Meet Clara Murray, Chief Investigator on NSWRHP’s flagship project Finding Our Way Through Pain: An Aboriginal-led, holistic and strengths-based approach to managing chronic pain for people living in a regional community.
How does an Irish psychologist become an academic in rural Australia?
I was born and raised in Ireland and moved to the UK about age 25. I trained as a clinical psychologist in the UK, working in community neurorehabilitation. I’d moved into a teaching/training role when a close friend and colleague from the UK took a job at UNE. He gave me an opportunity to do a 3-month teaching stint in Armidale in 2017. I thought it would be a good chance to get credentialled in Australia but I absolutely loved it. I just loved the New England area, all the trees, the national parks and waterfalls, so my partner and I moved here in 2018. My partner’s from Dubbo but hadn’t intended coming back quite so soon.
What is the most fulfilling thing about your role?
Fundamentally I’m a people-person at heart so the thing that I love the most is connecting with people and getting people excited about working together, igniting the spark in a group of people to get something happening. This is something I get to do in my research and teaching but also in the governance space. I am Chair of the UNE Research Committee, which involves me in the academic oversight of the university’s research and research training. I feel like I get to work at both ends of the continuum, and it’s this combination of roles that makes it so fulfilling. I’m sort of a nerd and a people person at the same time.
Tell me a bit about what you love about living in a rural environment
I come from a relatively small town in Ireland called Greystones, in County Wicklow, which has a similar population size to Armidale, and, similarly, you walk down the street and you know everyone. The thing that I love is that there is, what feels like, a regional Australian value that everyone pulls together. There’s a strong sense of community where people are willing to jump in and get things done. It’s also an amazing quality of life here. I love the outdoors and it’s so easy to get away. It’s great with young kids and it only takes seven minutes to get from one side of town to the other.
Is there something you’ve achieved in your role that you’re particularly proud of?
There was a lovely moment last year. We developed an online Master of Professional Psychology course and a big proud moment for us was getting the programme completely online. This means that students, wherever they are in Australia, can do supervised simulated clinical consultations over zoom. It gives the students a safe place to learn and allows good curricula control so everything is evidence-based. It took six years to develop and last year we were awarded a national citation at the Australian University Teaching Awards. What was so beautiful about it was that the four of us who conceptualised it and delivered it were all able to go to the awards ceremony and we got to celebrate it together.
What have you got coming up that you’re excited about?
For the past 18 months we’ve been working to get a team together to address the unmet need for holistic multi-provider pain management services which are culturally responsive for Aboriginal community members. I’m really excited that we’ve managed to put together a team that’s got such rich expertise in Aboriginal health. We have a 50/50 balance between Aboriginal and non-aboriginal team members and there’s a great balance of experience, as well as energy and cultural expertise from the early career Aboriginal clinician researchers. I’m excited about taking this project to the next stage and starting the co-design.
What’s an interesting or unexpected fact that others might not know about you?
I play guitar in a folk band called The Rocky Bottom Girls and we released an album on spotify last year.
