Bio

Siobhan Reddel has a Bachelor of Arts with majors in Linguistics and Philosophy (Hons/University Medal) and a Bachelor of Medicine/Surgery (Hons) from the University of Sydney. She also has a Masters in International Mental Health from Melbourne University and a Masters in Applied Epidemiology from the Australian National University and the Burnet Institute.

She is a specialised General Practitioner (a fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners) and qualified in Somatic Experiencing™. In addition she has training in clinical hypnosis, gestalt, neo-shamanic journeying and various other psycho-spiritual therapeutic techniques.

Having travelled extensively before, between and after studies, Siobhan has also worked in 10 countries, often as a volunteer, and mostly in medicine and/or epidemiology.

On finishing her Arts degree and then completing Medicine as a graduate, Siobhan spent time working as an Emergency doctor and also exploring other specialties including Surgery and Psychiatry. However after some medical volunteering in the Middle East she decided on General Practice. Once specialised, she left Australia again, but was lured back from Pakistan to Melbourne (where she was born) to complete her epidemiology field placements in 2010. Here she found home.

Amongst other projects, Siobhan’s epidemiology training focussed on the issues surrounding over-prescription of certain medications. This degree also reinforced her concerns on the limitations of Western medical evidence, and the issues of diagnosing and treating all conditions in reductionistic bio-mechanical and/or cognitive ways.

On the other hand, besides what she learnt in her MIMH, many skills and ideas for alternative interpretations of illness, and forms of treatments, she gleaned from working with indigenous groups around the world and in various parts of Australia.

For example, Siobhan learnt ‘deep-listening’ skills from the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land (which in ways resembles the Somatic Experiencing training she commenced 15 years later). With Adivasi in India, she learnt to regulate moods with rhythmic dance, and from a Pakistani doctor and an elder from Kala Dhaka, she witnessed that one could sing away pain (you can read more about her time in Pakistan here).

Besides early influences, and the challenges of studying and practicing modern medicine, what also seems to have increased Siobhan’s sensitivity (she has 'mirror neuron synaesthesia'), and marked somatic responsiveness, is her knack for sometimes just being in a place at a particularly emotively charged time.
Significant and influential experiences have included:

Hong Kong being ‘home’ during the last decade of colonial rule
Volunteering in the Gaza Strip during the 2005 Sonic bombing as well as the Israeli disengagement from there
Volunteering in late 2013/early 2014 in Tacloban (The Philippines) post Typhoon Yolanda (when she was asked to manage the mass burial of around 2000 bodies, which can be read about here)
Being the senior doctor on duty at the Melbourne Metropolitan Remand Centre when the smoking cessation riot occurred in 2015 (and responsible for much of the medical mop-up of that).

At some point Siobhan decided to stop putting up walls when potentially overwhelmed by these and other experiences, and instead use the skills she had acquired to not only face the emotively charged situations and/or the histories she heard, but to use the charge in these to grow and resolve deeper wounds, as well as to assist others to do the same.

Development of her method followed in the 2010s, with supportive practice in Alcohol and other drug, HIV/Sexual, Forensics, Custodial, Homeless and Adolescent health settings. The approach has been refined at Budja Budja Aboriginal Cooperative in Halls Gap in the Victorian Grampians/Gariwerd over a number of years, as well as in clinics in East Melbourne/Narrm and Albert Park/Yalukit-Willam land.

Siobhan is dedicated to her own personal therapeutic work, which constantly evolves alongside her work with clients. Her experiences with overcoming and healing her own intergenerational trauma and dissociative disorder have contributed to her professional development. The breadth and depth of her personal and professional experience translate into her capacity as a practitioner, so she’s comfortable to work with whatever comes.

She also practices what she teaches: is friends with her gut, does regular mind-body activities (dancing, singing, yoga, gardening and lying about in daisy patches) and throwing ideas and humour around with friends and other loved ones. And she’s written a children’s book that synthesises much of her experience.