Dr Linda MacKay has extensive experience as a clinician, trainer and clinical supervisor in working with individuals, couples and families. She has a particular specialty in clinical work with those who have suffered severe trauma.

Prior to returning to her home city of Sydney to join The Family Systems Institute, Linda managed a specialist multi-disciplinary team working with grief and trauma based in rural and remote North-West Tasmania. Undertaking clinical work and research with a highly traumatized population, Linda’s PhD in Critical Psychology through the University of Western Sydney, focused on what makes for healing after overwhelming life events where the common sequelae from such events include dissociation, self-harm, suicidality, depression and extreme anxiety. She continues to present her work nationally and internationally and is publishing her first book “The Making of a Viable Life” (in press) in 2010. As a result of her work and research into trauma, Linda is currently an Executive Member of the Australasian Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.

Linda’s earlier clinical life, based in NSW, focused on working with individuals, couples and families, particularly those experiencing domestic violence. She was a facilitator and supervisor of programs for perpetrators of domestic violence for a number of years. Linda has also taught extensively in her role as Convener and Trainer for the Graduate Diploma in Family Therapy within the Australian Institute for Relationships Studies (AIRS), an arm of Relationships Australia.

Both personally and professionally, Linda has been greatly influenced by Murray Bowen’s ideas and has undergone extensive Family of Origin coaching. She began developing training workshops in Bowen Theory in the mid 1990s and is committed to exploring the challenges of keeping a systems view in relation to abuse and trauma in families.