Mark grew up in a well to do family in Perth, Western Australia, at a time when the city was undergoing change. There was the mining boom, the cults that had grown out of the counter-culture, and the AIDS epidemic. Sensitive to the inequality and injustice he saw around him, Mark was attracted to the work of caring and community building and during the AIDS crisis he found himself supporting men who were dying. He left for the Eastern states, partly to avoid reminders of this time. From a young age Mark had been affected by his mother's mental illness which had made her behaviour unpredictable and contributed to his father's retreat from emotional engagement. An intimate partner recommended that he attend a meeting of ACA and here he has made sense of his experiences. Mark has recently returned to an art practice that he had lost in the process of 'detouring around himself'.
If you would like to find out more about ACA, you can visit their website at adultchildren.org.au
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