Germaine is a Sydney-based psychotherapist and counsellor with a particular interest in navigating life transitions and developmental stages. With a lifelong love of reading – perhaps the closest we can get to experiencing the consciousness of another – Germaine became even more curious about understanding the lives of others through the art of psychotherapy.
Germaine noticed when working long-term with people who had experienced complex trauma for a non-government organisation, while also offering sessions as the resident Bibliotherapist with Alain de Botton’s School of Life in Sydney, that people would often seek out a therapeutic conversation when they encountered a life change or began a new life stage.
This curiosity about our inner worlds – whether accessed through reading or talking – has led Germaine to deepen her practice through psychoanalytic training. Understanding the unconscious patterns that contribute to making us who we are offers freedom to become more fully alive.
Germaine offers both short and long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy as well as counselling. She is registered at the Clinical level with the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA) and currently training to become a psychoanalyst with the Australian Psychoanalytical Society (APAS). Germaine is also a Victims Services approved counsellor.
In 2021, Germaine became an Australia Reads Ambassador and described what reading meant to her:
“There is always more to be discovered about ourselves in the stories we read. Reading has allowed me to find fragments of myself in so many books and characters. Where would we be without writers who invite us to walk alongside them? For me, reading is a reminder that we never need be lonely if we have a book in our hands. It is also a reminder that the writers and poets don’t have the answers either.”
Contact
Free parking is available in the Alexander St Council Carpark and St Leonards station is a 15 minute walk.