In Episode 1 of Trust the Process, I interview clinical and forensic psychologist Georgia Harper. We recorded this interview online with a live audience in November 2024.
As a psychologist, Georgia has worked with both serious violent offenders and victim-survivors of crime.
Her debut crime novel What I Would Do to You was published by Penguin Books (2024).
In this episode we chat about:
The representation and challenges of writing psychologist characters in fiction
Writing difficult (dark!) scenes
Juggling dual careers & having a public profile
The writing process
And more!
Georgia’s book asks the questions: If you harmed my love one and I got my hands on you what would I do to you? What are we capable of at our most primal?
“I had to balance that with the fact that it’s fiction… you can’t explain every single thing to the reader about how the profession works as you lose the flow of the narrative”- Georgia Harper
What I Would Do To You by Georgia Harper
A near-future Australia.
The death penalty is back. But if the victim’s family wants the perpetrator to die, they have to do it themselves. Twenty-four hours alone in a room with the condemned. No cameras. No microphones. Just whatever punishment they decide befits the crime.
Ten-year-old Lucy was murdered.
Through counselling sessions with their court-appointed psychologist, we learn the stories of her family members: Lucy’s two mothers – Stella and Matisse – her much older brother and her bookish teenage sister, who is too young to participate in the execution, but who has plans of her own . . .
Secrets and grief threaten to break the family.
As the execution date nears, already-struggling Stella remains adamant that she must carry out the punishment. But it becomes clear that if she steps into that room, the family may lose her too.
Connect with Georgia Harper via her website or Instagram.
Stay tuned for next months’ in-conversation chat with Clinical & Forensic Psychologist Dr Ahona Guha who is the author of two non-fiction books.
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