Presentation: Marketing the Reality: Why Symptomatology-Based Language is the Future of Women’s Health
In the traditional healthcare landscape, clinical expertise often creates a language barrier. When practitioners lead with formal diagnoses in their marketing, they inadvertently prioritize medical hierarchy over human connection. For women navigating the mental load, perimenopause, and systemic inequity, a clinical label can feel like a personal pathology rather than a reflection of their social context.
In this session, health strategist Natasha Ace explores how to bridge the gap between clinical niching and authentic human connection. By advocating for "symptomatology-based language" in marketing [in as something as simple as your Bio or LinkedIn Profile], Natasha demonstrates how practitioners can speak directly to the lived realities of their clients—addressing the daily struggles, "invisible differences," and the systemic pressures that shape women’s mental health.
We will dive into the concept of the "nice tax"—the hidden cost practitioners pay when they prioritize traditional professional "niceties" over bold, transparent, and experience-led branding. This presentation provides a roadmap for rebuilding healthcare systems through communication, moving away from "shame-based" pathology toward a model that validates distress as context. Attendees will learn how to refine their marketing to dismantle barriers to care and build brands that offer a "secure base" for the modern woman.

The purpose of this research, is to study the proof of remedy interventions for victims identified with anxiety disorders. The writer searched PubMed, StillOne, and
EBSCohost for remedy interventions, specifically workouts and prescribed drugs. Eligible articles have been all applicable peer-reviewed articles that evaluated
the treatment effectiveness of either exercise or pharmaceutical interventions for anxiety problems.

Women’s mental health is shaped by a complex interplay of biological, social, cultural, and systemic factors, yet prevention and early intervention remain under-resourced and under-utilised within mental health systems. For women experiencing structural inequity and geographic isolation, these barriers contribute to delayed support and poorer health outcomes. This presentation explores how prevention-focused, gender-responsive health promotion can strengthen women’s mental wellbeing across the lifespan.

Women’s Health and Equality Queensland will showcase the development and early outcomes of a statewide women’s mental health promotion program, designed to respond to community needs and complement the specialist support service, 1800 4 WOMEN. Drawing on 12 months of community engagement across, regional, rural, and metropolitan Queensland, the presentation will share key themes arising from women’s lived experiences, including barriers to help-seeking, unmet needs during life transitions, and the importance of accessible, culturally safe, and locally relevant supports.

Emerging data highlights the need for early, practical, and strengths-based approaches which address individual wellbeing alongside the social determinants of mental health. In response, Women’s Health and Equality Queensland is implementing a suite of evidence-based novel health promotion initiatives that embed prevention, promote mental health literacy, and build community capability. This presentation outlines how community-informed insights are being translated into scalable statewide and place-based prevention strategies. Attendees will hear about practical examples of how prevention and intervention can be embedded in communities and systems to improve equity, accessibility, and outcomes.

By centering women’s voices and responding to local needs, this work demonstrates how prevention is key to address inequities, advance women’s mental wellbeing, and support women across geographies to thrive.

This presentation outlines the development and delivery of a women’s health initiative designed to support women navigating perimenopause. Following consultation with working women in the community and feedback from peer networks, the program design evolved into a two-day educational retreat. This format aimed to better meet the needs of participants by offering a more immersive learning environment while also improving accessibility for women balancing work, family, and other responsibilities.

The retreat was in collaboration with a range of health professionals, providing participants with access to diverse, evidence-based perspectives. Importantly, the retreat structure created opportunities for connection and relationship building between participants, fostering a sense of shared experience and ongoing peer support.

The project’s core purpose was to provide women with accurate, evidence-based information about perimenopause, including what to expect during this stage of life and how to manage symptoms using a holistic and multidisciplinary approach, including lived/living experience perspectives. To achieve this, the retreat featured presentations from professionals working within their areas of expertise, including dietitians, nurse practitioners with a women’s health focus, naturopaths, and exercise physiologists and psychosocial support.

In addition to clinical perspectives, the program incorporated lived-experience insights from Peer Practitioners who have personally navigated perimenopause. These sessions focused on self-care strategies, advocacy skills, and empowering women to confidently seek support for both perimenopause symptoms and co-occurring mental health concerns.

To further support holistic wellbeing, the retreat also included sessions led by a yoga instructor and massage therapist, highlighting practical approaches to relaxation, stress management, and physical wellbeing. Throughout the two days, team-building and group activities were incorporated to strengthen connections among participants, encouraging the development of supportive networks and a stronger sense of community among women experiencing similar life transitions.

Our presentation aims to focus on the outcomes of this initiative and the importance of early education.

Interdisciplinary practice offers a significant advantage for clients with mental health challenges, particularly in legal matters involving high stress, domestic violence or sexual abuse. Unlike multidisciplinary models—where professionals operate in parallel and the client must coordinate communication—interdisciplinary practice involves active collaboration between legal, medical, and allied health professionals to deliver a unified response.

This distinction is critical for clients experiencing mental health difficulties. Significant stress may be associated with cognitive impairments, reduced concentration, memory disruption, or diminished executive functioning. In a multidisciplinary framework, clients may be required to repeatedly recount traumatic experiences, reconcile differing advice, and manage multiple service providers. These demands can exacerbate psychological distress, increase the risk of retraumatisation, and compromise a client’s ability to effectively engage in legal processes.
An interdisciplinary approach reduces this burden by integrating care. Through shared understanding and coordinated planning, professionals align legal strategy with psychological and medical needs, minimising repetition, reducing cognitive load, and providing consistent support. This model recognises the neurobiological and metabolic impact of trauma, and adapts service delivery accordingly.
By supporting the client’s overall functioning—not solely their legal issue—interdisciplinary practice enhances the client’s ability to provide instructions, make informed decisions, and participate meaningfully in proceedings. It also improves professional efficiency and outcomes by ensuring interventions are complementary rather than fragmented.

In this presentation, the presenter will discuss several case studies where an interdisciplinary approach has been used to the betterment of clients, demonstrating improved legal engagement, mental health stability, and overall outcomes. Ultimately, interdisciplinary practice shifts the burden of coordination from the client to professionals, offering a more effective and humane model of care across legal and medical sectors.
Key Learnings
• Differences between multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches
• Practical steps for collaborative, trauma-informed practice
• Benefits of interdisciplinary care across legal and health sectors

Aim: Across cultures and historical contexts, women have been positioned as primary caregivers, a role that becomes particularly pronounced in the context of health and social challenges such as substance use. Problematic substance use can profoundly affect family members and loved ones, with carers often experiencing complex and cumulative stressors. The intersection of gendered caregiving roles, substance use, and rural disadvantage creates a distinct and under-examined context for women. This study aimed to understand the experiences of women caring for someone who uses substances in rural Australia.

Methods: A qualitative design using semi-structured interviews explored the experiences of women as carers. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was used to capture and interpret the meanings embedded in participants’ lived experiences. A feminist theoretical lens informed the analytic process, supporting attention to gendered expectations, power, and care.

Results: Twenty-one women aged between 28 and 67 years participated in the study. Findings highlighted three key themes:
1) The emotional burden of care, representing the significant emotional labour involved in supporting a loved one who uses substances;
2) Care expectations, reflecting women’s strong sense of obligation to maintain relationships and continue caregiving;
3) The costs of caring, encompassing the emotional, physical, social, and financial sacrifices associated with sustained caregiving.

Discussion: Women in rural Australia experience a substantial burden as primary carers for loved ones who use substances; however, this role is often poorly recognised and rarely understood as legitimate caregiving. In substance use contexts, women’s care work is frequently minimised, shaped by judgement and stigma. Caregiving is seen as a personal obligation rather than skilled, emotionally demanding labour. Findings highlight the need for greater awareness of gendered caring roles in substance use, alongside service responses that provide tailored support and challenge judgemental attitudes, validating women’s caregiving experiences to reduce the gendered burden of care.

This presentation draws on lived experience and work alongside women in caring roles, supported by up-to-date research; to explore the often unseen and accumulative reality of burnout. Across industries, many women carry heavy responsibilities, supporting others professionally while also managing significant committments outside the workplace. This sustained output of care, empathy and emotional labour, compounded by societal expectations, can become unsustainable over time.
Burnout in this context is rarely sudden. It develops gradually, often masked by capability, compassion and a strong sense of responsibility. Many women describe pushing through exhaustion, normalising high levels of stress, and feeling reluctant to set boundaries due to guilt or fear of letting others down. As a result, their own needs are consistently deprioritised, reinforcing a cycle of depletion.
The presentation will bring forward real themes and patterns observed when working with women in caring industries, including the impact of the “invisible load,” emotional fatigue, and the expectation to be consistently available and emotionally present. It will also explore the research and science of how workplace structures and cultural expectations can unintentionally reinforce these patterns.
Importantly, this presentation moves beyond awareness to action. It offers realistic, evidence-based strategies that acknowledge the complexity of caring roles—focusing on small, meaningful changes rather than idealistic solutions. Attendees will be encouraged to reflect on their own experiences, recognise early signs of burnout, and consider how boundaries, support systems and self-compassion can be integrated into daily life.

Introduction: The unique biopsychosocial positioning of women in society results in them being disproportionately vulnerable to alcohol-related harm for a given level of consumption. Despite this, they are commonly under-represented in alcohol treatment. This study sought to identify and synthesise research on gender-based barriers to women engaging in alcohol treatment.

Methods: A systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature was undertaken. Six electronic databases (Scopus, Medline, PsychINFO, Web of Science, Cochrane and CINAHL) were searched. Studies were eligible for inclusion if they: (i) reported data from adults from high-income countries who self-identified as female; (ii) were published in English in a peer-reviewed journal between 2000-2025; and (iii) reported barriers to alcohol treatment seeking, referral, access, engagement, and/or outcomes. Results were deductively analysed using the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF).

Results: Thirty-four studies were retained from 6783 citations. A range of barriers to treatment engagement were identified, including environmental context and resources (e.g. treatment services being inappropriate or inaccessible due to financial constraints, logistical difficulties associated with caring responsibilities, or lack of gender-appropriate care); social influences (e.g. low levels of social and structural support to seek treatment); and emotion (e.g. experiences of stigma, shame and guilt often related to ideals of motherhood).

Discussions and Conclusions: A range of gendered barriers can prevent women from engaging with alcohol treatment. These encompass both structural/organisational barriers and social/cultural barriers.

Implications for Practice or Policy: The alcohol treatment sector must be cognisant of the uniquely gendered challenges facing women who seek treatment for alcohol. In order to enhance treatment access, structural and logistical barriers can be addressed at the organisational level – in particular, providing childcare options, financial assistance, and gender-appropriate care such as trauma-informed treatment. This is an important first step in minimising the disproportionate alcohol-related harm experienced by women and institutionalising gender equity.

Perimenopause is commonly understood as a hormonal transition, yet many women also experience significant psychological and relational shifts during this stage of life. Emotional intensity, anxiety, irritability, relationship strain, and questioning of long-standing roles or expectations are frequently reported by women navigating midlife change.

In clinical settings, these experiences are often addressed through medical management alone. However, for many women, perimenopause represents not only an endocrine transition but also a period of psychological and relational reorganisation that can influence identity, relationships, and life priorities.

Drawing on experience as both a psychotherapist and a clinical leader within New Zealand’s health system, this presentation explores the role of counselling and psychotherapy within a holistic approach to perimenopause care.

The session will examine how psychological support can assist women to process emotional changes, renegotiate relationships, and make sense of shifting identity and life direction during midlife. It will also consider how clinicians, partners, and families can better understand and support women through this transition.

A practical framework for understanding perimenopause across biological, psychological, and relational dimensions will be introduced, highlighting how integrating psychological support alongside medical treatment can contribute to more holistic and effective care.

This session will be relevant for clinicians, therapists, women experiencing perimenopause, and those supporting someone through this transition.

Neurotypes such as autism and ADHD have historically been conceptualised through a male-centric lens, contributing to the persistent under-recognition of neurodivergence in girls and women. As a result, many females remain unidentified until adolescence or adulthood, often presenting within mental health services with concerns such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders, borderline personality disorder, trauma-related difficulties, and chronic burnout.

This presentation will explore how neurodivergence commonly presents across the female lifespan and why these presentations are frequently overlooked in clinical settings. Particular attention will be given to internalised presentations, masking and camouflaging behaviours, sensory differences, and the social and cultural pressures that shape how neurodivergent girls and women navigate the world. The ways in which many girls compensate socially, internalise distress, and develop perfectionistic coping strategies will also be explored.

The session will examine how neurodivergence may present across key developmental stages, including childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, and how these patterns contribute to delayed identification. The cumulative impact of late recognition, including increased vulnerability to mental health difficulties, identity confusion, trauma, and autistic burnout, will also be discussed.

Drawing on current research and clinical practice, this session will highlight key indicators of neurodivergence in females, common pathways to misdiagnosis within mental health services, and barriers women face in accessing appropriate assessment and support. Practical guidance will be provided to assist professionals in recognising neurodivergent presentations and adopting neurodivergence-affirming approaches within assessment and therapeutic work.