Intersex-centred ways into intimacy, pleasure, and healing in intimate relationships – A workshop for people with lived experience of being born with intersex characteristics

Sunday 29th October 2-4pm

Intersex-centred sex therapy and relationship counselling: Six commonly neglected concerns of intersex adults is a newly published book chapter examining the impact of endosexist norms, societal stigma, and medical trauma on intersex people’s access to pleasurable and affirming erotic, affectional, and intimate relationships. This first of a kind intersex-led resource has been designed to help therapists understand the needs of adult intersex people and adults who were born with intersex characteristics. This workshop will focus on ways into intimacy, pleasure, and healing, including how to build relationship skills for self-advocacy, healing, and pleasure.

This workshop with Dr Gávi Ansara will address six key areas that are often neglected by practitioners, when intersex people see sex therapy and relationship counselling:

Epistemic injustice, elite capture, and being-in-the-room privilege
Endosexist norms and standards
Medical trauma, impeded interoceptive awareness, and iatrogenic alexithymia
Disclosure and stigma management
Shame, self-worth, and relationship capital
Barriers to erotic, affectional, and intimate relationship boundaries

This workshop will also focus on practical skills in navigating intimate relationships and stigma about intersex characteristics as part of the natural diversity of bodies. This one-off community workshop welcomes anyone with lived experience to come together in a trauma-and-violence-informed, supportive, intersex-centred, intersex-affirming, and confidential online environment. Due to the nature of this workshop, it is open only to people born with variations in sex characteristics. People without this innate physical lived experience who are interested in Dr Gávi Ansara's work are instead asked to register for the webinar on Monday 30th October.

IHRA and Dr Gávi Ansara note that this chapter is part of a broader work called "Erotically Queer: A Pink Therapy Guide for Practitioners" and both are critical of the problematic framing this presents for many in our community. It is important to highlight that this chapter was written to explicitly challenge this framing, while ensuring that high-quality information about intersex people is available in queer spaces to prevent erasure and misrepresentation of our lives. The chapter was produced with a broad range of backgrounds in mind, with sensitivity to anyone who lives with a marginalised variation in sex characteristics. Participants of this webinar are encouraged to challenge this queer context, and Dr Gávi will address how a queer-centric or “LGBTIQ” framing can fundamentally misunderstand the experiences and needs of intersex people.

Dr Gávi Ansara is a Registered Clinical Psychotherapist, Relationship & Family Therapist, and dually accredited Clinical Supervisor with 15 years of specialised training and experience in working with trauma, gender, sexuality, relationships, and bodies. For over 20 years, his work and life calling have been rooted in an Anti-Oppressive Practice approach focused on providing a de-pathologising, person-directed, and polycultural approach to personal and community wellbeing informed by social justice principles and explicitly challenging forms of systemic oppression. His work is internationally acclaimed, multi-award winning, and we at IHRA appreciate that it stands in testament against a medical status quo that has caused widespread harm to intersex communities as well as other marginalised people and communities. His unique insights into the mechanisms of harm and how to improve care for traumatised communities present deep opportunities for learning at any professional level or background. For further information about Gávi's professional and personal background, feel free to read his positioning reflection on his website: https://ansarapsychotherapy.com/positioning/

IHRA is delighted to provide in-kind support for this event.