Transforming Relationships through the Art of Loving
Pia Mellody

The battle to love ourselves and others lies within the self. The battle is within. It will always be within. When we fail to love the self and therefore have difficulty loving others we inevitably project the problem onto the people in our life and our circumstances. To love is about individual spiritual practice, active self care, interdependence and a good sense of humor. It can be summed up in the idea
MODERATION IN ALL THINGS.
This lecture will cover the following topics:
• The nature of love, what it is and what it is not
• Bonding, enmeshment and abandonment/neglect, the original connection and their effect on adult relationships
• The art of protecting self love in the midst of mistakes, criticism and values conflict
• The art of being loving in the midst of another’s humanity

The Marriage of Trauma & Addiction
Dr Teoh

What is the outcome of such a relationship? There will be a presentation on the nature of Trauma and Addiction. The effect of psychological trauma, especially during childhood, may not be obvious and requires sensitive and careful evaluation. Most mental health professionals have recognised the relationship of trauma and subsequent {often delayed for many years} psychological consequences. There is a high relapse rate of this group of people with addiction if the effect of trauma is not addressed. We have observed a high incidence of people who presents with addiction and psychological trauma at South Pacific Private. The session will explore and discuss the consequences of such a relationship in terms of research evidence, clinical experience and data from a recent study at South Pacific Private.

Emotional Fitness
Cynthia Morton

Cynthia’s presentation will include sharing her experiences in working her own recovery with a history of abuse, homelessness, dyslexia and addiction. She will speak about how her own recovery commenced and lead to the creation of the Emotional Fitness Foundation and its award winning programs. I will also speak about EFF’s work within the Royal Brisbane Hospital Detox Unit over the past five years which is how I met EFF’s Chairman Professor John Saunders. A six minute documentary will also be shown at the conclusion of the presentation that will take the audience on the Emotional Fitness Foundation’s journey over the past five years. This documentary includes footage from clients sharing their experience, media interviews (Beauty & The Beast, Brilliant Lives on Foxtel and with Bert Newton) that clearly demonstrate the confusion and myths that society carries around the subjects of substance abuse, addiction and emotional trauma.

Attitude & Gratitude
Helene Grover

humour and wellbeing, both physically and emotionally. We know the benefits of laughter, however, in the many years that I have conducted laughter workshops I found that many people find it difficult to be playful, silly, have fun and all the things that lead us to laugh. I found that, to gain easier access to our laughter and sense of humour is our attitude. Our attitude that can lower our feelings of discomfort about ‘what will people think of me” if we behave in a childlike manner. In order to rekindle our sense of childlike wonder that can give us so much joy about the day to day things in our lives, it is vital that we are able to open ourselves to gratitude. Being grateful to the precious moments that cross our paths every day, to live in the present of our awareness. By encouraging those kinds of habits in ourselves, we can move our mindset to positive thought, being in charge of what is truly important in our lives, to laugh freely and find the joy of our magical inner child. In this session, I aim to bring those two ideas together as well as introducing some fun activities to use as tools to shift ourselves into fun and laughter.

Personal Boundaries as Spiritual Practice
Pia Mellody

Within the original connections in our family of origin, we often learn destructive ways of relating, both verbally and emotionally, to those we love. Pia will discuss how this happens and how to resolve this problem, using her concept of internal boundaries. She will teach participants how to speak from a place of humility, listen from a place of curiosity rather than defensiveness, stop blaming and taking the blame, develop emotional accountability and use personal boundaries as spiritual practice. This lecture will cover the following topics:
• Some basic ideas regarding intimate exchange
• Boundaries as Spiritual Practice
• Overview of Developmental Immaturity
• The specifics of Personal Boundaries with a focus on the Internal Boundary
• Evaluating your own boundary system

A Journey to Self Acceptance
Tim Harvey

Tim will draw on his own roles as a male, husband, father, step-father, labourer and businessman in addition to his experience at Lifeline and in private practice to illustrate the importance of self-acceptance in changing our lives. Each one of us can see our life as a journey, beset by external enemies, false friends, challenging families and life-changing events. We struggle with these in the belief that when we overcome obstacles, get enough money and win life’s game we will be happy. Tim will be suggesting that peace of mind is more likely to be attained by struggling with and learning to love the unique beings we are. When we accept ourselves, we are much more able to say “whatever happens, I’ll handle it".

Managing the Balance between Work, Life & Recovery
Iven Frang

Recovery. The word by it self conveys both hope and the opportunity to return to a place that was previously experienced. A place of before. For many of us who are graduates of SPP the before we seek may be such a distant memory it’s not real. Stepping out the door after five weeks means the past, as we know it, is no longer the same. It’s been reframed, relived, rehashed and what we most hope for most is not repeated! In this presentation, graduate medal holder, Iven Frangi will take us through his personal journey of balancing the post stay euphoria and hope of a better life with the demands of taking his new perspective into relationships, work and the world. In this specially prepared presentation Iven will review:
• The challenge of balance
• Why recovery means backing up to move forward
• His personal 90%/90% rule of recovery
• Why recovery is the wrong term to use
• How managing recovery and a business overlap and link
• Why recovery is like moving house.

Making Peace with Money
Aurora Hammond

We live in a culture that seems addicted to money and spending and has sophisticated and effective methods of encouraging people to mood alter through spending and consumerism. Money, like food, is a substance we can’t live without. Yet, unlike food, it is not real. No wonder we have so many issues with money! Part of living an adult life in which we can deal with reality and be self-supporting is to have a peaceful relationship with money. It is no wonder that so many people end up in debt and are in constant fear around money.
All addictions cost money and often lead to debt and financial hardship. Money is often the source of stress in relationships and can be seen as a reflection of how we feel about our place in the world and ourselves. Understanding our relationship with money, as a potentially addictive process and applying our knowledge of recovery to healing that relationship will be the subject of my paper.

Back to the Beginning
Jackie Furey

In true Furey form - Jackie will take us on an informative, insightful and entertaining journey that has us looking at both the here and now and our past. She will be explaining how to look with honour at how we learnt what we learnt and why. Wonderful 'things' happen when we start to understand the power of why we do what we do with who!
As we start to see the value of why we chose certain behaviours, we get to rightfully claim the abundance offered from honouring the decisions which led to these
behaviours.
This presentation will endeavour to bring further enlightenment into our lives as we explore the paths we chose to walk, and why we chose them.