My name is Siobhan Reddel.
I have 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. I also have a Masters in International Mental Health from Melbourne University and a Masters in Applied Epidemiology from the Australian National University and the Burnet Institute.
I'm a specialised General Practitioner (a fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners) and qualified in Somatic Experiencing™. In addition I've trained in clinical hypnosis, gestalt, neo-shamanic journeying and various other psycho-spiritual therapeutic techniques.
Having travelled extensively before, between and after studies, I've also worked in 10 countries, often as a volunteer, and mostly in medicine and/or epidemiology, but have had a fair number of hospitality and other jobs too.
In retrospect I was dissociating from an early age, and certainly struggled with identity issues from pre-adolescence. The first major crisis was an episode of Anorexia Nervosa in my teens when living in Hong Kong. With help I managed to resolve that one but the second one a couple of years later led me to drop out of the medical component of my Arts-Med degree and spend time with the philosphers to try and understand who I was and what had taken me there. (I wrote this article about the experience when I was 21.) But it was also at this point that I started dabbling in supportive somatic practices that I now advocate as part of the healing journey.
Ultimately I gained enough resilience to go back to Medicine as a graduate, and on completion 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, whilst I was completing my MIMH, I decided on General Practice.
Ultimately I gained enough resilience to go back to Medicine as a graduate, and on completion 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, whilst I was completing my MIMH, I decided on General Practice.
Once specialised as a GP I left Australia again, but one night on a rooftop in Pakistan I wondered just how I had got there and who I really was (I was managing the medical aspects of a small hospital near the Afghanistan border at the time, which can be read about here). And facing that led me back to Melbourne where I was born. Certainly I was still looking for cognitive answers then, and embarking on my epidemiology training, but I had a memory of the things I had done to recover from Anorexia and finding 'home' re-started the process of embodiment, aka the path to healing.
One aspect of my epidemiology training focussed on the issues surrounding over-prescription of certain medications. This degree also reinforced my mounting 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 I learnt in my MIMH, many skills and ideas for alternative interpretations of illness, and forms of treatments, I had already gleaned from working with indigenous groups around the world and in various parts of Australia.
One aspect of my epidemiology training focussed on the issues surrounding over-prescription of certain medications. This degree also reinforced my mounting 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 I learnt in my MIMH, many skills and ideas for alternative interpretations of illness, and forms of treatments, I had already gleaned from working with indigenous groups around the world and in various parts of Australia.
For example I had learnt ‘deep-listening’ skills from both Yolngu people in Arnhem Land and Bedouin in the Middle East. (I.e what is the body saying and is it in accord with what the mouth is saying?) With Adivasi in India, I had learnt to regulate moods with rhythmic dance, and from a Pakistani doctor and an tribal elder from Kala Dhaka, I witnessed that you could sing away pain.
Whilst I found many answers in my travels, there was also often neuro-emotional overwhelm, as I seem to have had the knack of being caught in emotively charged situations where the only decent way through was to stick it out and recover later. One of the most challenging of these was being asked (as a volunteer) to help manage and bury a couple of thousand rotting corpses after Typhoon Haiyan in the Phillipines (which can be read about here).
However I have faced 'positive' overwhelm too, which led me to a very important understanding in my journey as well as my work, in that it is just charge - the body can't and doesn't discriminate - which means if it isn't processed in real time it will be stored until it is processed, or causes dis-ease.
And given my adventures only served to increase my physical sensitivity (I have mirror neuron synaesthesia and, prior to finding a solution, had marked and sometimes extreme physical responses to energetic 'exchange') at some point I realised that my old myriad of coping strategies were no longer sufficient and sooner or later I was going to get irreversibly sick. So I changed tack and started to use the techniques I had already learnt, as well as those I would go on to learn and develop, to not only process these situations but also use the inherent charge within them to resolve unprocessed emotions and deeper cracks so I could be healthily present in the "real" world.
However I have faced 'positive' overwhelm too, which led me to a very important understanding in my journey as well as my work, in that it is just charge - the body can't and doesn't discriminate - which means if it isn't processed in real time it will be stored until it is processed, or causes dis-ease.
And given my adventures only served to increase my physical sensitivity (I have mirror neuron synaesthesia and, prior to finding a solution, had marked and sometimes extreme physical responses to energetic 'exchange') at some point I realised that my old myriad of coping strategies were no longer sufficient and sooner or later I was going to get irreversibly sick. So I changed tack and started to use the techniques I had already learnt, as well as those I would go on to learn and develop, to not only process these situations but also use the inherent charge within them to resolve unprocessed emotions and deeper cracks so I could be healthily present in the "real" world.
To reassure my brain about what was going on, with a fellow epidemiologist I co-wrote a paper to model and understand electro-magnetic sensitivity and potential consequences of living in an increasingly charged electromagnetic environment. Development of my method was also supported by working in an array of practices including in Alcohol and Other Drug, HIV/Sexual, Forensics, Custodial, Homeless, Remote and Adolescent health settings. The approach was refined at Budja Budja Aboriginal Cooperative in Halls Gap in the Victorian Grampians/Gariwerd, as well as in clinics in East Melbourne/Narrm and Albert Park/Yalukit-Willam land. And eventually, with the help of some fellow North Amercian-based shamans, I came up with a solution to create 'space in between' self and other, in response to the concerns highlighted in the paper.
These days my gut and I are great friends and we maintain various regulating practices such as yoga, dancing, singing, gardening and lying about in daisy and clover patches. And with a nephew I wrote The Kookabuura that Could, a children's book that synthesises much of my journey.
These days my gut and I are great friends and we maintain various regulating practices such as yoga, dancing, singing, gardening and lying about in daisy and clover patches. And with a nephew I wrote The Kookabuura that Could, a children's book that synthesises much of my journey.