HER Mind, HER Health is a national conference dedicated to advancing women’s mental health as a core component of women’s health, not an add-on or afterthought. The conference will be held at the JW Marriott hotel on the Gold Coast, Monday 31 August – Tuesday 1 September 2026.
About The Conference
A new national flagship conference supported by the Australian & New Zealand Mental Health Association, bringing together the workforce shaping women’s mental health care across Australia and New Zealand.
HER Mind, HER Health is a space for clinicians, researchers, lived experience leaders, service designers and decision makers to explore how women’s mental health is understood, treated and supported across every stage of life.
With a strong focus on perimenopause as a critical and under-recognised mental health transition, the conference centres practical, evidence-informed and gender-responsive approaches that can be translated directly into real-world practice and systems change.
Making the invisible visible in women’s mental health.
Keynote Speakers
- Jillian Whiting – Conference MC
- Associate Professor Caroline Gurvich – Deputy Director, HER Centre Australia
- Rosie Luik – Author, Speaker and Lived-Experience Advocate
- Sharon Sherwood – Chief of Mental Health and Cabrini Outreach, Cabrini Health
- Dr Hinemoa Elder – FRANZCP, PhD, MNZM – Kaiārahi Oranga Hinengaro. Te Hiku Hauora. Kaitāia.
- Dr Michelle Garnett PhD
- Associate Professor Magdalena Simonis AM – MBBS FRACGP DRANZCOG MHHS – Clinical Associate Professor Department of General Practice University of Melbourne
- Dr. Karen Williams – Illawarra Women’s Trauma Recovery Centre
Conference Themes
Women’s mental health across the lifespan
The HER Mind, HER Health program will be shaped around eight core themes, including:
- Perimenopause, hormones and the female brain
- When Distress Is Context, Not Pathology
- Invisible Differences, Visible Consequences
- Identity, culture and inequity
- Lived experience as authority and leadership
- Where Women Enter the System — and What Happens Next
- The mental load, burnout and invisible labour
- Rebuilding systems for women’s mental health
Together, these themes reflect the biological, psychological, social and systemic realities that shape women’s mental health, and the changes required to respond more effectively.
Details
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- Date: Monday 31 August – Tuesday 1 September 2026
- Location: JW Marriott Gold Coast Resort & Spa, 158 Ferny Ave, Surfers Paradise QLD 4217 (and Virtual)
- Register: Registrations Open
More Information
Visit the Conference website >>
[Photo sourced from HER Mind. HER Health.]
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