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Dr Johanna Lynch

PhD MBBS Grad Cert (Health Sciences) FRACGP FASPM

Dr Johanna Lynch is an Australian GP (family doctor) of 25 years’ experience who has spent the last 15 years developing innovative clinical approaches to those who have survived childhood trauma and neglect and applying that to whole person, whole family and whole community approaches to health. Her PhD, entitled ‘Sense of Safety: a whole person approach to distress’ integrated clinical insights with international research and local stakeholder feedback to develop a new way to approach distress in primary care.


Johanna sees a direct link between her years as a general practitioner, her life as a researcher, and her work advocating for complex whole person care as President of the Australian Society for Psychological Medicine. As someone who sees curiosity and awe as lifelong habits, Johanna's work is filled with the voices of her patients and collaborators across the disciplines. It is their practical wisdom that has given her the bravery to work towards generalist approaches that care for the whole person.

Dr Johanna Lynch
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The Sense of Safety Project acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land now called Australia and those First Nations peoples in the USA, Norway, and Canada, where our researchers are located. We pay our respect to their Elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge the lands now called Australia were never ceded and recognise their people’s continuation of culture and connection to land, sky and sea. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as Australia’s First Peoples and honour the rich diversity of the world’s oldest living culture and knowledge systems that protect a whole understanding of health as linked to kin, country and spirit.

We also acknowledge the support from the University of Queensland for the doctoral research cited in this work.

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