MissThea Baker

My PhD research, which seeks to bring together the worlds of physical activity and mental health in supporting victim-survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) / intimate partner violence (IPV) was borne from a desire to find evidence-based ways of seeing trauma 'therapy' a little differently. My professional expertise as an accredited clinical counsellor and somatic psychotherapist with a special interest in trauma is at the core of my research. As a therapist I work at the fascinating (and often frustrating) intersection of women's health and trauma, supporting women who have a range of complex mental and physical health challenges. Trauma - diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or complex-post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD), or sub-clinically as related to attachment trauma or in the context of abusive relationships - is a multifaceted and highly inter-related field. The research I am excited to be conducting recognises the importance of working with the 'whole' person when working with the effects of trauma which show up as a constellation of physical, physiological, psychological, emotional and social challenges, complaints and symptoms.

I am a trauma-focused somatic psychotherapist and I am an accredited practitioner of Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), a gold-standard treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and am trained in other evidence-based trauma therapies including Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT-C), Internal Family Systems (IFS), Compassionate Inquiry (CI) and somatic psychotherapies. I have worked in private practice for over eight years and within community-based settings prior to that, including some volunteer work on the support phone line at the Women's Information and Referral Exchange (WIRE) service in Melbourne. Having an appreciation of how modalities translate from research settings into the real-world has helped inform an implementation-science approach to my PhD research - I am driven by the desire to support more women in their recovery from GBV.

During the second year of my PhD I am one of the three HDR Student Coordinators within the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN) supporting HDR students to have full and complete PhD experiences at Deakin. This has involved regular liaison with the School HDR Director Associate Head of School, Research and with other HDR Representatives at Deakin. We organise tailored seminars aimed to support the varied interests of HDR students and a range of social events to foster a sense of HDR community and connection between the different schools and campuses.

I believe in working in collaboratively and have enjoyed working with other HDR students in their research endeavours, including supporting them in reviews, providing feedback in practice confirmation of candidature sessions and working within different teams within IPAN.