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

Interview on Supervising During a Critical Incident

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

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.

Apology Regarding the Recording:

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.

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20 Key Takeaways About Working with Clients From the Bondi Shooting & other Critical Incidents

  • 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.

  • Following a mass violence event, 100% of people are impacted to some degree. Symptoms are not pathology; they are expected human responses to threat.

  • 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)

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.)

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Eye movements, butterfly hug, knee tapping, or apps can all be effective—allow this be client-led.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Calming the nervous system does not invalidate the experience—it enables clients to engage with it safely. Remember to get consent for Calming Practices.

  • Anger is an appropriate response to injustice and violence. It can be channelled into meaning, advocacy, and connection. Help with meaning making.

  • Particularly for women, freeze or caregiving responses are biologically adaptive—not failure. Normalize this. Help your female clients feel strong about surviving.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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

  • Avoid dilution or false equivalence. This was an ideologically motivated, antisemitic attack. Naming this is validating and protective.

  • 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.

  • Modern antisemitism is often inverted, subtle, and framed as “explanatory.” This is deeply invalidating and re-traumatising.

  • Current events activate historical, intergenerational, and collective trauma. This is not overreaction—it is cumulative memory.

  • For many Jewish clients, places that once symbolised safety (community, beach, public life) no longer feel safe. Grieve this loss.

  • 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.

  • 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.