Biographical Notes

Amanda Dowd (ANZSJA, IAAP) is a Jungian Analyst and psychoanalytic psychotherapist who trained with the Australia and New Zealand Society of Jungian Analysts. She has a private psychotherapy and supervision practice in Sydney, Australia. She has particular interests in the formation of self, mind, identity, cultural identity and trauma. Her current work includes an exploration of the traumatic effects of migration for both individual and culture and the interrelationships between psyche and place.

Elisabeth Hanscombe is a writer and psychoanalytic psychologist who is currently undertaking a PhD in the Unit for Biography and Autobiography at La Trobe University, Melbourne in Australia on the topic ‘Theories of Autobiography: Life writing and the desire for revenge’. She is interested in the ways in which Psychoanalytic Object Relations theory intersects with that of narrative and the auto/biographical. She has published a number of short stories and essays in the areas of autobiography, psychoanalysis, testimony, trauma and creative non-fiction in Meanjin, Island, Tirra Lirra and Quadrant, as well as in the journal, Life Writing and in psychotherapy journals and magazines throughout Australia and in the US. She was short listed for the Australian Book Review’s 2009 Calibre essay prize. 

Toni Heron is an Occupational Therapist/Child Psychotherapist working in the Take Two Intensive Therapeutic Service as part of Berry Street in Melbourne. She is the current President of the PPAA, on the Executive for the Victorian Child Psychotherapists Association and a member of Australian Association of Infant Mental Health.

Ken Israelstam is a training anyalyst and member of the Australian Psychoanalytic Society, and a member of the International Psychoanalytic Society. He works in full-time private practice in Sydney.

Penny Jools is a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist in private practice. She was one of the founding partners of ‘Calliope’ a private psychotherapy clinic with a child and family focus located in inner Sydney. She has been a member of the NSW Institute of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy for nearly 20 years. She is a past president of the NSW Institute of Family Psychotherapy. Her Ph.D. was in the area of child development. She has a passionate interest in art and literature.

Dr Eugen Koh is a Consultant Psychiatrist and Director of Psychotherapy Training at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, and a psychoanalytic psychotherapist in private practice. He is the Director/Chief Curator of the Cunningham Dax Collection and Senior Lecturer in Art and Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne. He also lectures at the Victorian College of the Arts and has an active art practice as a painter.

Andrew Leggett is a Brisbane psychiatrist, psychoanalytic psychotherapist, and writer. He is employed by Queensland Health as Director of Clinical Training within the Medical Education Unit at the Princess Alexandra Hospital.  He is Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry within the School of Medicine at the University of Queensland, the current chairman of the Queensland branch RANZCP Section for Psychotherapy committee and the current editor of the Australasian Journal of Psychotherapy.

Ian McFarlane is the author of three novels and a collection of stories, essays and poems. He is the Contributing Editor of Voice, a quarterly journal of comment and review, and reviews books on a regular basis for The Canberra Times. He lives near Bermagui on the far south coast of NSW.

Annette McInerney worked at Calliope Child and Family Clinic in Annandale and at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead before her retirement in 2008 due to ill-health. She was originally a social worker and trained as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist with the NSW Institute of Psychotherapy, working as a child, adult and family therapist in for many years. Annette has a special interest in the mental health of children and families affected by infertility, adoption and foster care. She originally worked in foster care and adoption and was a founding member of the staff of the Alternate Care Clinic, a mental health clinic for children in care, at Westmead Hospital in Sydney. She was a consultant and supervisor to various child care agencies over many years. Annette coordinated the Course in Emotional and Behavioural Problems of Childhood at the NSW Institute of Psychiatry for some years. She was a founding member of the NSW Institute of Family Psychotherapy and remains a member of the Ethics Committee of Sydney IVF.

Don Meadows, formerly a psychodynamic psychotherapist and an editor of this journal, is now semi-retired. He continues to work part time as a consultant and does occasional teaching.

Michael G. Plastow is a psychoanalyst in private practice in Melbourne. He underwent his psychoanalytic formation in The Freudian School of Melbourne, School of Lacanian Psychoanalysis, in which he is an Analyst of the School. He is also a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at the Alfred Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service. In this context he has an ongoing interest in elaborating the relation between psychoanalysis and psychiatry, including of public institutions. One of his current interests and areas of investigation is the effect of the discourse of economics upon the clinical space. He also has a longstanding interest in question of the transcriptions and translation in relation to Lacan and has produced a translation of Lacan’s seminar The Knowledge of the Psychoanalyst. In addition he is a co-convenor of an ongoing seminar on Psychoanalysis and the Child.

Antoinette Ryan is a Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist working in private practice in Melbourne. She is currently Chair of the VAPP Membership Committee and the VAPP Introductory Course Committee. She also served on the VAPP Training Committee for several years.

Dr Paul Schimmel is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and member of the Australian Psycho-analytical Society. Originally from New Zealand, he is currently living and working in Sydney. 

Jan Williams is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist in private practice, working with individuals and couples and families. She trained with, and is a member of the NSW Institute of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy.

Sally Young is Principal Social Worker at Mater Child and Youth Mental Health Service and is in private practice. She is President of the Queensland Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Association. She is a member of the management committee of Brisbane Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies.