UQP acquires book by leading Indigenous psychologist Tracy Westerman

UQP is delighted to announce the acquisition of world rights for a book by leading Indigenous psychologist Dr Tracy Westerman AM that outlines her life and work.

Dr Westerman is an internationally recognised psychologist who specialises in culturally appropriate psychological services and treatments for First Nations people, related to trauma, suicide prevention, child removal, and the intersection of mental health issues with incarceration.

In addition to reaching the top of her professional field, Dr Westerman also has an inspiring personal story of determination and grit; of defying the disadvantage of her childhood to show what is possible. She was raised in the remote Pilbara: her family lived first in Useless Loop before moving to the mining town of Tom Price where they were the only Aboriginal family in town. She completed most of her high school by distance education, deciding she wanted to become a psychologist, despite never having met one in real life. Heading to Perth for university, she struggled to reconcile mainstream psychology with Aboriginal culture but still managed, in 2003, to become the first Aboriginal person to complete a combined Masters/PhD in Clinical Psychology. She has won numerous awards and accolades for her ground-breaking work.

Dr Westerman later set up her own business, Indigenous Psychological Services (IPS), to ensure practitioners are trained in the most culturally competent methods and has now trained over 40,000 practitioners across Australia. In 2020, triggered by the heartbreaking rates of Indigenous child suicides on this continent, which are amongst the world’s highest, she self-funded an Indigenous Psychology Scholarship. She subsequently founded her charity, the Westerman Jilya Institute for Indigenous Mental Health, which now funds and supports 41 Indigenous psychology students across Australia.

UQP cannot wait to share this important, necessary and agenda-setting book with readers in late 2023/early 2024.

Dr Tracy Westerman says:

As a psychologist I am ultimately an educator. Most of us have struggled with mental health or know someone who has. I want to bring people on a journey. To walk them through the all-too-human experiences of trauma, loss, grief and out the other side to optimism, resilience and hope. Because to heal pain, you must first understand it. It’s a precious gift to be invited into the darkest moments in someone’s life. I want to take people with me and shine a light on the human side of a culture so few of us get to experience. I am so glad UQP pushed me to do this. I can’t wait for Australia to read it.

Publisher Aviva Tuffield says:

Dr Tracy Westerman is an absolute powerhouse – what she has achieved in her professional career is awe-inspiring. She is a natural storyteller, which is what makes her such a compelling and much-invited speaker and trainer, and her distinctive voice resonates off the page. She has fought hard to achieve what she has in the field of psychology and has a remarkable ability to convey her professional work in layperson’s terms, illustrating her ground-breaking insights through the cases of the many, many people she’s helped over the years. Her insights are profound and moving and provide the blueprint for real change in this place.

About Dr Tracy Westerman:

Dr Tracy Westerman AM is a proud Nyamal woman from the Pilbara region of Western Australia. She holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology, a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology and a Doctor of Philosophy (Clinical Psychology). She is recognised as a world leader in Aboriginal mental health, cultural competency and suicide prevention achieving national and international recognition for her work.

In 2003 she became the first Aboriginal person to complete a combined Masters/PhD in Clinical Psychology. Her PhD resulted in the development of four unique psychometric tests, the cornerstone of which was the Westerman Aboriginal Symptom Checklist-Youth (WASC-Y) which determined a different nature to Aboriginal suicide and mental ill health and has been the focus of unique programs, training development and delivery over the past 23 years, bringing international and national attention to her work. In 2020 she self-funded a scholarship in her name to increase the number of Indigenous psychologists in this country and subsequently established her charity, the Westerman Jilya Institute for Indigenous Mental Health. She works voluntarily for ‘Jilya’, which now supports and mentors 41 Indigenous psychology students.

Her most notable awards include:

• Australian Psychological Society Almetrics Award for the published paper with the highest global reach for the paper ‘Culture-Bound Syndromes in Aboriginal People’, 2022
• Order of Australia (AM), Queens Birthday List, 2021
• Telstra Women’s Business Awards Winner, Small Business Category (WA), 2020
• Australian of the Year (WA), 2018
• Lifetime Achievement Award, Curtin University, 2018
• Inducted into WA Women’s Hall of Fame, 2018
• 40 under 40 WA Business Awards recognising Dr Westerman as one of the best businesspeople in WA under 40 – ‘Strategic Alliance Award’, 2010
• The Suicide Prevention Australia Award for Emerging Researcher, 2006
• The NAIDOC National Scholar of the Year, 2002