Continuing professional development · Adelaide, South Australia
AkindaCo runs PACFA-endorsed CPD for counsellors, psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists and school wellbeing staff. Every course is taught by clinicians who still see clients, so what you learn on the day works in the room on Monday.
Open courses
Short, intensive and practical. Each one is built around what you will actually be able to do differently afterwards.
Family therapy
Booking nowThu 17 – Fri 18 September 2026
A practical introduction to systemic ways of working with families. You will learn to read a family system and know where to intervene, draw a genogram live in the room, and use circular questions to shift a conversation that is stuck. Designed for professionals across sectors, with no prior family therapy training required.
Family therapy
Dates comingNext dates to be announced
Genograms gather family patterns, interactions and values, and work as an intervention in their own right. This day covers assessment and intervention with individuals, couples, children and families, how to engage children in the process, how to manage high affect, creative modalities, and ethical considerations including cultural safety and work with LGBTQIA+ clients and children in residential care.
Art therapy
Dates comingNext dates to be announced
An introduction to how creative processes are used therapeutically. The course covers the theoretical, psychological and ethical foundations of art therapy alongside practical skill development, and examines how art therapy differs from both clinical therapy and recreational art.
A values-driven training experience
Our educators hold both extensive academic teaching experience and current clinical caseloads. That combination shapes every day we run.
You leave with a concrete written understanding of the fundamental content, not a slide deck you never open again.
Structured activities on the self of the therapist, on management, and on the wider system you work inside.
In-depth exploration of reflexive practice, so you can stay curious when a family brings complexity into the room.
Case studies and hands-on practice of experiential and creative ways of working, because complexity is rarely solved by talking about it.
Practical techniques to implement with clients, plus informative practice exercises to rehearse them before you do.
Every course can be brought to your service, school or centre and shaped around the team you already have.
Preschool Boost
Delivered in-service, inside your centre, alongside the educators who are already with the children every day. Both programs run all year round, so there is no intake to wait for. Reach out any time and we will book you in.
Professional development
Runs all year round · dates to fit with you
A six-unit series for educators who want to understand the children in front of them more deeply, not just their behaviour but what drives it. Built on attachment theory, developmental neuroscience and trauma-informed practice, with one-on-one mentorship and co-facilitation so the learning embeds into daily practice. Every program is customised to your centre.
Therapist-led group
Runs all year round · start any time
A structured, therapist-led group based on Dr Karen Stagnitti's Learn to Play approach, run inside your preschool room. It targets the building blocks of pretend play, the skills that underpin language, social development and school readiness. Your educators are trained before and debriefed after every session.
Both programs are listed for delivery across all areas of South Australia. Travel within 10km of 183 Tynte St, North Adelaide and 21 Philip Highway, Elizabeth is included in the program cost. Beyond that, travel is charged at $285 per hour. Distance is a logistics question, not a barrier.
We adapt both programs, and we specialise in working with families. If what your service needs sits between these two programs, or outside them entirely, we can build it. Reach out at any point to talk about how we would change it.
A free 30-minute virtual consultation is available to explore how AkindaCo can support your team, before you commit to anything. Get in touch to book one.
Preschool Boost is a South Australian Department for Education initiative. Read about it on the Office for Early Childhood Development site, or see AkindaCo's three approved Preschool Boost listings in the provider directory: Attachment, Trauma and Child Development, Learn to Play Group and Various Allied Health Supports.
Who delivers the training
Nobody on this list teaches for a living. Everyone here carries a caseload, which means the techniques you practise on the day are the ones we used last week.
Education Lead
Rana leads AkindaCo's education program and teaches across our family therapy and genogram courses. She has taught psychology students at the University of Adelaide since 2023, and she is a peer-reviewed academic author with multiple publications in international scholarly journals who presents regularly at national and international conferences. Every paper in our research section is hers.
Founder
Paula founded AkindaCo and is an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Adelaide. She works across psychotherapy and behaviour support with children, young people, adults and families in complex therapeutic, developmental and relational contexts, and brings the art psychotherapy grounding to Art Therapy Foundations.
Preschool Boost Lead
Kate leads both Preschool Boost programs. She has worked across schools, childcare settings, specialist mental health services, perinatal and infant mental health, and community health, supporting clients from as young as 12 months through to adulthood, and does ongoing teaching and academic work with the University of Adelaide. A mum of adult children herself, she brings real-life understanding alongside clinical expertise.
Co-Director
A former university lecturer and advocate for social justice, Shane tackles complex emotional and behavioural challenges through systemic, evidence-based methods, and his teaching on Family Therapy Foundations reflects that. His approach promotes resilience and equity, and keeps the interventions innovative and research-driven.
Depending on the course and what your team needs, other members of the AkindaCo team teach and co-facilitate alongside them:
AkindaCo is a multidisciplinary mental health and allied health practice, not a training company that also sees the odd client. That distinction shapes what a training day feels like. When someone in the room asks the hard question, the honest one about the family that will not shift, the answer comes from a caseload rather than a textbook.
It also means the disciplines talk to each other. Systemic family therapy, art psychotherapy, positive behaviour support, DBT and early childhood practice sit in the same building, in the same supervision, on the same board and management team. A course built here carries all of that, which is why our family therapy training takes attachment and behaviour seriously, and why our art therapy training is grounded in psychotherapeutic theory rather than activities.
Our values are accessibility, collaboration and justice. We strengthen children's development by supporting the entire network of carers, educators and community members around them, and we work the same way with the professionals we train.
Follow the team on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, or meet everyone on the AkindaCo team page.
Supervision, placements and guest lectures
Training is one part of what we do with the profession. The rest is supervision, growing the next workforce, and teaching inside universities.
Shane Fotheringham, Rana Kökçinar, Paula Gillespie-Fotheringham and Kate Maitland all offer clinical supervision. Between them that covers systemic and family therapy, art psychotherapy, positive behaviour support, child and adolescent work, perinatal and infant mental health, and complex adult practice, so you can be matched to a supervisor who actually works in your area rather than adjacent to it.
Alongside individual supervision we provide professional development and tailored systemic training and development for whole teams. Get in touch to talk about what you need.
We take students on clinical placement from the University of Adelaide, IKON Institute, and some interstate providers including the University of Melbourne.
We expect students to stay for the whole year. Placement here is not a rotation you pass through. Students specialise, either in working with children and young people, or in working with adults, and they are supported to go deep in that area across the full year.
From next year we will also offer placements for professionals interested in positive behaviour support, alongside our PBS practice.
To apply, email your CV and an expression of interest to hello@akindaco.com.
We offer a range of guest lectures into higher education organisations. Our educators hold current university teaching appointments alongside their clinical work, so a guest lecture from AkindaCo brings live casework into the room rather than a set of slides about it. Contact us to discuss topics and availability for your program.
Research
Our Education Lead, Rana Kökçinar, publishes and presents internationally on systemic practice. Our founder, Paula Gillespie-Fotheringham, is an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Adelaide.
ANZJFT · 2025
Climate distress as a relational and systemic response rather than an individual psychological disorder, illustrated through a family case example.
Read the summary →AFT UK Conference · 2025
How unpredictable, messy moments in human interaction can be sources of transformation rather than disruptions to orderly practice.
Read the summary →AAFT Conference · 2025
A case-based approach to conceptualising and responding to climate distress inside family interactions and intergenerational difference.
Read the summary →Helen Mayo Conference · 2024
Behavioural dysregulation, attachment disruption and caregiver stress read as relational dynamics rather than isolated problems.
Read the summary →See all published research → · See all conference presentations → · Read the training blog →
Questions
AkindaCo runs Family Therapy Foundations, a two-day PACFA-endorsed intensive, at 183 Tynte St, North Adelaide. The next intake is 17–18 September 2026. It is open to counsellors, psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists, school wellbeing leaders and community-sector practitioners, and no prior family therapy training is needed. Full details are here.
AkindaCo runs Art Therapy Foundations, a two-day introduction delivered at locations across Adelaide. It covers the theoretical, psychological and ethical foundations of art therapy alongside practical skill development. Dates for the next intake are being confirmed. Full details and interest registration are here.
Family Therapy Foundations is PACFA-endorsed CPD. Our courses are also routinely used for CPD by members of AASW, ANZACATA, AAFT and PTPA. If your association requires a specific format of evidence, tell us before the day and we will provide it.
No. Family Therapy Foundations and Art Therapy Foundations are both foundation-level courses and assume no prior training in that modality. They are designed for professionals who already work with people and want a new way of working.
Yes. Every course can be delivered in-house and shaped around your team, and our Preschool Boost programs are only delivered in-service at your centre. Contact the team to talk about what your service needs.
Practising clinicians from the AkindaCo team, led by Rana Kökçinar, Senior Psychotherapist, Family Therapist and Education Lead. AkindaCo's founder, Paula Gillespie-Fotheringham, is an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Adelaide. Meet the full team.
Yes. Alongside open courses we provide clinical supervision, professional development, and tailored systemic training and development for teams. Get in touch to discuss what you need.
Yes. AkindaCo partners with a number of higher education institutions to support emerging psychotherapists, art therapists and family therapists through placement and beyond.
Affiliations
Chat to our team today and discover a kinder approach to therapy and support.
