About Me

I was born in 1938 just before the Holocaust which I survived with my parents in Hungary. That early experience led to my interest in the workings of the mind and in traumatology.

I have worked as a psychiatrist and psychotherapist for 35 years, and as a liaison psychiatrist in the emergency department of major hospitals for 20 years. I was among the first traumatologists in Australia and cofounded the Australasian Society for Traumatic Stress Studies of which I am a past president. I am also founder and past president of the Child Survivors of the Holocaust group in Melbourne, Australia. Currently I have retired from all these activities.

In the course of my work I saw the close interactions between mind body and society, and how trauma disrupts the normal fulfilment strivings of biopsychosocial humans. I have developed a framework (the wholist perspective) to denote details of fulfilment and of survival strategies that mitigate stress and trauma.

I acknowledge the wisdom of my patients and colleagues who have contributed to whatever I know.

I hope that you will enjoy the works I have chosen for this web site, works I consider relevant to today's world.

Paul Valent