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20th International Conference on the Treatment of Personality Disorders

The Project Air Strategy for Personality Disorders, °µÍø½ûÇø University Professional and Clinical Psychology programs and NSW Ministry of Health invite you to the 20th International Conference on the Treatment of Personality Disorders.

The conference presents an opportunity for professional development and to have a stimulating and thought-provoking exposure to new ideas and recent work in treatment of personality disorders by experts, service users, family members, carers, service directors, managers and clinical and professional leaders.

Conference Theme: "Creating Relationships That Matter"

The conference theme “Creating Relationships That Matter” reflects the general principle that personality disorders have been considered "a disorder of relationships and the medicine is relationships." Relationships that matter are central to recovery. This conference invites us to consider how to enhance the therapeutic alliance with those seeking care by bringing ourselves to this relationship in an active, responsive and validating way. "Creating" such relationships needs our spontaneity, kindness and deliberation in the setting of a safe and predictable frame for care and treatment. Carers, family, health care workers, teachers, welfare teams, employers and the broader community may all play a role. By learning to trust, reflection can be on things "that matter.” We invite you to join us in these discussions, presentations and reflections.

Attending the conference can be in-person, virtual, or a blend of both. Registration is essential and presentations and attendees from across the world are welcome.

Conference Event Date
Lived Experience Day Thursday, 5 November, 2026
Scientific Conference Friday, 6 November, 2026
Clinical Workshop Saturday, 7 November, 2026

Choose how you attend the conference

Enjoy valuable networking opportunities during catered breaks by attending in-person, the time-sensitive convenience of virtual attendance, or a blend of both. For in-person attendees, tea and coffee on arrival, morning tea and a light lunch is provided. 

Ticket prices are consistent across all attendance choices with Early bird and student registration prices available. Registration is online only with credit card (Visa or MasterCard). Register early as places are limited.

Lived Experience Day, 5 November, 2026

  • Rita Brown (BPD Foundation and Spectrum Victoria) - Keynote
    From Overwhelm to Advocacy: A Lived Experience Journey Toward Creating Relationships That Matter
  • De Backman-Hoyle (Mental Health Carers Australia)
    Relational by Design: Why Families, Carers and Kin Matter in Personality Disorder Support
  • Sharon Ereaux (Lived Experience Advocate and Recovery Coach) 
    Unmasking Schizoid Personality Disorder: Experience, Understanding, and Hope
  • Lauren Vuckovich (Paramedic, Clinical Educator and Lived Experience Advocate)
    The Relationship With Myself: What Recovery Looks Like From Inside It  
  • Scarlet Jones (Lived Experience Practitioner) 
    Existing truthfully within youth mental health care  
  • Natasha Cuevas (Designer, Artist and Lived Experience Advocate)
    We heal together: The Art of Emotional Connection
  • Art Exhibition Opening and Artist Talks

Scientific Conference Day, 6 November, 2026

  • Professor Brin Grenyer (Project Air)
    Reflecting on the past 20 years of conference - evolution of themes, progress in science, and new and emerging hot topics
  • Professor Chiara De Panfilis (University of Parma, Italy)  - Scientific Keynote
    Intimacy, social cognition, and social inclusion challenges in people with personality disorder: Research and clinical implications  
  • Rita Brown (BPD Foundation and Spectrum Victoria) – Lived Experience Keynote
    Mutuality, connection and hope: Creating relationships that matter 
  • Dr Jacqueline Huber (St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney and Australian and New Zealand Emergency Psychiatry Network)
    Rethinking risk and hospital use in crisis emergency mental health presentations for people with suicide, self harm and personality disorder features 
  • Sin-Ying Tan (Eastern Health, Victoria)
    Beyond Crisis: Factors Associated with Recurrent Inpatient Readmission and Emergency Department Re-presentation in Borderline Personality Disorder 
  • Celeste Cari (Charles Sturt University, Australia)
    Managing Risk, Navigating Boundaries, and Gaining Insight: Psychosocial Support Workers' Experiences of Supporting Persons with Borderline Personality Disorder 
  • Dillon Tepper (Adelaide University, South Australia)
    “Why hasn’t it been done already?” Psychiatric rehabilitation priorities for people diagnosed with borderline personality disorder 
  • Dr Kayla Steele (University of New South Wales and Black Dog Institute)
    Personality Pathology and Outcomes of Digital CBT for Anxiety Disorders: Evidence from Two Randomised Controlled Trials   

Lightning Talks

  • Dr Stephanie Weston - More than Grounding: The Human-Nature Relationship in Personality Disorder Recovery
  • Wilhelmina Barley - The role of depressive experiences in the relationship between adult attachment and pathological narcissism
  • Athena Staughton - Envy and gratitude: The role of personality functioning and narcissism
  • Isabella Frame-Ripley - Co-occurring bulimia nervosa and borderline personality disorder presentations: Implication of impulsivity on affect dysregulation profiles and clinical functioning
  • Asha Patterson - They cannot comprehend the enormity of what my child and I are experiencing”: Experiences with informal supports amongst parents of children in suicidal distress
  • Paris Grozdanovski - Adapting the perfectionism social disconnection model to examine the role of attachment, mentalisation, shame, and perfectionism in trait social anxiety
  • Georgia Dellow - CHIME-ing In: The lived experience of personal recovery in BPD
  • Hannah Stewart - What do we know about the longitudinal course of BPD?
  • Sophie Lucas - Peer and Clinician Co-facilitated group therapy for BPD

Clinical Workshop, 7 November, 2026

  • Professor Chiara De Panfilis (University of Parma, Italy)
    Using Transference Focussed Psychotherapy (TFP) informed care principles to improve outpatient and community mental health therapy for people with personality disorder and complex needs - a clinical case based workshop

Idyllic surrounds, world-class facilities and world wide knowledge

The event will be held in the centre of the beautiful University of °µÍø½ûÇø campus in Building 67. The campus is set among a spectacular coastal and forested environment surrounding the city of °µÍø½ûÇø - about 90 minutes by car south of Sydney. More about the location.

All three days of the Conference will feature an art exhibition which provides a unique opportunity to see what creating relationships that matter means for people with lived and living experiences, carers, and clinicians.

Radical Renaissance: This is the recognition of the creativeness of people with lived and living experience of emotional distress, trauma, and being labelled. Creativity isn’t just healing - it speaks, takes up space, and redefines what a life worth living may mean beyond systems that may not see us as who we really are.

Thursday 5 November, 4.00pm - Art Exhibition Opening and Artist Panel Discussion - featuring talks by the artists hosted by Project Air's resident Research Art Therapist Kirsten Campbell. Included in exhibition are works by Emily Newton-Elliott, Helen Minns, Stewart Stubbs, Sarah Clarke, Claire Payne, Jemma Sharwood, Zaide Harker, Kirsten Campbell, Sharon Ereaux, Viva Vayspap, Jack Thomson, Mariam Chanaoui and Jamee Barker.

Meet our keynote speaker: Chiara De Panfilis for the scientific conference and clinical workshop

Professor Chiara De Panfilis, MD, is a practicing psychiatrist and associate professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Medicine and Surgery, Unit of Neuroscience, University of Parma, Italy.

Professor Panfilis will present a keynote on the Friday Scientific Conference:

  • Intimacy, social cognition and social inclusion challenges in people with personality disorder: research and clinical implications

Professor Panfilis will also provide an all-day Clinical workshop on the Saturday:

  • Using Transference Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) informed care principles to improve outpatient and community mental health therapy for people with personality disorder and complex needs - a clinical case based workshop

Chiara’s research focuses on the potential social-cognitive mechanisms that shape the clinical picture and the psychosocial functioning of individuals suffering with personality disorders. Chiara is clinically active in implementing general psychiatric care for personality disorders with transference focused psychotherapy principles. Chiara is President-Elect of the European Society for the Study of Personality Disorders (ESSPD) and co-founder and vice-president of the Personality Disorders Lab (Parma-Milan, Italy), and has authored more than ninety peer-reviewed publications.  

Portrait of conference keynote speaker for 2026

Meet our lived experience keynote speaker: Rita Brown for the lived experience day and scientific conference

Rita Brown OAM is a lived‑experience leader and a national and international advocate.  As a family carer, she brings a deep belief in creating compassionate, inclusive systems where people living with personality disorder - and those who support them - can thrive.

Ms Brown will present a keynote on the Thursday Lived Experience Day: 

  • From Overwhelm to Advocacy: A Lived Experience Journey Toward Creating Relationships That Matter

Ms Brown will also present a keynote at the Friday Scientific Conference: 

  • Mutuality, Connection and Hope: Creating Relationships That Matter

Rita is President of the Australian BPD Foundation, the Associate Director of Lived Experience Workforce and Advocacy at Spectrum (the Victorian Statewide Service Specialising in Personality Disorder and Complex Trauma), a board member of Asia-Pacific Association for the Research and Treatment of Personality Disorder and a member of the ISSPD (International Society for the Study of Personality Disorder) Lived Experience Advisory Committee. Her advocacy, writing and national contributions were recognised in 2025 with the ISSPD Perry Hoffman Award for Community Service, and she was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in the 2026 Australia Day Honours list for her contribution to community (mental) health. 

Portrait keynote speaker rita brown

Meet our speaker: Jacqueline Huber for scientific conference

Dr Jacqueline Huber is a Senior Staff Specialist Psychiatrist and Clinical Lead in Emergency Psychiatry at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney. She is the founder and Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Emergency Psychiatry Network and a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney. 

Dr Huber will present on the Friday Scientific Conference:

  • Rethinking risk and hospital use in crisis emergency mental health presentations for people with suicide, self harm and personality disorder features 

Her clinical and research work focuses on improving care for people presenting in mental health crisis, particularly those experiencing suicidality and self-harm. Her research examines the role of hospital care, short-stay crisis units, risk assessment, and how emergency mental health services can provide more therapeutic, person-centred responses to distress.

Registrations for the conference are now open

Register early as places are limited!

Conference Event Standard Price 
Clinical Workshop $200
Scientific Conference $180
Lived Experience Day $15

All prices are in Australian dollars inclusive of the Australian Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Conference Event Student Price 
Clinical Workshop $100
Scientific Conference $90
Lived Experience Day $15

All prices are in Australian dollars inclusive of the Australian Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Students may be eligible to receive a discounted rate for the Sunday Clinical Workshop and Monday Scientific Day. Please email info-projectair@uow.edu.au with a copy of your current Student ID or Enrolment record to receive a unique discount code and apply this during checkout.

Conference Event                               Lived Experience & Carers Price
Clinical Workshop $180
Scientific Conference $90
Lived Experience Day $15

All prices are in Australian dollars inclusive of the Australian Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Person with Lived Experience and Carers are eligible to receive a discounted rate. Please email info-projectair@uow.edu.au to receive a unique discount code and apply this during checkout.

Conference begins in


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Event location

The event will be held in the centre of the beautiful University of °µÍø½ûÇø campus in Building 67.

In the University of °µÍø½ûÇø’s 50-year history, it has built an international reputation for world-class research and exceptional teaching quality. We’re ranked in the top 250 universities in the world and we’re aiming higher every day. 

With 17 beautiful beaches, a spectacular escarpment, a bustling city centre and your choice of restaurant and entertainment zones, °µÍø½ûÇø is here waiting for you to explore. There really is something for everyone in °µÍø½ûÇø and the greater Illawarra region.

Getting to UOW

  • Arriving by train - Take the 90 min scenic train to North °µÍø½ûÇø station followed by a short bus connection or 15 min walk. A free shuttle bus service, ‘The Gong Shuttle’ regularly runs to and from the University, train station and hotels, or the trip is a short taxi ride.
  • Arriving by plane - Sydney Airport is 80km from °µÍø½ûÇø and provides excellent connections to UOW from the airport train using the South Coast Line or by booking a shuttle/limousine service.
  • Arriving by car - From Sydney drive south past Sutherland on the Princes Highway then M1 Motorway and take the second exit at the bottom of Mt Ousley (signposted 'University'). The Western Car Park is closest to the conference venue; enter via the Western Entrance along Northfields Avenue. Parking fees apply.

 

A full event program will be published soon.