Professor Gill Straker is a clinical professor at the University of Sydney as well as being a consultant to Encompass Australasia.
She has worked extensively in the area of trauma and has especially focused on the effects of torture and displacement in the context of civil strife. She has published widely in this area and worked with field workers connected with Save the Children and The United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
She has also worked both theoretically and experientially on issues pertaining to forgiveness and has published work in this area including on South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Most of her adult life was spent in South Africa where she was Head of the Division of Applied Psychology at the University of the Witwatersrand.
She established treatment and facilitation services for those involved in the anti-apartheid struggle.
Her book 'Faces in the Revolution', which was nominated for a Noma award, follows the lives of a group of township activists involved in the liberation movement over a period of ten years. This study, with its focus on trauma and attachment, continues to inform her clinical work
Professor Straker currently maintains a private clinical and supervisory practice in Sydney. She teaches on a number of Psychotherapy programmes both nationally and internationally. She is currently researching the articulation of trauma, attachment, and unconscious fantasy on the genesis and treatment of 'personality disorders'. She has published extensively on a wdie range of topics and the following papers have been published in her capacity as consultant to Encompass:
- Straker,G,Watson,D,& Robinson,T(2002) Trauma and Disconnection. International Journal of Psychotherapy,7,145-158
- Straker,G.(2003) Dream for a Time of War. .Journal New Zealand Association of PsychotherapistS,27-40
- Moosa,F, Straker,G & Eagle,G. Forgiveness in the Context of Political Trauma.In S.Ransley & T Spy (Ed). Forgiveness in a Changing Age
- Louw,F & Straker,G.(2002) Borderline Pathology;An integration of Cognitive Therapy and Psychodynamic Therapy. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration,12,2,190-217
PO Box 415 Croydon Park NSW 2133 Australia Tel: +61 2 97165602 Fax: +61 2 97165605
enquiries@encomp.org.au
