Speakers

Life Can Change in an Instant

After a life changing accident at the age of 25, Cameron has spent the past 24 years as quadriplegic, paralyzed from the chest down and confined to a wheelchair.  He is living a full, albeit not so normal life on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, with his wife Nicci and twin daughters Abbey and Lucy. After migrating north for the sun some nine and a half years ago from Melbourne, he has experienced the highs and lows of business, parenthood, and life. He is full of faith, has a positive spin on life and continues to accept every challenge that comes before him.

His story of sporting success to heartbreak continues to inspire those around him, decades later. Cameron’s story is inspirational and people that hear him speak, and enjoy his company are amazed at his attitude and love of life. He is a passionate advocate for those living with disability, hoping to empower people to live their best life, and rise to their challenges, with gratitude and hope. Cameron believes we all have the opportunity to change our perspective on life and situations, and the more outward we become, the more fulfilled we are. Cameron is a proud ambassador for the NDIS Assessment and Referral Team. 

Playing our way into a Better Future

Daniel Teitelbaum is the lead facilitator at Playful Thinking where he works to discover playful tools in education, game design, theatre, philosophy, psychology and science to apply to the challenges of the modern organisations. Daniel has worked as a comedy cabaret writer and performer, an Associate Teacher of Design at Monash University and a radio broadcaster on 3RRR, SouthernFM and ABC774 where he has a regular Playful Philosophy segment on the Afternoons program.

Our deep drive to play has shaped our cultures and our philosophies, our personal lives and our civilizations since we first started to gather in groups. Play is at the heart of how we make meaning and create connection. It is at work when we form and grow our communities and it can be a guide to a future of deeper, more authentic connection. In this talk Daniel will hope to show you how to harness the power of play for yourself and your community.

Supporting Safe and Healthy Intimate Relationships

Tess Devèze is an occupational therapist (OT), certified somatic sexologist and the founder of ConnectAble Therapies, a Melbourne-based sexuality OT community practice working with people living with cancer, chronic illness and disability. Alongside working as a sexuality OT and somatic sexologist, they also work as a sexuality, intimacy, communication and consent educator for adults & LGBTQIA+ communities across Australia, having facilitated thousands of people for nearing a decade. Tess’ mission is to enable all humans to live more safe and sexually healthy lives regardless of gender, race, physical/cognitive ability, ethnicity and orientation.

Finding the Sweet Spot Between Habit and Hobby

As a competitive and casual gamer of 30 years, a teacher of health and wellbeing for 15 and a parent of two, Andrew’s skillset is primed to tackle issues around safe and positive gaming for young people. Andrew loves video games; the immersion, the skill, the competition and the community. That being said, in the past he’s had the experience of stepping over the line where video games took up way too much of his time and affected him in ways he didn’t expect. That’s how he knows exactly what young gamers are feeling, and how to get buy-in for a healthier and more sustainable way to enjoy their passion.

GameAware‘s mission is to bridge the gap between gamers, parents and professionals through education and intelligent gaming strategies which:

• Minimise compulsion and escapism by building resilience
• Reduce the conflict around gaming at home
• Develop self knowledge and a greater sense of fulfilment
• Assist young people to learn to play intelligently and sustainably

Developing Resilience in Neuro-Diverse Individuals

Ebony is a well-known speaker in the education, disability and advocacy fields in addition to consulting at school, local council and government levels. She is a qualified special education teacher and teacher of the deaf who has worked primarily as a neurodevelopmental therapist, educational consultant and music specialist. 

In this session, Ebony will enlighten attendees with her personal experience of navigating stressful and overwhelming life events as an autistic individual with an anxiety disorder. Ebony will paint a picture of the effects anxiety can have and share strategies to support individuals during times of high anxiety. You will hear Ebony’s own definition of resilience along with strategies to cultivate this in individuals for whom traditional psychological strategies may not be of benefit. A unique opportunity to gain an ‘insider’s view’ of the challenges in maintaining positive mental health with the added demands of schooling and societal expectations.

EFT For Wellbeing and Emotional First Aid       

Russell Cunningham is principal and head trainer at Australian Institute of Self Development. With over 21 years’ experience as a coach and therapist specializing in trauma and success coaching. He is a leading international EFT Master Trainer of Trainers, Master NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) Practitioner, & NLP Trainer, Hypnotherapist, Timeline Therapist, and creator of Alpha RePatterning. His experience in training, self-development and professional development includes more than 31,000 hours of personal and business success coaching. Australian Institute of Self Development has been accepted as an International Institute for Complementary Therapists (IICT) Approved Training Provider.

Russell’s passion for self-development and therapy began in his 20’s looking for solutions for his own childhood trauma and injuries which included severe burns and serious car accident injuries. Working through the physical issues and pain was difficult, but the emotional effects were far reaching and resisted years of conventional therapies. This led Russell to explore and experiment with many processes and modalities and develop a deep understanding of how to create rapid, lasting results with EFT, NLP, Hypnotherapy and Alpha RePatterning.

Discover the easy way to rapidly ease stress and intense emotions. 

Life has a way of bringing up stress and emotional issues, and more so for people living with disabilities and their family and carers. Often one person’s stresses and issues may trigger strong emotions in others. This can lead to a negative emotional loop where the emotional feedback spirals out of control or is supressed creating or exacerbating physical ailments. 

The solution? Emotional Freedom Techniques or EFT Tapping is a simple, effective way to ease or resolve these problems. EFT has been validated by over 100 peer-reviewed clinical studies. Skilfully applied EFT has been proven effective for treating a range of issues including PTSD, depression, anxiety, addictive cravings, and even physical pain. In this session you will get a practical introduction to EFT and learn how to rapidly ease emotional with modified applications of EFT for Emotional First Aid.