Four-Day Online Introduction to Open Dialogue
With the increasing interest in Open Dialogue, this program is offered online to ensure access from people and organisations around Australia.
Open Dialogue is a way of listening, of being present with a person and their network and of ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard.
It is recognised by the World Health Organisation as an approach that elevates the voice and agency of the individual and their rights – enabling compassionate, recovery-oriented care, involving family and community.
It is also featured and encouraged in the Victorian Royal Commission into Mental Health and is a way to deliver on many of the recommendations
Participants will learn about:
- The origin, history and principles of Open Dialogue
- The skills used in network meetings, such as responsive listening and reflection
- The key elements of dialogic practice and how to apply them
- The importance of self-care and self-work and the need for continual development as a practitioner
- The essential and unique contribution of those with lived and living experience and importance of advocating for system change
- The concept of a network meeting and the basics of how to initiate and facilitate a network meeting in practice
- What the integration of the Open Dialogue approach into your life and work might mean for you.
Organised as two two-day online sessions separated by two weeks for reflection, reading and practice, this highly engaging program will explore the principles of Open Dialogue and the skills it can bring to life. This program will help you gain a deeper understanding of Open Dialogue, enabling you to start the process of integrating the key principles into your everyday practice. It will also enable you to explore how network meetings can become part of your work and practice.
This four-day introduction can serve as beneficial preparation for the One-Year Foundation Course starting in Melbourne, August 2025.
Who should apply:
Anyone with an interest in learning more about Open Dialogue and especially those who work directly with people in need of support such as workers in community healthcare, lived and living experience workers, clinicians in the specialized mental health services, GPs, teachers, and others.
We hope you can join us.
Course details:
Facilitators:
Mark Hopfenbeck
Date:
10th & 11th June 2025
24th & 25th June 2025
Time:
9.00am to 4.30pm (AEST)
Cost:
$900 + GST ($990)
Location:
Online
This course will be led by Mark Hopfenbeck, who is a highly regarded trainer in Open Dialogue having spent the past 20 years training mental health teams in Norway, England, Portugal, Israel, Czechia.
Mark is currently lead trainer for the Post-graduate Certificate in Peer-supported Open Dialogue offered by North East London Foundation Trust and City St George’s, University of London. Mark spends most of his time collaborating with Open Dialogue researchers and practitioners around the world – supporting the development and dissemination of the Open Dialogue Approach. His core research interests have focused on integrating Open Dialogue with current models of recovery, collaborative care and peer support in order to facilitate the implementation of Open Dialogue within statutory mental health services as well as the development of organizational and clinical fidelity measures.
He is currently co-investigator involved in Open Dialogue: Development and Evaluation of a Social Network Intervention for Severe Mental Illness (ODDESSI) (2017-2025), and is the coordinator of the Advisory Board for HOPEnDialogue: An International collaborative multicentre research network to support the Open Dialogue learning community and evaluate the effectiveness of Open Dialogue in various mental health care contexts around the world (2019-2024).
He is also Individual Project Partner at the Collaborating Centre for Values-based Practice in Health and Social Care, St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford.
Mark is co-editor of The Practical Handbook of Hearing Voices (2021), The Practical Handbook of Eating Difficulties (2022) and The Practical Handbook of Living with Dementia (2022).
Mark is currently lead trainer for the Post-graduate Certificate in Peer-supported Open Dialogue offered by North East London Foundation Trust and City St George’s, University of London. Mark spends most of his time collaborating with Open Dialogue researchers and practitioners around the world – supporting the development and dissemination of the Open Dialogue Approach. His core research interests have focused on integrating Open Dialogue with current models of recovery, collaborative care and peer support in order to facilitate the implementation of Open Dialogue within statutory mental health services as well as the development of organizational and clinical fidelity measures.
He is currently co-investigator involved in Open Dialogue: Development and Evaluation of a Social Network Intervention for Severe Mental Illness (ODDESSI) (2017-2025), and is the coordinator of the Advisory Board for HOPEnDialogue: An International collaborative multicentre research network to support the Open Dialogue learning community and evaluate the effectiveness of Open Dialogue in various mental health care contexts around the world (2019-2024).
He is also Individual Project Partner at the Collaborating Centre for Values-based Practice in Health and Social Care, St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford.
Mark is co-editor of The Practical Handbook of Hearing Voices (2021), The Practical Handbook of Eating Difficulties (2022) and The Practical Handbook of Living with Dementia (2022).
Scholarships
If you are a Lived and Living Experience Worker(LLEW), reside in Victoria and would like to apply for a course Scholarship, please click on the button below to check your eligibility and apply.
*Scholarships are limited.
**You must complete the registration below on the same day as the Scholarship application. Do not complete payment until you are advised if you Scholarship application was successful.
Please complete the form below and complete payment to register for this workshop.
Payment
For direct transfer Bank Details are:
BSB: 082-356
Account: 24 100 7959
Please include your NAME as the reference
If you require an invoice for payment please advise via email
training@opendialoguecentre.org.au
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