Inwood Training & Design

Excited to be up the Sunshine Coast to run STAND Foundations across a few sites, first time back up that way in a couple of years, so I'm looking forward to the trip as much as the work. Hopefully squeezing in a few nice walks and some time to be a tourist along the way!

STAND Foundations is the framework I built for teams working in high-stress, trauma-affected environments — step-by-step de-escalation that actually holds up when someone's mid-crisis.

If you're Sunshine Coast–based and want to talk about what that could look like for your team, message me (I'll be up there anyway).

Might post a sneaky pic or two later in the week. Here's one I grabbed on arrival, hit the beach before the hotel.

Your team can recognise a crisis. Can they respond to one?

Mental Health First Aid teaches staff to notice distress and refer it on — literacy and referral both matter, and that's not a criticism of MHFA.

But when someone is actively escalating, right in front of your staff member, right now, "notice and refer" isn't enough.

STAND is built for that exact moment — a five-step sequence (Safety, Tune In, Acknowledge, Notice the Need, Decide) staff can actually use when the room gets charged, taught in Foundations and carried forward through the rest of the STAND pathway so it doesn't fade the way a single workshop does.

Different job. Different kind of preparation.

After 17 years working alongside frontline professionals, I built STAND because I kept seeing the same gap.

Workers who cared deeply, but had no framework for the moment everything got charged.

STAND gives them that framework.

5 steps. Trauma-informed and practical enough to use under pressure.

If you lead a team in health, disability, community services, youth, or education — I'd love to show you what STAND looks like for your organisation.

Thank you Shan Fay for your feedback!

The first session is free. No obligation.
Comment below or send me a message to find out more.

Ended the week delivering Su***de Awareness Training for the team at New Wave Care — online.

This is a heavy topic to sit with over a screen, but the group showed up fully — cameras on, asking honest questions, willing to sit in the discomfort together.

A couple of things that stuck with me from today:
→ Almost nobody in suicidal crisis truly wants to die — they want the pain to end.
→ Asking directly about su***de doesn't increase risk. It opens a door.
→ You're not responsible for every outcome. You're responsible for asking, listening, and following through. That's enough.

Proud of this team for the work they do every day!

If this brings anything up for you personally, please reach out — Lifeline 13 11 14 Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636

The sooner we stop treating it as a fixed state the sooner we stop missing the people who need us most.

When good people freeze, second-guess, or over-react — that's not a character flaw. That's a gap in what they were given to work with.

The biggest myth in frontline training:

"Our staff have done Mental Health First Aid. They're covered."

MHFA is a great program. I'm not here to knock it.

But here's what it doesn't do:

-It’s limited in teaching you what to do when someone is escalating in front of them right now.

-It doesn't equip workers who cannot refer on.

-It doesn't address staff regulation — what happens to your nervous system when you're in a charged situation.

-It doesn't give your team a shared language and understanding for crisis response.

Awareness is the starting point. STAND is what comes next.

If you're a manager or leader in community services, disability, mental health or education — what does your team actually reach for when a crisis hits?

Self-care after the shift is important. Self regulation during it is a skill. There's a difference!

Reached out to a few people who have attended my trainings before and asked if they could send me feedback/testimonials. Have to say I was gobsmacked when reading them. Thank you Janelle Carrington sharing your experience with me and saying yes to me sharing it on socials.

Most crisis training ticks a box, never to be visited again. STAND was built to change what happens in the room and embed into organisational prcatice. DM me to find out more.