Miranda Bain
Director of Therapy Services, Act For KidsPresenting at the 2024 RSIS Conference
Peer to Peer Harmful Sexual Behaviours: Fortifying Futures, Forging Alliances, Unravelling Complexities & Responding in the school context
Identifying, responding to, and intervening in harmful sexual behaviours between peers is crucial, with clear evidence pointing to key factors. This presentation explores: contributors to such behaviours, the impact of language and context, collaboration with stakeholders and external entities, fostering a school culture of awareness and empathy, recent research findings, and reporting guidelines. Central to this discussion are identification tools such as Hackett’s Continuum of Behaviours for identification and response, alongside evidence-informed interventions demonstrated through case studies and real-world examples, emphasising holistic treatment and prevention.
Miranda Bain
Miranda holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology. While residing in the USA, New Zealand and Australia, Miranda has worked as a clinician, educator, and advocate for over 25 years. She has specialised in the areas of interpersonal violence, sexual abuse, and trauma throughout her career. This focus has led to opportunities to design and apply interventions across varied geographical and societal contexts. Since immigrating to Australia, she has focused specifically on the impact of abuse and trauma on children. Her current role as Act for Kids’ Director of Therapy Services includes responsibility and oversight of best practice across Act for Kids therapeutic services, and early education programmes nationally. Therapeutic services under her purview include Allied Health Integrated Therapy, Infant Mental Health, Trauma, Youth Sexual Violence (HSB); and Sexual Abuse counselling programmes. Miranda is the Chair of the Queensland Harmful Sexual Behaviour Treatment Network, and a member of the National Strategic Advisory Groupinforming the National Office of Child Safety’s implementation of recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. She maintains professional membership with the Australian Counselling Association, and the Australia New Zealand Association for Treatment of Sexual Abuse (ANZATSA).