Kate Mikhailouskaya - Working with Childhood Memories

Name: Kate Mikhailouskaya - Working with Childhood Memories
Start: 2026-09-29T18:00:00+10:00
End: 2026-09-29T18:00:00+10:00
Location: Upstairs at Gleebooks

About

6pm for 6.30pm Tuesday 29th September

Kate Mikhailouskaya in conversation with Hugh Crago & Peter Blake

Advocating for the active exploration of childhood memories and the natural avoidance that accompanies them, this book provides a clear entryway into complex and childhood trauma work, particularly in cases where tangled histories and overwhelming symptoms make it challenging for both counsellor and client to prioritize focus areas.

Childhood history often serves as a record and a preliminary foundation for therapeutic work, yet childhood memories rarely become substantial material for ongoing exploration. This leaves childhood "ghosts" hidden, unattended, and unexplored—yet powerful drivers of psychological symptoms that keep individuals stuck and make trauma difficult to treat. To address this, Mikhailouskaya offers a trauma counselling framework built on two key pillars: working with early memories and actively engaging with the avoidance that naturally arises around them. Filled with actionable insights, strategies, and case examples, the text provides a roadmap for addressing hard-to-reach trauma cases and resolving key therapeutic dilemmas, such as balancing client choice with therapeutic expertise and navigating the tension between avoidance, clinical judgment, and the guidance needed to support recovery.

Designed to transcend any single therapeutic approach, this book is an engaging read for psychotherapists, counsellors, and mental health practitioners seeking to enhance their practice with a deeper understanding of the role memories and avoidance play in trauma recovery.

Kate Mikhailouskaya is an existential psychoanalytic psychotherapist specializing in childhood and complex trauma. Drawing on her extensive experience working with refugees, asylum seekers, and women in custody, she offers focused support and practical tools for those suffering from post-traumatic stress and other maladaptive effects of trauma. Alongside her clinical work, she develops and leads professional workshops for counsellors and psychotherapists and provides clinical supervision to practitioners supporting clients in trauma recovery, offering guidance and expertise in the complexities of childhood and complex trauma counselling.

Hugh Crago - formerly Senior Lecturer in Counselling at WSU, co-author of Safe Place for Change and The Stages of Life, Practising individual and group therapist.

Peter Blake - a clinical psychologist in Sydney and worked for the NSW Health Department in Child and Family Mental Health for 25 years, author of "Making the Conscious Unconscious" (Routledge)