Sarah Cattermole and Thomas Betts present to school psychologists in January 2026
About 180 school psychologists attended an Embrace-led seminar on cultural safety earlier this week to support their professional development ahead of the school year.
The seminar was developed on a request from the North Metropolitan Education Region, after a similar session was provided to the School Psychologists Association of WA in late 2025.
‘Yarning Together’ follows a Medical Research Future Fund-backed project that sought to build cultural safety into mainstream mental healthcare settings for Aboriginal children and young people in WA. Preliminary findings from this project are available here, with recommendations expected to be finalised later this year.
Among the activities run by Aboriginal Project Officers Thomas Betts and Sarah Cattermole at the professional development day were culturally grounded introductions and the use of safe yarning cards, which were developed during the MRFF-funded cultural safety project.
Sets of yarning cards were provided to all attendees, who will offer valuable reflections on how they were able to use them with students in the first school term.
“For us, it is such a wonderful opportunity to be able to share our findings with a group that is often at the frontline of contact with our young people,” Ms Cattermole said.
“We had a really engaged group and are looking forward to hearing feedback about the use of the yarning cards towards the end of the first school term.”
Further workshops are expected to be provided across 2026.
Embrace is supported by principal partner Rio Tinto and Channel 7 Telethon Trust.