Carla Anderson Clinician Training

05/09/2026

My Flannel Flowers have just started to bloom. These are my favourite flower, not only are the beautiful to look at but they have the most velvety petals and leaves. What i also love about them is their meaning. Flannel flower is all about resilience. It is even the national symbol of mental health awareness in Australia, chosen for its softness and strength, thriving even in harsh coastal conditions and requiring fire to germinate.

I share my story of trying to grow my own Flannel Flower and the parallels its meaning had for me as I navigated big changes in my professional life.

If you would like to hear more about it let me know! Comment 🌸 “Florals” 🌸to join my clinician training mailing list and read more about it.

Or link in bio.

04/09/2026

🌸 I’ve just added a new page to my clinician training website, sharing a little more on one of the ways I use flowers for self-care and reflective practice. I would love to know what you think.

🗒️Details about my free Reflective Flower Journal PDFs for healthcare clinicians now have their own home. 💐

If you’ve been curious about The Clinician In Bloom® and wondered what flowers have to do with clinician self-care and reflective practice, the journals offer a little glimpse into that world.

Through botanical stories, floriography, floristry, therapeutic horticulture and reflective prompts, each journal uses a flower as a different way to explore the self-care that might genuinely work for you. 🌼

I’ve shared the “Which Flower Are You?” quiz before, but now you can find the thinking behind them and the quiz all together on my website.

🌸 Come and explore the new page.

https://carlaandersoncliniciantraining.com/floral-quiz-journal-for-clinicians

🌷The quiz and journals are designed for education, reflection and enjoyment. They are not psychological assessment, therapy or treatment.

Explore your self-care with our quick flower clinician quiz. Discover which flower reflects what self-care may work for you in just 90 seconds.

03/09/2026

Yesterday is the first time in nearly three months that I have been able to pick my own flowers in my flower patch. Flowers can express what words can’t, and I don’t have words for how it has felt to not be able to do this for so long…. And in contrast how amazing it felt to do it, how grounding it is for me.

Which is exactly what I wanted to share with the conference delegates.
I really wanted flowers to be part of my conference presentation at the Therapeutic Horticulture Australia National Conference.

I also wanted to share how flowers help challenge perfectionistic tendencies because flowers and nature can vary so much and are not perfect but are still beautiful.

And how much they remind us to engage in creativity, colour and fun.

02/09/2026

All ready to present today at the Therapeutic Horticulture Australia - THA National Conference today. I am so grateful to the THA team for the last minute gear shift to allow me to present online when unable to be there in person. As always it reminds for of the metaphors of adaptability as shown to us by many plants and flowers.

Today I will be presenting on the topic “Beyond the bouquet; Applications of floristry in therapeutic horticulture” where I’ll be sharing how I’m bringing together psychology, floristry and therapeutic horticulture together and the development of my programs Floriful and The Clinician In Bloom®.

I am also really looking forward to hearing all of the wonderful presentations through the day today.

💐🌱

01/09/2026

Last week, I wrote to my Clinician In Bloom® waitlist about waiting for a lily bud to open. The parallels with growing and shaping The Clinician In Bloom behind the scenes, waiting for it to burst open in bloom.

And now, on the first day of spring, my paper daisies have started to pop. 🌸

Some are already open, some are just beginning, and there are still plenty of little buds waiting their turn.

There’s something lovely about seeing those first little bursts of colour after watching the buds develop.

And there’s a little more beginning to bloom behind the scenes here too. 🌸

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing more about The Clinician In Bloom, why I chose flowers as the medium, and what happens when we bring together floristry, therapeutic horticulture, psychology and reflective practice.

Because the flowers are beautiful, of course, but it’s what happens amongst the flowers that interests me most. 💐

If you’ve been following along and would like to join me for The Clinician In Bloom this October, send me a message and I’ll send you the registration details. 🌷

Happy first day of spring 🌿🌷

Keep blooming,
Carla 💐

30/08/2026

Last week I had the opportunity to present a webinar on “Circles of Support” a relational tool for working with families in the perinatal period for perinatal psychologist members of Centre for Perinatal Psychology, a dedicated network of trained perinatal and infant mental health psychologists.

The perinatal period is a time of so many significant changes including changes in relationships, with partners, family and friends. For many parents these changes can be confusing and difficult not to internalise, particularly during times of distress.

The circles of relationships and supports provide a different way to explore what happens when these changes occur and validate the experiences of parents. It can also help clinicians and parents understand the parent’s relational world.

Thankyou.

This week, members of the Centre for Perinatal Psychology were treated to a terrific in-house webinar by fellow CPP Member and Clinical Psychologist, Carla Anderson. Carla presented her model called ‘Circles of Support’ and walked us through case study examples to illustrate its application. Thank you, Carla!

As a network of dedicated, private-practicing perinatal psychologists, we are committed to ongoing professional development.

All of our psychologists are trained in Perinatal and Infant Mental Health. Membership to the Centre for Perinatal Psychology also requires ongoing professional development in the field.

As Director, I am ever-proud of this remarkable group of clinicians who support parents and infants in their perinatal journeys with such skill.

23/08/2026

“In my work, you rarely get to see something finished.”

Clinical work is ongoing and relational. You rarely get tangible feedback as you would in a job where you “produce” something or a product so to speak.

Sometimes you might not hear what happened or get closure. Particularly in hospital or frontline services.

Floristry offers something different.
You begin, work, and complete an arrangement within a defined time. Then you walk away with something finished and that can be surprisingly replenishing for clinicians who rarely get that experience.

23/08/2026

I found my way back to self-care through flowers. 🌸

For me, floristry became something I genuinely enjoyed, something I wanted to return to, rather than another thing I felt I should be doing.

That got me wondering about the kinds of self-care that may work for each of us as clinicians and whether flowers could offer a different way to explore that.

So I created the Which Flower Are You? quiz for healthcare clinicians.

Your responses lead you to one of four flowers, each offering a different reflective lens on the kinds of self-care you may be more likely to enjoy, return to and sustain.

You’ll then receive a free personalised flower journal with botanical stories, floristry and reflective prompts to help you explore what may work for you.

🌷 Take the quiz here:
https://link.carlaandersoncliniciantraining.com/widget/quiz/8vy8cVbiiJMbfg96ZXsa

Or comment “Quiz” and I’ll send you the link.

NB: The quiz and journal are designed for education, reflection and enjoyment. They are not psychological assessment, therapy or treatment.

20/08/2026

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak with Sunshine Coast Daily about the importance of dedicated Mother Baby mental health beds for families on the Sunshine Coast, following this week’s announcement.

My comments focused on what access to specialised inpatient perinatal mental health care can mean for mothers, babies and families here on the Sunshine Coast. Keeping mothers and babies together matters, with care that considers maternal mental health, the developing parent infant relationship, infant mental health and the family as a whole.

Currently, to be able to access these specialised services has meant travelling to Brisbane or the Gold Coast which can have a huge impact on families logistically and emotionally. Or alternatively mothers being separated from their infant if unable to access these services.

It will be good to see how these dedicated Mother and Baby beds are implemented and what this means for perinatal mental health care on the Sunshine Coast.

Health Minister Tim Nicholls has spruiked eight new perinatal mental health beds for Nambour Hospital amid ‘astronomical’ demand from Sunshine Coast mums - but AMA Queensland fears the announcement is yesterday’s news.

Read more: https://bit.ly/4c0zdyp