Holding Space

For many years, Gina Strauss walked through the doors of hospitals across Sydney, never knowing what the day would ask of her. Across public and private hospitals, she worked in general medical, surgical, mental health and addiction wards, postnatal units, neurological wards, aged care and Intensive Care. In a single hour, she might witness a patient’s final breaths and hear a newborn’s first cry, moments that captured the intensity, unpredictability and deep humanity of hospital life.

Holding Space is a moving collection of narratives about life, death, illness and care. Through stories of patients and families from diverse backgrounds, Gina illuminates the quiet courage involved in advocacy, compassion and presence. She reflects on complex ethical and emotional terrain, including voluntary assisted dying, end-of-life care, dementia, addiction and mental health crises.

Warm, honest and deeply compassionate, Holding Space reminds us that care is not only clinical. It is also human. This is a book for anyone who wants to understand what it means to accompany others through the most vulnerable moments of life, death and everything in between.

Gina Strauss is a Sydney-based writer and social worker whose work is grounded in presence, compassion, and care. Through her practice and storytelling, she explores what it means to sit alongside others in life’s most vulnerable moments. Drawing on her experience across healthcare settings, her writing reflects a deep commitment to empathy, dignity, and connection. Gina graduated from The University of New South Wales and has a strong interest in reflective practice, ethics, and the emotional realities of frontline healthcare.

ISBN 9781764646550
1 February 2027
Distributed by NewSouth Books