This 3-hour introductory workshop offers a foundational entry point into culturally responsive practice that aims to equip psychologists to offer care that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples experience as culturally safe. Grounded in the Australian Indigenous Psychologists Association (AIPA) wangii ba ganandhimila (“listen and learn”) training, the session invites participants to begin a reflective learning-and-unlearning journey that interrogates power, racism, colonisation and dominant white privilege, while holding a respectful space for open and honest dialogue.
The workshop is explicitly aligned with the Psychology Board of Australia’s Code of Conduct and Professional Competencies, particularly Principle 2, which requires psychologists to consider the specific needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and to foster open, honest and culturally safe relationships, and Competency 8, which calls for a health equity and human rights approach when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, families and communities. These professional obligations are situated within the broader reforms to the National Law and the National Scheme’s commitment to achieving equity in health outcomes between First Nations peoples and other Australians.
Participants will be introduced to the training’s guiding pathway from decolonisation to cultural responsiveness to cultural safety, and to core definitions that frame this work: cultural responsiveness as an ongoing, developmental process of extending knowledge, skills and competence through continuous learning about cultures and the self-in-relation; cultural safety as addressing racism and unexamined bias, power and self-determination as determined by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples; and decolonisation as examining and reversing structural practices that create disadvantage so multiple knowledge systems can hold power.
A relational framework is modelled throughout. The workshop introduces Indigenous relational processes as protocols for practice and learning, including ganma, dadirri, yarning, and respect. To support participants to remain present and critically reflective, facilitators also introduce brief somatic embodiment practices (e.g., breathing, grounding through the senses, gentle movement and eye exercises) that support self-regulation during challenging conversations.
The workshop grounds Indigenous Australian psychology in the Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB) framework. SEWB is a holistic, relational understanding of health, emphasising interconnected domains of connection—including Country, culture, kinship, community, ancestry/spirituality, body, and mind and emotions—and their implications for ethical, culturally responsive psychological practice. Participants will leave with shared language for key concepts, practical strategies for relational listening and self-regulation, and a clear frame for a lifelong journey in cultural responsiveness.

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this 3-hour introductory workshop, participants will be able to:
Explain the guiding pathway from decolonisation to cultural responsiveness to cultural safety and articulate how these concepts inform ethical psychological practice with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Reflect on and identify how power, racism, colonisation and dominant white privilege operate within psychological practice, and how this awareness supports culturally responsive, respectful and honest relationships in line with the Psychology Board of Australia’s Code of Conduct (Principle 2).
Describe and apply foundational Indigenous relational processes as entry-level protocols for culturally responsive engagement.
Recognise the Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB) framework as a holistic, relational model of health, and identify practical strategies for relational listening and self-regulation that support a health equity and human rights approach consistent with Competency 8.