Connect with the largest Community of Practice for Asian therapists in Australia.
Join our supportive network for Asian mental health professionals to connect with emerging literature and deepen your culturally-responsive practice.
All sessions are facilitated on Zoom, join us from any convenient location.
2026 sessions:
Session 1.
February 5th
Focus theme: Treatment resistant depression: a critical reflection on missing oral narratives in dance therapy literature.
With special guest and lead author: Dr Neha Christopher, The University of Melbourne
Session 2.
May 7th
Focus article: Lee et al., under review. Cultural Influences on Coping After Trauma: A Mixed Methods Study of European Australian and Malaysian Trauma Survivors.
With special guest and lead author from Monash University's Culture, Trauma and Mental Health group: Xinkie Lee
Session 3.
August 6th
Focus article: Aiyar et al., 2025. Parenting experiences and impacts to wellbeing for South and Southeast Asian migrant caregivers in Australia across the First 2000 Days: reflections from migrants and service providers.
With special guest and lead author from University of Adelaide: Ria Aiyar
Session 4.
November 5th
Focus article: Qiu et al., under review. Exploring Cultural Influences in the Associations between Emotion Regulation and Mental Health: A Systematic Review Comparing East Asian and Western Cultural Contexts.
With special guest and lead author from Monash University's Culture, Trauma and Mental Health group: Larissa Qiu
Key benefits
Earn Continuing Professional Development points
You'll receive a CPD certificate (1 point) for each session that you attend.
Connect with really interesting, inspiring therapists
Past attendees have found supervisors, supervisees or just made new friends!
Stay relevant with access to emerging literature
We'll connect you with our partners at Monash University and friends across other institutions.
These sessions help me feel safe to share my clinical and cultural intersections. It is a valuable space and essential to my growth as a practitioner and Asian Australian.
- Will Vuong,
Wellspring Counselling
Who is this for?
Will I gain CPD points?
What is the investment?
Your lead facilitator.
Join Asami Koike, founder of Shapes and Sounds and registered music therapist, alongside our multi-disciplinary team who together have over 30+ years' expertise across trauma-informed and culturally-responsive mental health practice.
Learn more about our team
What happens in each session?
We're usually joined by around 15 - 20 practitioners from all over Australia, on Zoom.
An example of the session:
- 7.30pm: Welcome and introduction by Shapes and Sounds.
- 7.40pm: Speed introductions and warm up.
- 7.50pm: Content delivered by our facilitator, Asami; outlining key themes from the focus journal article.
- 8.15pm: Small breakout rooms of 2 - 3 practitioners to discuss reflective prompts, insights and strategies.
- 8.50pm: Whole group discussion and wrap up.
- 9.00pm: Close.
The timing and content may vary slightly depending on each session's theme and the group's emerging needs.
Just because you're a therapist of colour, doesn't mean that your practice is automatically "culturally-responsive".
...And that's completely okay.
Because relying purely on your lived experience can be both exhausting (for you) and haphazard (for your practice).
Our role at Shapes and Sounds is to support you to feel confident and resourced in supporting the mental health needs of the Asian community. We're led by a team of Asian therapists and here, you'll feel validated in your intersectional experiences, build greater structure and sustainability in your work, and be continually supported by our welcoming practitioner community.
We look forward to supporting you at our next session!
Register nowWith thanks to our partners:
