Finding A Way Forward
Rachael Murray, Founder of Mind Psyence
For psychologist Rachael Murray, creating change is not necessarily about having a clear path ahead. Sometimes, it means believing strongly enough in what could exist to build that path yourself.
As founder and director of Mind Psyence (Psychology and Research) in Slade Point, Rachael provides psychology services to older adolescents and adults across Mackay and the Whitsundays.
Behind her everyday clinical work sits a bigger vision: ensuring regional communities are not left waiting for advances in mental health care to reach them.
Rachael's drive is deeply personal.
At 16, she lost her only sister in a devastating car accident. That loss changed the trajectory of Rachael’s life forever and was followed by 25 years of complex grief.
“Losing my sister and grieving over decades, sharpened my natural instinct to help into something more purposeful; setting me on a personal path exploring grief, growth, and healing in a much broader sense.”
Today, my experience sits alongside qualifications in behavioural studies, psychological science and neuroscience, as well as further training in psychedelic-assisted therapies and integration.
The vision for Mind Psyence began taking shape almost five years ago as Rachael became increasingly interested in research into medicine-assisted therapies and their potential application for specific conditions.
Central to that vision was a familiar regional challenge: access.
Rachael had seen people waiting far too long for basic mental health support, while emerging treatment options were becoming available in metropolitan areas, they remained difficult to access from regional Queensland.
“I wanted to build a practice that didn't just deliver good care today, but helped bring innovative, evidence-based treatment options, like medicine-assisted therapies for conditions such as PTSD and treatment-resistant depression, to a region that needs it, and that's so often left behind.”
Building towards that goal has not been easy.
Rachael has largely funded this work through her own clinical income while learning grant writing, research governance, and partnership building. This year brought a significant setback when a funding application for a proposed five-year clinical trial into medicine-assisted therapy for PTSD was unsuccessful.
“I've learnt that leadership in this space means being willing to go first — building partnerships, credibility and infrastructure without a roadmap, because no one else was doing this for our region in terms of medicine-assisted therapy.”
Despite the scale of her ambitions, Rachael says the most rewarding part remains helping people through their everyday challenges.
Looking ahead, she hopes Mind Psyence can grow from a solo practice into a multidisciplinary clinic bringing psychologists, psychiatrists, allied health professionals and researchers together. She also hopes Mackay and the Whitsundays will eventually have locally accessible, evidence-based medicine-assisted therapy programs and contribute to research in the field.
Later this year, Rachael plans to travel to Canberra to work as a therapist on an Australian National University psychedelic-assisted therapy trial, while exploring opportunities for Mind Psyence to potentially become a Mackay trial site.
For Rachael, change begins with refusing to accept that regional communities should simply go without.
"It's refusing to accept 'that's just how it is' for the people in our community, and having both the patience and the determination to keep finding a way forward — steadily, with care, and for as long as possible."
