Speakers
We are honoured to welcome an eclectic group of wonderful speakers to our upcoming event. They offer insight from their work both locally and internationally, from a variety of psychoanalytic frameworks, and from their experiences treating people from all walks of life. More voices will be added soon.
dr claudia luiz
A frequent contributor to US news and radio shows, Dr. Claudia Luiz a clinical psychoanalyst and the first-place winner of the Phyllis Meadow Award for Excellence in Psychoanalytic Writing; a 2008 Writer’s Digest Award; and is an NAAP 2019 Gradiva Award nominee. Her book, “The Making of a Psychoanalyst” (Routledge, 2018) was reviewed in the Journal of Modern Psychoanalysis (2019) as “arguably the best lay book written on modern psychoanalysis.” New Books in Psychoanalysis writes, “she is poised to create a seismic shift in consciousness.” Dr. Luiz is visiting faculty at the Academy for Clinical and Applied Psychoanalysis, and a training analyst for the Center for Modern psychoanalytic Studies in NYC and the Boston Center for Modern psychoanalytic Studies in MA. Visit www.claudialuiz.com to read more about accessing the unconscious, or find her on Instagram. Claudia will be joining us via video.
Michael Gerard Plastow
Michael Gerard Plastow is a Melbourne psychoanalyst (Analyst of the School, The Freudian School of Melbourne, School of Lacanian Psychoanalysis) and child psychiatrist. He is the author of What is a Child?: Childhood, Psychoanalysis, and Discourse (Karnac, 2015), and Sabina Spielrein and the Poetry of Psychoanalysis: Writing and the End of Analysis (Routledge, 2019). He has translated Lacan’s seminar The Knowledge of the Psychoanalyst into English in a bilingual edition (non-commercial publication of Éditions de l’Association Lacanienne Internationale, 2013), and has translated Christian Fierens’ book The Soul of Narcissism (Routledge, 2019), and together with Christiane Weller, he is co-editor and co-translator of Collected Psychoanalytic Works of Sabina Spielrein, (in press with Routledge).
Debbie Plastow
Debbie Plastow is an Analyst Member of the Freudian School of Melbourne, School of Lacanian Psychoanalysis. Debbie works in private practice and at Booboop Narrkwarren Nagarra-jarra-noun (Statewide Child and Family Healing Centre), Austin Health ICYMHS.
Dr Mendy Neralic
Mendy works as a clinical psychologist in private practice, taking an eclectic interest in various traditions and approaches. Her approach is alchemical, dialogical and co-creative, blending from an apothecary that ranges from the staid to the esoteric. She actively explores how de-identification as “therapist” transforms how therapy is conducted and experienced. She is playing with notions of therapists as catalysts, bridges or guides over experts. Mendy’s current project is to shift the culture for girls and women by reintroducing the archetypal processes of Initiation and Rites of Passage. She also teaches workshops, writes courses and has a Substack.
Dr Mikaela Grayson
Dr Mikaela Grayson is an early career Clinical Psychologist and Director of a multidisciplinary practice, Sage Psychology and Assessment in Gladstone, QLD. She’s newly exploring relational psychodynamic therapy, a stance that’s shaping how she connects with clients—valuing the therapeutic relationship and the shared space it creates. Mikaela is passionate about offering authentic, inclusive, and sustainable care, especially in regional communities. Mikaela brings curiosity, reflection, and heart to her work, and is excited to contribute to conversations that support ethical and meaningful clinical practice, particularly within regional and rural settings.
Ray Sewak
Ray Sewak is an Occupational Therapist working in community mental health in Brisbane, with a focus on the treatment of psychosis. He is particularly engaged with the works of Willy Apollon, Lucie Cantin, Danielle Bergeron, and the GIFRIC school in Québec. His clinical and theoretical interests include the ethics of treatment in psychosis, and GIFRIC’s concepts of adolescence and femininity. Ray is questioning how to start a private practice that is focused on mondialisation, the subject and their singular quest, and the elaboration of the unsayable for the stakes of humanity.
Mariela Astorga
Mariela Astorga is a psychoanalyst based in Brisbane. She studied psychology and clinical psychology in Argentina, where she also began her training as a psychoanalyst. She has worked in paediatric hospitals in both Argentina and Australia, developing broad clinical experience. Currently, she works in private practice with children, adolescents, and adults, and teaches psychoanalysis in Brisbane. Her work is grounded in a Lacanian orientation, and she is committed to fostering psychoanalytic thought and practice in Australia.
Myles Medwell
Myles is a Clinical Psychologist whose practice is grounded in Lacanian and Freudian psychoanalysis. His work turns on the ways symptoms, fantasies, and diagnostic categories can both conceal and reveal the structure of a subject’s suffering. Clinically, he is particularly interested in the phenomena of conversion, the function of fantasy, and the place of diagnosis in psychoanalysis.
Myles maintains a private practice in Melbourne and convenes a peer reading group in psychoanalysis. He is actively engaged at the Freudian School of Melbourne through seminars, supervision, and ongoing training. His current orientation is shaped by an interest in anti-philosophy and the limits of knowledge in the analytic experience.
Julian Browne
Julian Browne is a psychologist in private practice in Melbourne. He is an Analyst in Formation with the Freudian School of Melbourne, School of Lacanian Psychoanalysis. His clinic work is primarily psychoanalytic, but his practice also includes consultation and training across a range of sectors on borderline personality disorder, complexity and risk.
Kate O’Connor
Kate O’Connor is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, clinical psychologist, writer and speaker based in Brisbane. She works in private practice offering therapy and supervision. She has a particular interest in how psychoanalytic concepts can be useful in business and everyday life. Kate has been a regular presenter at the Queensland Psychoanalytically Oriented Psychology Interest Group, speaking on topics like love, agency and the presence of the body in the therapy room.
Kate also writes a Substack newsletter called The Psychoalchemist, which explores the intersection of psychoanalysis, clinical psychology and concepts of magic and self-initiation. She is on the organising committee for the Brisbane Psychoanalytic Congress.
Rachael Burton
Rachael Burton is a Psychologist and Supervisor who holds a Masters in Research Psychology. She runs a private practice in Burleigh Heads, Queensland where she sees individuals, supervisees, facilitates a process group, as well as a training group for therapists and teaches on Psychoanalysis. She cohosts the podcast Three Associating: Adventures in Relational Psychoanalytic Supervision alongside Professor Gill Straker and Dr Andrew Geeves, which was nominated for the NAAP Gradiva award in 2023, and has had over 250,000 listens across more than 150 countries worldwide. She is currently a student via distance learning with The Centre for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies in NY.