About

Jo

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My story

I am a psychotherapist in private practice in Sydney Australia. My passion as a clinician is working long term with clients, enabling an understanding of family of origin, attachment issues, early childhood ruptures, trauma and unconscious processes that affect everyday function and mental health status. 

These traumas, histories and issues are the drivers for much heartache in the lives of many. Without repair they have the power to create a variety of poor emotional and mental health concerns, which usually impede a full and happy life. 

They drive people into depression, addictions, anxiety, to self-harm, into phobias, alcoholism, low self-esteem, ‘shyness’, eating disorders … the list of dysfunctions is, in fact, endless. And sadly, many of these concerns have now become mainstream and quite common.

People living with these dysfunctional behaviours daily,

 usually wonder why they cannot get traction for change … why they always seem to bounce back into old and problematic ‘habits’ or behaviours. The answer is usually because the cause stems from an unconscious position. A position that was programmed long before there was enough understanding of what was happening. When a persons’ lens was through the tiny world of an infant with little vocabulary or a small child, and less understanding of what was really going on in their family and surrounds.

My client base primarily present with long histories of treatment with various forms of emotional and psychological theraputic interventions. These treatments (include but are not restricted to, CBT, medication, support groups, hospitalisation, self-help, ECT, counselling, meditation etc) have been undertaken to enhance certain aspects of living but have not been able to provide the desired outcomes.

Psychotherapy is designed to work deeply with people to investigate the psyche, the archaic and the unconscious processes, to tap into what has happened in early life, thereby making sense of the here and now behaviours. As that happens, slowly over time, people are able to understand why they think, feel and behave as they do.

To work more deeply with clients my training has been underpinned with a framework of relational transactional analysis informed by psychoanalytic theory.

I wrote my first book, Delving Deeper: Understanding Diverse Approaches while Exploring Psychotherpay that attempts to demystify the professions working in emotional and psychological health, with a focus on understanding psychotherapy and how it differs from other modalities such as counselling, psychiatry, psychology, coaching and psychotherapy. 

With the generosity of my clients this book gives vignettes from the psychotherapy room, in the hope that taking the reader into this space they can understand more clearly what takes place in a psychotherapy session. Some of the stories include the introduction of my dog into the space, where she becomes somewhat of a celebrity.

My second book, Animals as the Third in Relational Psychotherpay: Exploring Theory, Frame and Practice

came from a publishing house reading Delving Deeper. They ask me to write about the machinations of working with a dog in the room. This book would be of much less interest to the public and more for the fraught issues, in the profession, of introducing a dog (or any external animal) into the theraputic space. This book was never more timely with advent of the coronavirus in 2019 where many practitioners began working from home and animals inadvertently began finding their way into the workspace.

As well as an author and psychotherapist I am an advocate for the psychotherapy profession.

In addition to my clinical role, I am committed to the growth and development of the profession. I constantly strive to improve ethical procedure, training, and the professionalism of practitioners in Australia.

As a result, for most of my career I have been involved at the association level. I held two roles as president over a period of six years and have been on the boards of three significant associations. My time in these roles span more than two decades.

I have spoken at both national and international conferences and am committed to the ongoing professional development of practitioners and the training of potential practitioners. 

I also assist people to find the right path for improved psychological health, guiding people into the correct stream of professional help.

 

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