The Bouverie Centre, La Trobe University

17/03/2026

Early Warnings, Better Outcomes: The Power of the DOORS Triage Tool

📰 RESEARCH PUBLICATION

“Family Violence Risk on Entry to the Family Courts of Australia: Profiles and Predictive Validity of the DOORS Triage Process” (Wells, McIntosh, Painter et al, 2025).

This paper reports on the effectiveness and predictive validity of the Family DOORS Triage Tool, designed by Prof Jennifer McIntosh and team, and used by the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia to assess whole-of-family violence risk upon entry into parenting matters.

🔑 Key Findings from the Publication:

1️⃣ Safety concerns were the most frequently reported risk among people entering the courts.
2️⃣ High-risk classifications were more common for women, respondents, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, recently separated parties, and those with younger children.
3️⃣ Engagement with the screening tool was strong, with the quickest completion times observed among high risk participants. No barriers to completion were evident for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander respondents.
4️⃣ Risk category strongly predicted subsequent referral to the courts' high risk case management pathway.
5️⃣ The DOORS Triage Tool demonstrated high utility and acceptability, providing accurate early identification of risk clusters to support timely safety responses.

This publication contributes valuable evidence supporting structured, early, whole-of-family risk screening within the family law system.

(Funding: ARC Linkage LP210100181)

🔗 Access the publication here https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605251363611

15/03/2026

Building Team Resilience | 20 May
1-day workshop | Online via Zoom
Systemic Practice Consultants: Nella Charles & Angie Nyland

Learn how to build, manage and support resilient teams and promote positive team cultures.

On completion of this workshop, you will be able to:
✔ Describe key characteristics of resilient teams
✔ Identify how trauma-informed responses can build and sustain resilient teams
✔ Identify an activity/process for implementation to promote positive and meaningful working relationships within teams
✔ Identify an activity/process for implementation to promote team resilience in the workplace
👉 Register now https://bit.ly/BC-PD2026-BTR

13/03/2026

Group Reflective Practice | 11 & 18 May
2-day workshop | Online via Zoom
Systemic Practice Consultants: Deb Mountjoy & Olivia Dwyer

Learn practice skills and increase your confidence in facilitating and managing group reflective practice to promote reflection for people working in the helping professions.

On completion of this workshop, you will be able to:
✔ Have a structured yet flexible way to deliver group reflective practice
✔ Establish, review, and close a group reflective practice arrangement
✔ Understand the role and purpose of reflection
✔ Develop skills for providing both support and challenge in group reflective practice
👉 Register now https://bit.ly/BC-PD2026-GRP

12/03/2026

MERTIL For Families | 12 May
1-day workshop | In-person
Systemic Practice Consultant: Prof. Jennifer McIntosh

Family therapy and group work skills for building and healing early relational trust in young families.

By attending this workshop, you will be able to:
✔ Become familiar with the MERTIL for Parents framework for early relational trust, and its growing evidence base
✔ Bring developmental constructs such as attachment and trauma to life, in plain English
✔ Learn how to create a healing conversation with families around the MERTIL for My Family resource, using single session principles
✔ Learn how to run MERTIL for Parents in single or multiple session group formats
✔ Consider implementation enablers in their own workplace
👉 Register now https://bit.ly/BC-PD2026-MFF

11/03/2026

The Bouverie Centre was proud to deliver Single Session Thinking training as part of the Muslim Community Leaders & Mental Health First Responders Program, led by Muslim Mental Health Professionals (MMHP).

“The partnership with MMHP was collaborative, and our team was deeply moved by the generosity, community spirit, and eagerness to learn shown by both MMHP members and program participants.

For me as a facilitator, working with this diverse community, connected through their faith, was an incredible learning opportunity as well as a chance to deepen how I think about, and communicate the values-based approach of single session thinking.

We look forward to future opportunities for our organisations to collaborate and continue supporting this important work.”
– Patrick Carroll, Manager of Professional Development

Image description: Patrick Carroll holding an Appreciation Award from MMHP for the acknowledgment of contribution of the Muslim Community Leaders, Mental Health First Responders Program (2024-2025).

10/03/2026

Clinical Supervision Training | 7 & 21 May, 4 & 18 June
4 -day workshop | In-person
Systemic Practice Consultants: Angie Nyland & Deb Mountjoy

Discover supervision models, trauma-informed supervision, early conversations and contracting, feedback, ethics, power, questioning, intersectionality, and use of self.

By attending this workshop, you will:
✔ Create and sustain a supervisory relationship that enable psychological safety and provides developmentally appropriate challenges to support supervisees
✔ Describe a range of supervision modes, methods, and models, and identify or build on your own supervision practice model
✔ Identify the roles and tasks within supervision, and factors which enhance the supervision process and its professionalism
✔ Apply a range of techniques for giving and eliciting feedback in supervision
✔ Identify and respond with an intersectional frame, including areas such as culture, power, class, age, and gender in supervision
✔ Consider the organisational context of supervision
✔ Apply a range of skills relating to ‘use of self’ within supervision
✔ Describe and attend to self and collective care
👉 Register now https://bit.ly/BC-PD2026-CST

09/03/2026

Adolescent Violence in the Home | 6 & 13 May
2-day workshop | Online via Zoom
Systemic Practice Consultant: Jo Howard

Understand the systemic and relational context to adolescent family violence and explore trauma-informed interventions

On completion of this workshop, you will be able to:
✔ Identify the determinants which contribute to the use of violence by adolescents against parents/carers, with a particular emphasis on the experience of family violence
✔ Identify co-occurring issues including neurodiversity, alcohol, drug use and mental health challenges
✔ Develop skills in assessment and safety planning
✔ Demonstrate skills to enhance engagement in change with adolescents and parents/carers
✔ Learn and practice a model of intervention that is developmental, trauma-informed and relational
👉 Register now https://bit.ly/BC-PD2026-AVITH

04/03/2026

Child’s Play | 30 April
1-day workshop | In-person
Systemic Practice Consultants: Kate Cordukes & Tara Schintler

This experiential workshop focuses on creative and expressive ways of working systemically and therapeutically with children and families.

By attending this workshop, you will be able to:
✔ Describe the therapeutic rationale for using play and other creative techniques in the context of clinical work with families with children
✔ Describe a range of child-focused activities and therapeutic modalities and apply these to your work with families
👉 Register now https://bit.ly/BC-PD2026-CP

25/02/2026

Families and Trauma Work | 24 April & 1 May
2-day workshop | In-person
Systemic Practice Consultants: Nella Charles & Patrick Carroll

Enhance your practical skills in applying systemic, trauma-informed approaches in your therapeutic work.
By attending this workshop, you will be able to:
✔ Articulate important and useful features of systemic approaches to therapeutic work
✔ Identify systemic interventions — based on a trauma-informed assessment — appropriate to your role and context
✔ Foster strong connections with family members when navigating challenging conversations by creating and maintaining a space that encourages openness, trust, and respectful dialogue
✔ Utilise single session principles as they apply to trauma-informed practice.

👉 Register now https://bit.ly/BC-PD2026-FATW

24/02/2026

The Bouverie Centre is thrilled to share the recently published scoping review:
“Early Relational Health and its Impact on the Developing Brain”
appearing in Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review (2025).

What this review explores:
This work synthesises emerging evidence on early relational health—the quality of early caregiver–child relationships—and its profound influence on brain development. The review highlights how early interactions shape neural architecture, emotional regulation, and long-term wellbeing.

Why this matters:
Supporting caregiver–child relationships early in life strengthens developmental foundations, informs preventive mental health strategies, and contributes to healthier life trajectories.

Full article available here https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-025-00545-3

22/02/2026

Working with adolescents and families? This workshop is for you.

Join us on 20 & 27 March for a powerful 2‑day in‑person training with Systemic Practice Consultant Jo Howard.

Deepen your understanding of adolescent violence in the home and build practical, trauma‑informed skills in assessment, safety planning, and engaging both young people and caregivers.

Don’t miss this opportunity to strengthen your practice and support safer family relationships.

Register now via the link below

Adolescent Violence in the Home: Systemic Interventions with Families workshop, professional development workshop

17/02/2026

“Family-Centered Support for Women Prisoners to Reduce Recidivism Risk: The ‘Strengthening Connections’ Service” published in the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology (2025).

What’s it about?
This article describes a family-centered intervention designed to support women in prison by strengthening their relationships with their family members or other close supports—an approach that shows promise in reducing recidivism risk and supporting better post-release outcomes.

Why it matters:
Family connection is a powerful protective factor. By centering support around relationships, the ‘Strengthening Connections’ service offers an innovative pathway to more humane, effective reintegration for women leaving custody.
Read the article here https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X251389984