About Us
Our editorial committee is a democratic group consisting of students, academics and psychologists in the field from multiple generations and differing backgrounds. All of our contents is culturally accountable, reviewed for acceptability by First Nations community members from Baabayn Aboriginal Corporation. Further review is conducted for special issues with representatives with lived experience related to the issues theme.
Paul Rhodes
Editor-in-Chief
Theoretical Editor
I am an academic in clinical psychology at The University of Sydney who teaches and conducts research in family and community psychology. I have been particularly interested to challenge the idea that clinical psychology must just focus on the individual or on rational/internal processes when relationships, belonging, culture, politics and place are all equally important.
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There are a host of therapeutic practices, outside and within our field, in each of these domains, that can bring solace and healing. I accept that psychology is an industry, but also want to make room for poetry, art, story and philosophy as humanising forces in our lives and those of our clients.
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I love the quote by Jaan Valsiner that “the discipline (of psychology) is guilty of crimes against humanism in the building of a science.” That is not to say that science is bad, in fact it has brought about great gains and accountability for therapists, but we most also make room for everything else.
Sahra O’Doherty
Practice Editor
I am a psychologist, a feminist, a practice owner, and a person passionate about equality and justice. I grew up in a family of socially conscious activists, and in my professional life, I have seen how marginalised people have been affected systemically in our society when accessing support for mental health and other issues. In my practice, I incorporate the value of activism into therapy, helping people find their spark and igniting it with them to make a change in their worlds.
Within my profession, I advocate for equity and fairness, where often the psychology field, as it attempts to be part of the medical world, can have elements of elitism and exclusivity.
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I believe healing comes from embracing our authenticity and difference, building meaningful connections, and challenging apathy towards the status quo. Just because I accept something is as it is, doesn’t mean I’m ok with it. And if I can raise my voice, alongside the voices of my peers, I believe we can make a change.
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I live and work on the lands of the Gadigal and Wangal peoples of the Eora nation
Ruth Wells
Mentoring and Peer Review Coordinator
Ruth is an ardent feminist. She sees feminism as a path to challenging many forms of marginalisation and likes jumping up and down about these kinds of things. When she is not jumping up and down, she thinks maybe it’s a good idea to sit and think about how whiteness and privilege have shaped her life, and listen to others.
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She is a gender queer fem human who loves playing music. She is also a psychologist and research fellow in the School of Psychiatry at UNSW, where she is always learning through community based participatory action research with refugee communities. Her current projects include exploring embodied experiences of disability in Syrian and Iraqi refugee communities in Sydney from a lived experience perspective through arts based research; a group based online mentoring program to support Syrian refugee community psychosocial workers in Turkey; developing an online group intervention to promote inclusion in physical activity for Syrian refugees in Turkey; understanding how gender impacts on access to social inclusion and physical activity in Rohingya refugee communities in Bangladesh.
She has a passion for standing up for the rights and health of displaced psychosocial staff and volunteers working within their own refugee communities.
Miranda Cashin
Creative and Website Editor
Miranda Cashin is a former entertainment journalist who, after illness and multiple surgeries, decided she wanted to pursue a different path that had less to do with Kim Kardashian’s buttocks.
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She is currently a provisional psychologist in her second year of the combined Clinical Masters/PhD at the University of Sydney. Her research examines the process of adaptation to an amputation and the embodied experience of disability.
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Her desire is to channel the experience and insights she has gained into helping others move through difficult times, and in addition to her clinical work, does this through motivational speaking, story telling, spoken word poetry and running presentations on Self-Care and Wellness.
She believes that beauty, joy and happiness are in the little things, the small moments and life is a series of small moments strung together. The little things that bring her joy are books, chai and being on a yoga high.
Ruth Nelson
Community Voices Editor
I am a clinical psychologist who has been described more than once as an "angry woman."
A settler of English/Irish descent, I am privileged to work on Dharug land with First Nations Peoples. Together, we are exploring ways to bring about healing from and justice for intergenerational trauma and the ongoing impacts of colonisation.
Building the skills of grounded hope, those which let us join together and resist inaction on climate change, is a key passion of mine. I experience enormous climate anxiety and believe that collective action is the only way to protect against despair and to create a sustainable and worthwhile future.
I consider myself to be both a storyteller and a holder of other people's stories. I believe that we are made of stories and that in coming together to share and bear witness to each other, in a multitude of ways, we find healing for ourselves, our communities and our Earth.
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I live and work on Bidjigal land.
Max Loomes
Ideas that Changed Me Editor
Max Loomes is an aspiring clinical psychologist, academic and science communicator. His attitude towards social injustice leads him to follow many activist positions in his spare time.
