Assessing and formulating socio-cultural impact in therapy: Webinar 1

$70.00

Date: Wednesday 25th November 2026, 1-2pm AEDT

Location: Online (live, with Q&A). Recording available to all registrants.

Price: $70, with $15 from every registration donated to The Westerman Jilya Institute for Indigenous Mental Health

Since 1 December 2025, every Australian psychologist has been required to practise with an understanding of intersecting forms of diversity.

Under the Psychology Board of Australia’s updated competencies and Code of Conduct, psychologists must understand how cultural identity, values, beliefs and experiences affect psychological wellbeing (Competency 7.3). They must also acknowledge the social, economic, cultural and historic factors that influence health and functioning (Code Standard 3.1). The competencies also set new standards for neurodiversity-affirming practice (7.9) and for work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (Competency 8).

Most of us, though, were trained to formulate at the level of the individual and the family. So what does meeting these standards look like in assessment and case conceptualisation?

The person in their social world

A client’s difficulties rarely begin with them alone. Social and cultural conditions shape mental health across generations, through the attachment relationship and into adult life.

Across generations. Poverty, migration and displacement put pressure on families that can last for generations. Survival needs, grief and dislocation can leave caregivers with little capacity for attunement, and these patterns are carried into adulthood.
Through the caregiver’s response to the child. When a child’s identity, body or way of being is devalued by the wider culture, caregivers may respond with misattunement, invalidation or rejection. A father’s misogyny can shape his daughter’s sense of worth and teach her to subjugate her needs. The same father may press his son to perform masculinity, leaving him feeling defective when he can’t measure up. A neurodivergent parent who carries shame about their own attention difficulties may enforce that shame on their child.
Through the wider world. Children take in direct messages about who is valued and who belongs. An Aboriginal young person may face ongoing harmful, discriminatory messages from the systems around them, alongside everyday racism and the intergenerational effects of colonisation.
Into adulthood. These wounds don’t stay in childhood. They are confirmed again and again through repeated experiences at work, in relationships, in healthcare and in public, which can keep a client’s difficulties going long after they leave home.

Date: Wednesday 25th November 2026, 1-2pm AEDT

Location: Online (live, with Q&A). Recording available to all registrants.

Price: $70, with $15 from every registration donated to The Westerman Jilya Institute for Indigenous Mental Health

Trainer: Dr. Xi Liu

Since 1 December 2025, every Australian psychologist has been required to practise with an understanding of intersecting forms of diversity.

Under the Psychology Board of Australia’s updated competencies and Code of Conduct, psychologists must understand how cultural identity, values, beliefs and experiences affect psychological wellbeing (Competency 7.3). They must also acknowledge the social, economic, cultural and historic factors that influence health and functioning (Code Standard 3.1). The competencies also set new standards for neurodiversity-affirming practice (7.9) and for work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (Competency 8).

Most of us, though, were trained to formulate at the level of the individual and the family. So what does meeting these standards look like in assessment and case conceptualisation?

The person in their social world

A client’s difficulties rarely begin with them alone. Social and cultural conditions shape mental health across generations, through the attachment relationship and into adult life.

Across generations. Poverty, migration and displacement put pressure on families that can last for generations. Survival needs, grief and dislocation can leave caregivers with little capacity for attunement, and these patterns are carried into adulthood.
Through the caregiver’s response to the child. When a child’s identity, body or way of being is devalued by the wider culture, caregivers may respond with misattunement, invalidation or rejection. A father’s misogyny can shape his daughter’s sense of worth and teach her to subjugate her needs. The same father may press his son to perform masculinity, leaving him feeling defective when he can’t measure up. A neurodivergent parent who carries shame about their own attention difficulties may enforce that shame on their child.
Through the wider world. Children take in direct messages about who is valued and who belongs. An Aboriginal young person may face ongoing harmful, discriminatory messages from the systems around them, alongside everyday racism and the intergenerational effects of colonisation.
Into adulthood. These wounds don’t stay in childhood. They are confirmed again and again through repeated experiences at work, in relationships, in healthcare and in public, which can keep a client’s difficulties going long after they leave home.

In this webinar we will explore learn:

How social and cultural conditions affect mental health, identity and belonging
How intergenerational experiences such as poverty and migration shape attachment
How caregivers’ internalised social messages shape their responses to the child
How socio-cultural harm is maintained through repeated experiences in adulthood
A systematic approach to assessing and formulating socio-cultural factors, and naming them with clients
Beginning to explore your own biases and positionality, and how they can show up in the therapy room, so that therapy is less likely to repeat the dynamics clients face in the wider world (Competencies 3 and 7.4)
How to link your practice to the competencies and the Code

Who it’s for
All psychologists and mental health clinicians, whatever therapy model you use.

This is Part 1 of a two-part series. Part 2, in February 2027, applies this work to assessment and treatment in schema therapy.

A note on competence
This webinar is a starting point, not a certification. Attending it doesn’t make you “competent” in working with socio-cultural harm. Culturally responsive practice is an ongoing process of learning, reflection and supervision, which is how the Psychology Board frames it too (Competency 7.4).

Presenter
Dr Xi Liu is a clinical psychologist and Advanced-Certified Schema Therapy Trainer and Supervisor. Xi is Co-Founder of SchemXcollective and a long-standing advocate for making therapy more accessible and inclusive, developing training that adapts therapy for culturally diverse, LGBTQIA+, neurodivergent clients and other underrepresented clients.

Format: Live online with Q&A via [platform]. Recording available to all registrants.

Cost: $70. $15 from every registration is donated to The Westerman Jilya Institute for Indigenous Mental Health, which supports Indigenous psychology students through scholarships, mentoring and pastoral care.