospital at Westmead and Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney. As part of his university leadership, he is the co-lead of the Child Development and Mental Health team for the Brain and Mind Centre and Sydney Health Partners. His work aims to build collaborative partnerships between researchers, clinicians, and services to ensure that children youth, and families receive the best available assessments and treatments to support well-being. It also seeks to ensure research outcomes, technology, and evidence based practices are integrated into the public health services supporting some of our most disadvantaged communities. He is the director of the Clinic of Autism and Neurodevelopmental research. This clinic develop national registries, novel assessments and tests new psychological therapies and medical therapeutics. With a focus on strengths, skills and overcoming challenges, the goal is to give individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions and their families an evidence-base from which to determine what works for them. Prof Guastella is also a practicing clinical psychologist and for the last 20 years has worked primarily with young people experiencing a range of mental health concerns. He has developed mental health assessments and interventions to uplift capacity for services to support people with neurodevelopmental conditions. He also regularly provides training seminars for mental health professionals.

Michael Yapko

Depression is Contagious: Have We Been Looking at Depression Through the Wrong Lens?

Michael D. Yapko, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist residing near San Diego, California. He is internationally recognized for his groundbreaking work in applying clinical hypnosis in outcome-focused psychotherapy, especially in the active treatment of depression. He has been invited to present his innovative ideas and methods to colleagues in more than 30 countries across six continents, and all over the United States. He has been a frequent presenter in Australia (76 times!); his popular hypnosis training program as well as other clinical trainings have been sponsored by APS. His highly practical YouTube lecture on “How to Recover from Depression” sponsored by APS has now been viewed more than 5.3 million times. Dr. Yapko is the author of 16 books, three edited books, and nearly 100 journal articles and book chapters. His most recent book for professionals is the just-released updated 6th edition of his classic hypnosis textbook, Trancework. His popular general audience books include Depression is Contagious and Breaking the Patterns of Depression. His works have been translated into 10 languages. Dr. Yapko is also the developer of the popular digital hypnotherapy mental health app called Claria in association with the Australian digital therapeutic company, Mindset Health (www.mindsethealth.com). More information about Dr. Yapko’s work is available on his website: www.yapko.com.

Martine Powell

Questioning strategies to enhance people’s recall of sensitive events.

Martine Powell is a Professor at Griffith University and Founding Director of the Centre for Investigative Interviewing. She is a world-leading expert on people’s memory of events – with a particular focus on vulnerable populations such children and adults with communication impairment. Martine has adopted a constructive and innovative approach to her research work, integrating current scientific methods and her background in education and clinical psychology. Her outputs are extensive - she has produced more than 350 peer-reviewed publications, supervised over 35 doctoral/PhD students, and has been an investigator on numerous competitive research grants (> 10M). The influence of Martine’s research has been recognised by several lifetime career awards, including elected Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. The widespread dissemination of Martine’s work has sparked a global revolution in interviewer training, with industry partners spanning a range of disciplines and countries.