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It felt particularly important that the thirty-third IAFP conference was able to be hosted in Sydney. Being able to hold the conference in this part of the world has long been an ambition which was wonderful to realise this year. This location provided opportunities for forensic psychotherapists and other colleagues working in the field who might not otherwise attend due to distance, to participate in the conference. For regular IAFP conference attendees who were able to travel to Sydney, there was an opportunity to enjoy the beautiful city, the company, and graceful hospitality of colleagues as well as hear about the exciting work taking place in Australia and New Zealand. Interestingly, within this new venue, the focus of the conference was on location, in the sense of considering the disturbance in violent offending, whether it is located in self, system, or society.
The first day, on Thursday 22 May, was the pre-conference event. Daniel Riordan, conference chair and lead organiser opened the event with a statement acknowledging Australia's indigenous peoples and their ancestral ownership of the land:
I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the lands on which we meet today, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. And acknowledge their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respect to the people, the cultures and Elders past and present.
Sarah Stevenson, clinical psychologist, senior research Fellow and child and youth co-ordinator with Project Air Strategy delivered a presentation entitled “Introduction to personality disorder and offending”. The depth and breadth of Sarah's multi-faceted exposition of personality disorder diagnoses and risk within forensic settings was remarkable. All the more so because the theoretical and clinical contexts were brought to life through an engaging case example, “Reggie”. This set the conference off on a very sound platform in terms of the interface between clinical evidence and bes