How practitioners can address barriers to intimacy with intersex people. A professional development workshop with Dr Gávi Ansara (He/him)

Monday 30th October 7pm-8:30pm

Intersex-centred sex therapy and relationship counselling: Six commonly neglected concerns of intersex adults is a newly published chapter examining some of the unique clinical needs of intersex adults who are struggling with erotic, affectional, and intimate relationships. The chapter acknowledges a lack of intersex-led resources in a space that is dominated by queer misrepresentation, and so seeks to understand this impact while establishing better practice standards. By exploring six negative experiences that are common among people in intersex communities, Dr Gávi Ansara offers grounded and practical advice to improve clinical practice among practitioners who work with intersex people and our partners. These key areas of neglected concern include:

Epistemic injustice, including 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

By understanding these common barriers to accessing care, therapists can meet a standard of care that centres intersex adults’ own needs and desires. This webinar event presents a unique, one-off, opportunity to engage with this work in a professional development environment and should not be missed.

Monetary support of this webinar will go towards the cost of releasing the chapter to public access so it can exist as a support resource for the broader intersex community. We do not want people to miss out if they are not in a position to financially support this work, so please reach out if cost is a barrier at info@ihra.org.au. This session will be recorded and available online to registrants afterward.

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