Thoughtful guidance, shared experience, and trauma-aware support for mental health therapists, supervisors, and supporters.
Critical Incident Response for Therapists:
What Clinicians Need to Know After the Bondi Shootings
Why This Matters
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Why This Matters *
In the aftermath of the Bondi shootings, many mental health clinicians have found themselves supporting clients while simultaneously managing their own nervous system responses. Critical incidents of this magnitude activate fear, grief, moral injury, and intergenerational trauma—often before clients can put words to what they are experiencing.
This page is designed for therapists, supervisors, and mental health practitioners seeking clear, trauma-informed guidance on how to respond in the acute phase of community trauma, including culturally safe care for Jewish clients and others affected by this crime.
This Critical Incident training was provided by Here Completely, led by Jennifer Perkins, LMFT, Counsellor, and Director of Here Completely, in collaboration with Pam Brown, Psychologist, Trauma Recovery Network Australia (TRNA).
We also honour Sue Miller, LifeSource Psychotherapy, who bravely gave voice to the Jewish experience during this devastating time, naming the emotional, cultural, and systemic impacts of antisemitism with clarity and courage.
Critical Incident Training – Bondi Beach Shooting
With deep respect and advocacy for the Jewish community impacted by this attack
Here Completely Advocacy Statement
We unequivocally stand with the Jewish community
This attack has occurred within a broader context of rising antisemitism, historical trauma, and intergenerational fear. Therapists must not minimise, neutralise, or depoliticise Jewish pain. Safety, visibility, and validation are essential.
Critical Incident Training – Bondi Shooting
Provided by Here Completely
Apology Regarding the Recording
We sincerely apologise that Here Completely experienced technical issues during the Zoom conference, and as a result, we are unable to provide a recording of this training.
We recognise how important this content is, particularly during times of collective trauma. To support our therapist community, we are providing the key learnings and clinical takeaways below in a clear, accessible, and easy-to-read format. Please go through this page in it’s entirety to get information in print format.
Training Providers
Bringing Therapists Together, Jennifer Perkins, LMFT, Counsellor
Director of Here Completely, Jennifer provides clinical framing, therapist resourcing, supervision, and guidance for working safely and ethically during acute and collective trauma. You will often find her building community, making new friends and giving her time away.
Building Skills Across Australia, Teacher, Speaker & EMDR Trainer, Pam Brown, Psychologist
Director of Trauma Response Network Australia (TRNA) Pam brings decades of frontline experience in disaster response, mass trauma, and critical incident intervention. Her tireless work through TRNA has supported clinicians, first responders, and communities following some of Australia’s most devastating events.Take a minute and donate to TRNA so she can keep it going.
Pam is a highly respected psychologist and trauma specialist with decades of experience in critical incident response, humanitarian trauma, and early intervention. She is a senior member of the Trauma Recovery Network Australia, was trained directly by Francine Shapiro, and has worked extensively with disasters including bushfires, mass violence, and international humanitarian crises. Pam brings a rare blend of neurobiological precision, compassion, and practical application, with a strong commitment to making trauma tools accessible—not exclusive.
Pam’s grounded, compassionate approach helps therapists stay regulated, effective, and human in the face of overwhelming trauma.
Building Hope & Honouring Voices from our Jewish Community, Sue Miller, Psychotherapist
It is our deep honour to introduce Sue Miller, a compassionate and deeply intuitive psychotherapist based in Sydney, Australia, and the guiding force behind Life Source Psychotherapy. Sue brings a blend of clinical skill, trauma-informed insight and genuine humanity to her work, supporting individuals through life’s most challenging transitions with empathy and grace. At a time when our communities have been profoundly shaken by the tragic events at Bondi Beach, Sue courageously shared her lived experience as a Jewish therapist, offering reflection, care and solidarity to those navigating collective grief and trauma.
Her presence and vulnerability in speaking about this trauma have provided comfort, resonance and a reminder of the powerful role that authentic connection plays in healing. We thank Sue profusely — not only for her professional dedication to mental wellbeing but for her personal strength and kindness in showing what it means to bear witness with heart and courage. Her work continues to inspire and support many as they seek resilience and meaning amidst adversity. We deeply thank her for bravely lending her voice to the Jewish lived experience during this conversation and this devastating time. Her reflections grounded this training in cultural reality and resilience—and reminded us why culturally attuned trauma care is essential.
Her presence and vulnerability in speaking about this trauma have provided comfort, resonance and a reminder of the powerful role that authentic connection plays in healing. We thank Sue— not only for her professional dedication to mental wellbeing but for her personal strength and kindness in showing what it means to bear witness with heart and courage. Her work continues to inspire and support many as they seek resilience and meaning amidst adversity.
Handy-dandy Handouts, Videos and Other Resources for Working with Critical Incidents
Summary of the Training
This training focused on how therapists can effectively support clients during the acute phase of a critical incident, particularly within the first three months, when trauma memories are not yet consolidated. Pam Brown outlined why traditional insight-based therapy and historical exploration are contraindicated during this window and instead emphasised stabilisation, safety, and nervous system regulation.
Central to the training was Critical Incident Desensitisation (CID)—also referred to as EMD (Eye Movement Desensitisation without Reprocessing)—a protocol derived from EMDR and humanitarian trauma work (notably by Roy Kiessling). The goal is not trauma processing, but to reduce acute distress, prevent maladaptive memory consolidation, and lower the risk of PTSD.
The training also powerfully addressed the specific targeting and impact on the Jewish community, naming antisemitism directly, validating anger and fear, and cautioning therapists against minimisation, gaslighting, or false equivalence. Cultural safety, therapist self-awareness, and peer support were identified as essential components of ethical care.
3 Takeaways to Start With
Takeaway 1 — Start with Safety and Stabilisation. In the first phase of a critical incident response, clinicians should prioritise safety: ensuring the client is physically secure, that there are no ongoing threats, and that basic needs are met More HERE
Takeaway 2 — Use Present-Centered Interventions
Instead of deep trauma reprocessing immediately, draw clients into the present: focus on breathing, grounding, sensory containment, and short, manageable goals… (etc.) See Protocols below
Takeaway 3— Cultural Takeaway — Validate Jewish Clients’ Experiences of Antisemitism. Acknowledge that antisemitism is not abstract or distant. For many Jewish clients, reactions may be layered with historical trauma (e.g., Holocaust memory) and current global tensions. Summary of Discussion with Sue HERE
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Link for VIMEO tutorial is HERE
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1) 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Present Orientation Grounding
This technique helps you stay present by using your senses to ground yourself in the current moment. Start by thinking about something mildly upsetting. Then:
- Name 5 things you can see around you.
- Name 4 things you can physically touch.
- Name 3 things you can hear.
- Name 2 things you can smell.
- Name 1 thing you can taste.2) Acupressure Breathing
Acupressure breathing helps calm your mind by combining gentle touch and focused breathing. To practice:
- Locate the muscle between your thumb and index finger.
- Gently massage this muscle with the thumb and fingers of your other hand.
- Breathe slowly and in rhythm with your massage.
- Notice how your feelings shift as you continue the practice.3) 3-5 Belly Breathing
Belly breathing encourages relaxation by helping you focus on slow, intentional breaths. To practice:
- Place one hand on your chest and the other on your belly.
- Inhale deeply through your nose for a count of 3, allowing your belly to expand.
- Exhale slowly through your mouth for a count of 5, letting your belly deflate.
- Repeat this pattern until you feel a sense of calm.4) Eye Roll Technique
The eye roll technique uses gentle eye movement to release tension and refocus your mind. To practice:
- Begin by looking down at the floor.
- Slowly inhale while rolling your eyes upward toward the ceiling.
- Exhale as you roll your eyes back down to the floor.
- Repeat several times, and notice the calming effect. -
Basic steps of Container Technique
Get into a comfortable position, seated or lying down. Take a few deep breaths.
Close your eyes, or let your eyes find a soft gaze.
Visualize a container. Notice its shape, color, size, and texture.
Open the container.
Take a few deep breaths. Send distressing energy – thoughts, emotions, images – into the container. Allow the container to hold this energy for you. Feel the energy traveling from your body into the container.
When the container seems full, close it.
Put the container away, somewhere it won’t bother you (on a shelf, underground, locked behind a door).
Move away from the container.
Note: Always get consent before starting the Container process. Ask Permission: “Would it be ok if we were to contain these awful pictures/ memories?”
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Key Steps in the Protocol:
Identify the Place: The client visualizes a real or imaginary location where they feel completely safe, calm, and peaceful (e.g., a beach, forest, cozy room).
Engage the Senses: Describe details: what you see, hear (waves, silence), smell (flowers, woodsmoke), and feel (warmth, soft breeze).
Anchor Emotions & Sensations: Identify the positive emotions and where pleasant physical sensations (like ease in the chest) occur in the body.
Bilateral Stimulation (BLS): The therapist guides short sets of eye movements or tapping while focusing on the safe place to strengthen these positive feelings (Installation Phase).
Create a Cue: A word or phrase (like "be here now") is associated with the positive sensations to make accessing it easier.
Practice & Transition: Clients practice accessing the place and learn to transition smoothly from it back to the present moment in the therapy room, building self-regulation
20 Key Takeaways About Working with Clients From the Bondi Shooting & Other Critical Incidents
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In the first three months post-incident, the brain is in an acute stress response. Insight-oriented therapy, trauma history exploration, or meaning-making can worsen symptoms. The priority is helping clients feel safer and less overwhelmed in their bodies.
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Following a mass violence event, 100% of people are impacted to some degree. Symptoms are not pathology; they are expected human responses to threat.
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The amygdala, fully developed at birth, scans for danger continuously. After trauma, it remains hyperactivated, prioritising survival over reasoning. Therapy needs to meet the client at this neurobiological level. Normalize hyper-vigelence, but also teach clients to build their calm space, or safe place (see handouts above)
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As a clinician, you may have to address more than one. Smell is also a powerful trauma trigger. Unlike other senses, smell bypasses the cortex and goes straight to the amygdala. Clinicians should expect sensory triggers (e.g., ocean air, crowds, smoke) and normalise these responses.
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Ahhhh. Some good news finally. A core principle of trauma recovery is our ability for Adaptive Information. This means that the brain naturally moves toward healing if given the right conditions. Therapists should communicate hope without minimising pain.
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In the immediate aftermath, people often turn to family and community first. Therapists are most needed weeks and months later, not always immediately. But don’t be surprised if there is need in the immediate. Be prepared. This means that therapist SELF CARE is essential, during the crisis so you are able to handle CLIENT CARE
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Gentle, non-intrusive check-ins (especially with Jewish clients) were consistently experienced as supportive and validating, not boundary violations. Use your best judgement, but grieving communities want to know they are not alone. Be the one who shows them they are not.
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Asking clients to recount what they saw or felt too early can increase activation. Regulation before narrative. Check out the Safe Space and Calm Space protocols above. Teach system regulation to grieving clients.
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Asking client to rate distress from 0–10 helps externalise distress, engage the left brain, and provides immediate grounding. Thinking about numbers keeps us from being stuck in the narrative. Use this as a tool to toggle back and forth. It’s often a form of system regulation for clients. (Be aware about neuro-diverse clients who may have difficulty with anchoring a number to distress.)
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Early desensitisation reduces the likelihood that traumatic memories will consolidate into long-term PTSD. Use taxing techniques like the butterfly hug and/or tapping on legs while recounting a story. You can even stop and count backwards during a narrative. Taxing the narrative can help soften and desensitise the terror. Use your best judgment, and get some supervision if you haven’t done it before.
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If you are going to use the CI techniques and tax the system, use brief (10–15 seconds) sets. Longer sets risk activating historical trauma networks.
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Eye movements, butterfly hug, knee tapping, or apps can all be effective—allow this be client-led.
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Always ask permission before any intervention. Choice restores agency, which trauma strips away. Even asking permission to create a safe space can be agency restoring.
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When our clients experience even a small reduction in distress, the brain learns: “This won’t last forever.” And that is the Adaptive Information we are hoping to restore. Just go with that.
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Calming the nervous system does not invalidate the experience—it enables clients to engage with it safely. Remember to get consent for Calming Practices.
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Anger is an appropriate response to injustice and violence. It can be channeled into meaning, advocacy, and connection. Help with meaning making.
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Particularly for women, freeze or caregiving responses are biologically adaptive—not failure. Normalize this. Help your female clients feel strong about surviving.
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What many feel is not guilt, but horror and existential vulnerability—a sudden awareness of mortality. We’re not afraid of survival, we’re afraid of the horror we just witnessed.
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Therapists will carry this work for months and years. Structured peer supervision and support are essential. This needs to be started immediately during the crisis. Model good self care as well as vulnerability.
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Mass violence by humans against humans creates profound moral injury. Naming this helps reduce shame and confusion.
7 Additional Takeaways for Working with Jewish Clients & Community After the Bondi Beach Shootings
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Avoid dilution or false equivalence. This was an ideologically motivated, antisemitic attack. Naming this is validating and protective.
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Statements like “everyone is affected” must not erase the specific targeting of Jewish people. It’s not ok to discuss how ‘everyone is affected’. Leave it alone. You come across as minimizing.
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Modern antisemitism is often inverted, subtle, and framed as “explanatory.” This is deeply invalidating and re-traumatising.
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Current events activate historical, intergenerational, and collective trauma. This is not overreaction—it is cumulative memory.
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For many Jewish clients, places that once symbolised safety (community, beach, public life) no longer feel safe. Grieve this loss.
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Unexamined political beliefs or biases can cause serious harm. Cultural humility is essential. Australia has taken a public stand after OCT-7 attack. This may have been shocking for many in the Jewish community. Check yourself! Don’t underestimate how unsafe this political statement can feel to our Jewish friends.
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Supporting Jewish clients includes advocacy within professional spaces, naming antisemitism, and refusing silence.
We explicitly stand with the Jewish community and affirm that their fear, grief, anger, and exhaustion are real, justified, and deserving of care.
Resources for Getting Connected:
We have all been impacted by this tragedy.
Whether you are seeking more supervision as a therapist, or are a client impacted by the Bondi Beach Shootings here are some resources you may find helpful.
For Therapists:
Join the TRNA network HERE to get continued information on how to help as well as best practices for trauma
Seek qualified trauma supervision by joining TRNA Network or checking out the Here Completely Supervision page
People Helping People
The Interview:
Understanding Acute Trauma Responses & Early Intervention— Takeaways from Interview with Pam Brown, Psychologist and Director of TRNA
1. The Amygdala and the Human Drive for Safety
The amygdala is the brain’s primary alarm system and is fully developed at birth, unlike the rest of the brain, which continues developing into the mid-to-late 20s. From the very beginning of life, humans are biologically wired to detect danger and seek safety. This is not learned behavior—it is survival-based neurobiology.
The brain continuously scans the environment for threat, processing sensory input rapidly and largely outside conscious awareness. This constant surveillance reflects the core human question: Am I safe right now?
Key clinical points:
The brain scans the environment approximately 40 times per second
Threat detection precedes conscious thought
Safety, not insight, is the nervous system’s primary goal
2. Threat Processing Pathways in the Brain
Sensory information enters the brain through the thalamus and is routed for rapid assessment. The hippocampus evaluates whether incoming information signals danger. If danger is detected, the information is immediately sent to the amygdala to trigger survival responses. If not, it is passed to the frontal cortex for reflection, storage, and meaning-making.
This process explains why trauma reactions occur before rational thought can intervene.
Key clinical points:
Danger signals bypass conscious reasoning
Cognitive processing is secondary to survival
Clients cannot “think their way out” of acute threat responses
3. The Stress Response and the HPA Axis
When the amygdala is activated, it triggers the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, releasing stress hormones that prepare the body for fight, flight, or protective action. This physiological cascade is automatic and involuntary.
Clinically, this means that distress reactions are body-based, not character-based or cognitive failures.
Key clinical points:
Stress responses are involuntary
Distress reflects neurobiology, not pathology
Normalizing reactions reduces shame and fear
4. Sensory Triggers and the Role of Smell
Unlike other senses, smell bypasses the hippocampal filter and connects directly to the amygdala. This makes smell a powerful trigger for trauma responses—both negative and positive.
Smell-based reactions often surprise clients because they occur without conscious memory recall.
Key clinical points:
Smell has no cognitive filter
Sensory triggers may precede conscious awareness
Positive sensory anchors (e.g., comforting smells) can be therapeutic tools
5. Distress as the Primary Reason Clients Seek Therapy
Clients do not come to therapy because they feel safe—they come because something in their body feels wrong, overwhelming, or unmanageable. Distress is the presenting issue, even when clients struggle to articulate it cognitively.
Following acute trauma, people often turn first to trusted relationships before seeking professional help. Therapy commonly occurs weeks or months later, once symptoms persist.
Key clinical points:
Distress is a body-based signal
Delayed help-seeking is normal
Therapy timing reflects nervous system needs
6. Why Immediate Trauma Processing Can Be Harmful
In the first three months following trauma, memories are not yet fully consolidated. During this period, intensive trauma exploration can worsen dysregulation by activating multiple memory networks simultaneously.
Early intervention should focus on stabilization, not narrative processing.
Key clinical points:
Acute trauma ≠ consolidated PTSD
Early over-processing increases dysregulation
Stabilization protects long-term outcomes
7. Early Intervention and Desensitization
Research indicates that early, brief desensitization interventions (e.g., EMDR-informed techniques) can reduce acute distress and prevent long-term PTSD. The goal is not insight, but reduction of physiological disturbance.
Clinicians should focus narrowly on the current disturbance, without linking it to past trauma.
Key clinical points:
Treat present-moment distress only
Avoid linking to childhood or past trauma
Reduce SUDs below functional thresholds
8. Safety as the Foundation of Clinical Work
Before any intervention, clinicians should assess the client’s felt sense of safety in the therapeutic space. This includes relational, cultural, and identity-based safety.
Asking explicitly about safety gives clients permission to name discomfort and restores agency.
Key clinical questions:
“How safe do you feel working with me right now (0–5)?”
“Is there anything that would help you feel safer?”
9. The Clinician’s Role in Acute Trauma
In acute trauma contexts, the clinician’s primary role is calm, presence, and containment, not analysis. Clients benefit most from steady reassurance and simplicity.
Key clinical stance:
Be calm, grounded, and predictable
Avoid excessive questioning
Validate distress without explaining it away
10. Human Resilience and Natural Healing
Humans possess an innate capacity to heal from trauma when supported appropriately. Therapy supports—not replaces—this natural recovery system.
Key clinical messages for clients:
“Your reactions make sense”
“You are not broken”
“This will not always feel this way”
Jewish Cultural Competency— Takeaways from Interview with Sue Miller, Psychologist
Clinical Considerations for Working with Jewish Clients During Collective Trauma
1. Understanding Jewish Trauma as Intergenerational
Jewish clients may carry intergenerational trauma related to persecution, displacement, and existential threat. Current events can activate deeply embedded survival responses that are not limited to present-day experiences.
This activation is neurological, not ideological.
Clinical implications:
Trauma responses may appear disproportionate to current events
Historical memory lives in the nervous system
Clients may struggle to articulate the source of fear
2. Safety Is Both Physical and Existential
For many Jewish clients, safety concerns are not abstract. Experiences of antisemitism—especially within trusted systems—can destabilize core assumptions about belonging and protection.
Silence from clinicians may be experienced as abandonment or threat.
Clinical implications:
Neutrality may be perceived as unsafe
Acknowledgment matters more than interpretation
Silence can retraumatize
3. Proactive Outreach as a Therapeutic Intervention
Brief, unsolicited check-ins during times of collective trauma are often experienced by Jewish clients as deeply supportive rather than boundary violations.
Best practices:
Keep outreach simple and non-intrusive
Emphasize availability, not expectation
Respect non-response as a valid choice
4. Avoiding Minimization and False Equivalence
Attempts to universalize suffering or balance narratives can unintentionally invalidate Jewish clients’ lived experiences. Clinical care should center the client’s distress, not contextualize it away.
Avoid statements such as:
“All sides are suffering”
“Let’s look at the bigger picture”
“This isn’t personal”
5. Cultural Humility and Therapist Self-Awareness
Clinicians must reflect on their own beliefs, biases, and emotional reactions. Unprocessed views can emerge subtly through tone, silence, or micro-invalidations.
Clinical responsibilities:
Seek supervision when activated
Avoid using the therapy space for personal processing
Prioritize client safety over ideological comfort
6. Repair After Therapeutic Rupture
If a Jewish client experiences invalidation or harm, repair requires explicit acknowledgment—not explanation or defense.
Repair language examples:
“I realize I didn’t respond in a way that felt safe”
“I want to understand how that impacted you”
“Your experience matters here”
7. Affirming Survival and Continuity
For many Jewish clients, survival itself is a meaningful adaptive belief. Clinicians can support grounding by affirming resilience without romanticizing suffering.
Adaptive beliefs may include:
“I survived”
“I am here now”
“I can learn to feel safe again”
8. The Ethical Imperative of Safety
Cultural competency is not an add-on—it is a core component of trauma-informed care. For Jewish clients, safety includes being seen, believed, and protected from erasure within the therapeutic space.
Roy Kiessling – Critical Incident & EMD (Without Reprocessing)
Roy Kiessling’s humanitarian trauma work emphasises:
Immediate nervous system regulation
Simple, teachable tools
Preventative intervention
Community-level scalability
CID / EMD works by overloading working memory through bilateral stimulation, reducing the vividness and emotional charge of the traumatic experience without opening historical trauma networks.
Demonstration Video (EMD / CID):
Roy Kiessling – Critical Incident Desensitisation overview HERE
Trauma Aid App (Bilateral Stimulation):
Trauma Aid International App (Apple & Google Play)
– Uses visual bilateral stimulation
– Rates SUDs before/after
– Widely used in humanitarian crises (Ukraine, Turkey)
