Naomi Halpern

Director

Naomi holds a C.Q.S.W. (UK) and Grad. Cert. Human Rights. For over thirty years she has demonstrated her commitment to assist and enhance the quality of life of people who have experienced severe trauma, abuse and disadvantaged life situations.

Naomi trained as a social worker in the UK. Early in her career she worked with children in emergency care, homeless youth, and convicted offenders in government and NGO’s, providing advocacy, psychosocial education, recreational opportunities, skills training, supervision and counselling.

In 1987, Naomi went into partnership with Susan Henry at The Delphi Centre, now known as Delphi Training and Consulting. She has developed expertise in psychotherapy for complex trauma. Naomi provides clinical consultation for post traumatic stress disorder, dissociative disorders and related comorbidity, for mental health professionals working with survivors of sexual abuse, rape, gender based violence, torture and other trauma. She has a wealth of experience working with people across cultures, socioeconomic groups, faiths and sexual orientation.

A skilled speaker and trainer, Naomi has presented her work in complex and developmental trauma and related comorbidity, vicarious trauma, resilience building and work-place wellbeing in Australia - Denmark - Germany - New Zealand (upcoming 2019) - United States. She provides consultation and training to organizations such as:

United Nations - Victorian Transcultural Mental Health - Maurice Blackburn Lawyers  - Attorney General's Solicitors Dept. - Centre Against Sexual Assault and Crisis Line services - Knowmore Legal Service - Maddocks Lawyers – NSW Service for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Survivors - Carelink Counselling Services  - Metta Youth - Corpus Christi - Delmont Private Psychiatric Hospital

A founding member of The Australian Association of Trauma and Dissociation Inc. in 1992 (amalgamated with the Australasian Association of Traumatic Stress Studies in 1996) she served on the Executive Committee and Conference Committee from 1991 – 1996, and as Treasurer from 1992 – 1995.

Naomi is a founding member and spokesperson for an action group for victims of white collar crime. She is an advocate for victims of deceptive and misleading financial advice, providing submissions and testimony to senate committees and other inquiries. Naomi has been an invited speaker at financial industry forums regarding the impact of white collar crime, the changes needed in the industry and legislation. She works closely with parliamentarians across political parties and independents, as well as the media and is frequently contacted for commentary. 

Publications

Ross, C., Halpern, N. Trauma Model Therapy: A Treatment Approach for Trauma, Dissociation and Complex Comorbidity, (2009), Manitou Communications Inc.

Somer, E., Soffer-Dudek, N., Ross, C. A., & Halpern, N. (2017) Maladaptive daydreaming: Proposed diagnostic criteria and their assessment with a structured clinical interview. Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, 4(2), 176-189

Somer, E., Somer, L., Halpern, N. (2019) Representations of maladaptive daydreaming and the self: A qualitative analysis of drawings, The Arts in Psychotherapy, ELSEIVER 

Halpern, N. (2019) Part Two 'Survival Responses', in (author) Varney, K., Mum's The Word, Karen Varney and Ocean Reeve Publishing, Australia, pp 106-110

Research

Collaborating Researcher at the International Consortium for Maladaptive Daydreaming Research, The University of Haifa Maladaptive Daydreaming Research Laboratory

Awards

2017 -  Fellow of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. 

Advisory Board Member

Hecht Trauma Institute, California Southern University

Invited Journal Reviewer

Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease