I was having a conversation with my therapist the other day. He was telling me about a book he had read about the legacy of war trauma. He commented on ‘the long tail of trauma’. That language really resonated with me, both personally and professionally. Although I feel more empowered and fulfilled than ever before
For the past eight years I have developed and facilitated a ‘Recovery from Trauma ‘program for survivors of trauma. It is a psycho-educational program as well as being an interpersonal group process which is dynamic in its flavour. I am trained as a psychodynamic psychotherapist who values and makes space for the subjective interpersonal processes
I have been ‘uncoupled’ now for six years. Over these last six years, I have been on some dates, had a few casual liaisons, but essentially remained ‘uncoupled.’ I am sixty-nine years old and it is the longest I have been single in my adult life. I have been married twice, had two other significant
It’s been an especially tough six weeks ! Apart from the eternally long lockdown situation here in Melbourne exhausting us all, plus a demanding job in mental health in essential services, my normally peaceful home environment has now been disturbed into nightmarish proportions. Not only is noisy construction work going on right outside my bedroom
Leila Abduallah, the mother who tragically lost her children when a drugged driver mounted the footpath and ran over her three children and their cousin early last year, has recently been awarded the Mother of the Year award. One can only imagine her grief and that of her family. Much has been made of her
A common theme in my clinical work as a psychotherapist over 33 years, is how people struggle with managing difficult emotions. We are rarely taught how to be with our emotional pain and suffering. Given that Life tends to serve up its fair share of disappointments, tragedies and plain old ‘unfairness’, it is helpful to
I realised the other day that it has been five years since I separated from a significant intimate relationship and that I have been ‘single’ for that length of time. It also dawned upon me that this was the longest period in my adult life that I had not had a boyfriend of one kind
I am reading a book currently, called ‘ Fight like a Girl ‘ a memoir by Clementine Ford. She quotes a woman called Caitlin Moran who suggests the following exercise ….. Put your hand in your pants. Do you have a vagina ? and Do you want to be in charge of it? If you
I meet so many people who say to me “I never expected my life to turn out this way”. Whether it be, they thought they would be married by 30, have everything sorted by 40, dealing with broken relationships, broken hearts, suffering from wayward children, illness or an accident and so the list goes on.
What does it mean to be courageous? Some words the dictionary uses are brave, bold, daring, gallant, gritty, mettle, nerve, lion-hearted and valiant. I have been planning to write about courage for some time. However, I seem to keep putting it off. Perhaps I am trying to find the courage to write about courage. In
Professionally I have 33 years experience as a Clinician, Lecturer, Group Facilitator, Educator and Supervisor in Education, Social Services and Mental Health. I currently live in Melbourne, Australia and work in Mental Health. I have a particular interest in supporting and empowering women and men to be all they can be, by assisting the discovery of tools that help them find strength to transform difficulties into opportunities, enriching their lives both personally and professionally. I am a New Zealand Registered Psychotherapist with PBANZ, member of the New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists and have a Masters of Health Science (Psychotherapy) First Class Honours. My research thesis was about the long term consequences of intimate partner violence for women. I am influenced and informed by both my professional experiences and my own personal journey, which has involved many challenges and celebrations along the way.