Dr Gillian Deakin has been studying and working in medicine for nearly half a century, having graduated from Sydney University.

She worked as a doctor in both Sydney and the outback, where she met her first husband while working as a film set doctor.

She completed her doctorate (MD) at Monash University, after wintering as the medical officer at Davis, a research station on Antarctica.

On her return, she undertook a Master’s Degree in Public Health at Sydney University, to explore the causes of illness beyond the disease model, where it became clear that illnesses arise when our situation is stressful, whether social, economic, cultural, or physical.

After a year of running an aid program on the remote Pacific islands of Kiribati, she returned to general practice in Bondi with her children.

She has worked in her Bondi general practice since 1991 and has the privilege of being part of the lives of families there.

While keeping a sound clinical knowledge of orthodox medicine as supervisor of general practice registrars and Examiner at the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, she broadened her understanding of health through studies in nutrition, acupuncture, yoga, meditation, lifestyle medicine, and clinical hypnotherapy.

She currently lives in Sydney with her husband and takes an active part in the lives of her grandchildren.