Writings
Texts on language, emotion and displacement
Short texts written since 2020, first in Auckland and now in London. They keep the traces of the moment and the place in which they were written; I have chosen not to rewrite them.
- Nothing Fills It Yesterday, on the flight home, I was sitting by the window, as always. I like photographing the sky, the lines of fields dissolving below, the ragged…
- On the encounter that becomes a lure, or, equilibrium On the encounter that becomes a lure or, equilibrium: who, in this body, is libre? We all have the same skeleton and the same muscular architecture. The…
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Globe What a joy to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Globe. The theatre itself plays a role here: it is not Shakespeare’s original Elizabethan building,…
- Orchard Garden, Virginia Woolf It was at the Orchard Garden that the thread started running again. As I let my soul wander, a line came back, insisting: a sentence to write, born from…
- Having a body / being this body The session ends on a humorous note with this young woman, full of inner resources, who had arrived very angry. Playing with both languages, she puts her…
- Jasmine, breath Around the corner of a London street, a waft of jasmine suddenly cuts through the thread of my thoughts. I was walking, absorbed in the day’s programme…
- Continuous partial attention The notion of “continuous partial attention” (Linda Stone) describes a now familiar state: being everywhere at once, connected, reactive, yet rarely fully…
- In Her Hands Recently, I was moved by the film In Her Hands (Au bout des doigts). This morning I felt the urge to put into words what the film brings back into…
- The Letter A letter always arrives at its destination. (JL) Those that Freud and Zweig exchanged for thirty years bear witness to this circulation of desire and…
- “I came today but I have nothing to say” This is how the session began; a long silence took hold. This is already a sentence, already an address; what is declaring itself as impossible to say?…
- Cleaving Hook: In English, to cleave is to split and to cling. Every consulting room, perhaps, is built on words like that. A short analytic fable, written after a…
- We never know what we pass on On Saturday evening, meeting Louis, a young professor freshly graduated from Cambridge, and Marta, a brilliant English student of sixteenth and…
- Guillaume Gallienne Last night, the encounter with Guillaume Gallienne was a rare moment, one of grace and simplicity. What joy it was to hear him, to see him, this man who…
- “It just doesn’t make any sense” “But it just doesn’t make any sense.” Heard in session at least once from each of my analysands, this little sentence is one of my favourites. Something…
- Quote, Victor Hugo, “William Shakespeare” (translated by Frédérique Stref) “These waves, this ebb and flow, this terrible to‑and‑fro, this noise of every breath of air, these darknesses and these transparencies, these growths…
- Act, Address, Other: Stamped Letter / the being has crossed? With Freud, the so‑called failed act stops being a mere failure or simple distraction: it becomes the displaced accomplishment of an unconscious desire, a…
- The Abyss of Grief Going back to Moco on Saturday, I once again stopped in front of an Antony James piece that, on my first visit, had quickly worn me out: too much formal…
- In such a short span of time … I went back there yesterday, to Freud Museum, what is it that makes me feel so good there? The richness of the work, the extraordinary labour behind it…
- The time of the unconscious On my first visit to Sigmund Freud’s house, I felt as though I had been invited in. Everything there still breathes the rigour of work, the intensity of…
- What guides our decisions? For some, reason, for others intuition, for others infatuation, for others emotions... each one has his own perception of the world, perception conditioned by his…
- Fear: a constituent emotion Do you remember the hero of a children's story who knew no fear?
- New fears An unfortunate, ridiculous anecdote that you are probably also familiar with. While walking in my neighbourhood, at the bend in the road, I realise that the person…
- Returning to self How willing are you to be involved in your well-being? Will you take the risk of hearing what moves you?
- Survey analysis of French expatriates living in NZ during the Covid situation As a counsellor and therapist my role is usually to listen, but today I speak. Thank you for your participation in our recent survey regarding the experiences of French…
- Survey published in Le Petit Journal, August 2021 If you return to your country of origin, what are the constraints related to your residence condition?
- From behaviour to initial emotions We all engage in behaviors from time to time that we know are "bad" for us, whether it's smoking, eating unhealthy foods, not getting enough exercise or even spending…
- Undoing denial Addressing the subject of denial is difficult because people often become defensive. A common mistake is to associate the word "denial" with the word "lie". This is…
- Few words on addiction Addiction is a complex process that develops through an interaction between a substance or behaviour and a vulnerable subject. There are two types of vulnerability. One…
- Anger and depression "I have a nice life, I can't stand my husband any more, but the kids are happy to live here, we both have a good job, but I'm always on edge. I don't want to participate…
- Therapy: native and second language Choosing to consult is an important step, and consulting in a foreign language, regardless of the language level of the protagonists, can limit the impact of the work…
- Adaptation mechanisms in childhood and expatriation Living abroad requires a real capacity to adapt. The parallel between the adaptation mechanisms of children and those of expatriates is interesting to look at, based on…
- Professional secrecy On arrival in New Zealand and in order to obtain the right to practice in the country I happily took the equivalency exams. With joy for various reasons, the first one…
- Free will and determinism “Free will: is the complete freedom to do or not to do, to choose according to one's will and therefore by extension the absence of constraints. In philosophy, the…
- Lifestyle How to get through this new ordeal in the life of expatriates?
- Who to turn to? How difficult it must be today to choose a Counsellor & Psychology.
- Loss and Grief Today I would like to talk about how we deal with loss and grief in 2020, a situation we are all facing at some point in our lives, and today more particularly because I…
Textes en français
A number of texts were written in French. They are listed here in their original language.
- La séance de l’hôtefr Petite fable analytique venue après une lecture en groupe d’un des séminaires de Lacan autour d’un texte de Freud de 1910, « Du sens opposé dans les mots…
- Mécanismes d’adaptation enfance et expatriationfr Vivre à l’étranger requiert une vraie capacité d’adaptation. Le parallèle entre les mécanismes d'adaptation des enfants et ceux des expatriés est intéressant regardons…
In the press
Articles, interviews and columns published in Le Petit Journal, the newspaper of the French community abroad, in Auckland from 2021 to 2022, and in London since 2026.
- À Londres, que faisons-nous de ce « nous » ? Le Petit Journal Londres · Feature: expatriation, francophone belonging and the grief of leaving. A reflection built around the work of Frédérique Stref in London.
- L’Édito de Frédérique Stref, psychologue française à Auckland Le Petit Journal Auckland · Column: on the hero who knew no fear, and what fear is for.
- « When I arrived in New Zealand it was like I received a big wave of life force » Le Petit Journal Auckland · Art: the And So On collection, twelve encaustic works shown at sunset on Point Chevalier Beach.
- Frédérique Stref : « La Nouvelle-Zélande m’a reconnectée avec la nature » Le Petit Journal Auckland · Art: interview on the And So On exhibition.
- Psychologie : osez-vous encore penser sans compter ? Le Petit Journal Auckland · Column: on the numerical vocabulary that has crept into how we describe our lives.
- Nouvelle-Zélande : Covid, de quel désastre psychologique parlons-nous ? Le Petit Journal Auckland · Column
- Pratiquer cette marche consciente au quotidien va transformer votre bien-être Le Petit Journal Auckland · Column
- COVID : le retour dans son pays d’origine, un antidote pour de nombreux expatriés Le Petit Journal Auckland · Survey
- Plus d’un Français sur deux envisage de retourner en France Le Petit Journal Auckland · Survey
- 71 % des Français de NZ n’ont pas vu leurs proches depuis 2 ans Le Petit Journal Auckland · Survey
- Enquête pour expatriés ne pouvant pas quitter la Nouvelle-Zélande Le Petit Journal Auckland · Survey
- Psychologie : sortir du déni et faire face à ses problèmes Le Petit Journal Auckland · Column
- Psychologie : qu’est-ce qu’une addiction ? Et comment l’éviter ? Le Petit Journal Auckland · Column
- Psychologie : comment faire face à la dépression et bien vivre son expatriation ? Le Petit Journal Auckland · Column
- Psychologie : pourquoi pratiquer la thérapie en français lors d’une expatriation ? Le Petit Journal Auckland · Column
- L’expatriation requiert une capacité d’adaptation proche de l’enfance Le Petit Journal Auckland · Column
- 3 questions à Frédérique Stref : psychologue française expatriée en Nouvelle-Zélande Le Petit Journal Auckland · Interview
- Rester ou tout quitter ? Le dilemme des expats en Nouvelle-Zélande Le Petit Journal Auckland · Column
On Instagram
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