Professional work

As (Dr) Ann Penhallurick, I'm a practising psychologist and experienced speech, language pathologist. Much of my work life has been spent with people living with disability and with people who live in marginalised communities. Each and every human is part of a dynamic, interactive, influential system. Working with families, with people in groups, in communities is important. My clinical workplace is likely to be in a cafe, out on the streets, in a family home, in the back yard of a congregate care facility – real life situations. I've also spent considerable time in a number of NSW Correctional facilities, including Long Bay, Lithgow and Goulburn 'Max".

I'm privileged with having been able to do a small heap of degrees. These include a masters degree analysing the gendering of women/female roles in film through their speech and language, another M.A. in Writing (by thesis) from UTS, and a PhD also from UTS. My PhD examines how people with disability, particularly cognitive impairments, have been positioned in and affected by two of the most influential Enlightenment paradigms – John Locke's 'mind-first' Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Charles Darwin's biology-based, Descent of Man.

In undertaking training in narrative therapy, in bringing some of the above influences together, I've seen the power of creative writing as 'therapy'. Imagining and creating a fictional narrative enables us to step out of a particular moment, to see a 'bigger picture', to become more aware of cause and effect, action and reaction, consequence and so on. Fictional narratives can be metaphors for our own lives. Writing these lives gives us a sense of possibility and control. In writing fiction we can interrogate and develop our own solutions to some of life's difficulties.

My professional work has been and continues to be a privilege. I've been allowed a little way into the lives of so many diverse individuals, families and communities. Sometimes what I hear, see, experience can be heart-breaking, more often it it both enlightening, glimmering with the hope, with humour, enjoyment of life that people retain even in the most difficult of circumstances. My work is very much part of who I am and how I see the world.

My professional work very much influences my writing and the writing workshops I present.