Working therapeutically with children who have experienced trauma from physical or sexual abuse

Emerging Minds and Mental Health Professionals' Network (MHPN), Australia, September 2024

Related to Abuse and neglect, Child sexual abuse, Trauma

Co-produced with the Mental Health Professionals’ Network (MHPN), this webinar discusses how practitioners can respond to the challenges of working therapeutically with families when children have experienced physical or sexual abuse.

Facilitated by Chris Dolman (Senior Practice Development Officer, Emerging Minds), our panel includes:

Kate Headley, speech pathologist (NSW)
Dan Fighera, senior counsellor (SA)
Cassandra Tinning, Director, Youth at Risk Project.

Slides Panel bios Supporting resources

Discover more resources

Webinar

Engaging children and parents affected by child sexual abuse

Emerging Minds and Mental Health Professionals' Network (MHPN)

This webinar explores the role of professionals in preventing the long-term negative consequences associated with child sexual abuse and discusses practical strategies in working effectively with children who have been abused, and supporting non-offending parents to provide consistent and non-blaming messages to help recovery.
Fact sheet

Responding to a disclosure of child sexual abuse

Emerging Minds

This resource provides clear, stepped guidance on how to respond to a disclosure of child sexual abuse.
Practice paper

Working with children to prevent self-blame after disclosures of child sexual abuse

Dan Moss and Clare Klapdor

This paper is aimed at practitioners who want to respond to disclosures of child sexual abuse in ways that challenge self-blame in safe and respectful ways. It provides strategies to help practitioners support a child who has disclosed sexual abuse, either while waiting for a referral to a specialist service, or while continuing to work with the child in a general or specialised capacity. It follows the Emerging Minds paper, 'Making use of practitioners’ skills to support a child who has been sexually abused'.
Practitioners Podcast

Responding to the challenge of child sexual abuse

Carol Ronken

Runtime

00:42:04

Released

3/10/20
Practitioners Podcast

Trauma-informed perinatal care for people who have experienced sexual trauma

Vicki Mansfield

Runtime

00:24:41

Released

17/10/22
Webinar

Identifying and responding to child sexual abuse: Supporting the mental health of children and young people

Child Family Community Australia & Emerging Minds

This webinar combines practice and lived experience to explore how we as a sector can better identify and respond to child sexual abuse and support victims and survivors to heal and recover. It is intended to complement ‘Trauma prevention and early intervention approaches with children and young people’ which was broadcast in September 2025.
Webinar

Beginning child aware conversations with parents who use substances

Emerging Minds and Mental Health Professionals' Network (MHPN)

In this webinar with the Mental Health Professionals Network (MHPN), our multidisciplinary panel will explore and identify reasons that may underlie school attendance difficulties. This presentation will promote the value of partnership-based, trauma-informed strategies to support a contextualised understanding of each child’s unique needs in education settings.
Guide

Australian Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guideline For Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Australasian ADHD Professionals Association (AADPA)
Video

What is a child and family health nurse?

Emerging Minds

Learn more about how a practice nurse can support you and your family.
Short article

Self-harm in primary school-aged children

Dr Laura Gobey, Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS)

This article provides a summary of the research evidence on self-harm behaviours in primary school-aged children. It outlines what self-harm behaviours are, how common they are, and why primary school-aged children may be self-harming.
Webinar

Towards a comprehensive child mental health system: Exploring workforce availability

Emerging Minds

This webinar is intended for organisational and systems leaders across the health, education, social and community services sectors, as well as practitioners with an interest in workforce development.
Research summary

Highlights in child mental health research: September 2025

Prepared by AIFS

The August 2025 research summary provides a selection of recently released papers, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses related to infant and child mental health. Each summary includes an introductory overview of the content for the month, followed by a list of selected articles. Each article is accompanied by a brief synopsis that presents the key messages and highlights. Links to abstracts, full-text articles and related resources, where available, are provided.

This resource is part of the following toolkits

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) toolkit

100 Resources
Toolkit Sections:

Working therapeutically with children who have experienced trauma from physical or sexual abuse

Emerging Minds and Mental Health Professionals' Network (MHPN), Australia, September 2024

Discover more resources

Engaging children and parents affected by child sexual abuse

Responding to a disclosure of child sexual abuse

Working with children to prevent self-blame after disclosures of child sexual abuse

Responding to the challenge of child sexual abuse

Trauma-informed perinatal care for people who have experienced sexual trauma

Identifying and responding to child sexual abuse: Supporting the mental health of children and young people

Beginning child aware conversations with parents who use substances

Australian Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guideline For Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

What is a child and family health nurse?

Self-harm in primary school-aged children

Towards a comprehensive child mental health system: Exploring workforce availability

Highlights in child mental health research: September 2025

This resource is part of the following toolkits

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) toolkit

Toolkit Sections: