My Professional Bio & Positioning Statement

Practitioner positioning statements are an evidence-informed and internationally recognised form of ethical self-disclosure in Anti-Oppressive Clinical Practice. Learn more: https://pacfa.org.au/portal/News-and-Advocacy/News/2022/Introducing_Gávi_Ansara.aspx

Professional Bio

I live on unceded Boonwurrung Country, Kulin Nations. I have over 20 years of Anti-Oppressive/Liberating Practice experience alongside people and communities with lived experience of marginalisation and oppression.

One of my specialisations is polycule-centred clinical practice. I have over a decade of experience providing clinical supervision and therapy that value and prioritise polyamorous people, families, polycules, kinship systems, and communities. I also have specialist qualifications in complex trauma and dissociation, family and community trauma, youth and refugee mental health, emotionally aware child caregiving, BIPOC-centred ecotherapy, Autistic-centred Autistic Wellbeing, neurodivergent-affirming practice, and group facilitation.

I have received the American Psychological Association’s Transgender Research Award for original and significant research, the UK Higher Education Academy’s National Psychology Postgraduate Teaching Award for excellence in teaching psychology, and the University of Surrey Vice Chancellor’s Alumni Achievement Award for outstanding contributions to standards and policies in international human rights and social justice.

Positioning Statement / Reflection

I am a multilingual, mixed/hybrid polycultural, polyamorous, neurodivergent (polyennic/zoomie/jaguar bodymind), and gay/androsexual man of faith who grew up in urban and rural China, on the unceded lands of the Eora Nation, and elsewhere. I have multiple names in multiple languages, and they are all my “real” names. My polycule contains secure attachment bonds that include queerfamilial kindred and other chosen family.

I have lived experience of disability, homelessness, migration, intergenerational forced displacement, poverty, being targeted for racist violence, and gender, body, kinship, and sexuality oppression. In addition to the above, I am also of Deaf experience and influenced by Deaf Pride; although I am currently hearing, I have some auditory processing and communication influences from Deaf culture.

I strive toward cultural humility regarding my literacy, educational, allistic (non-Autistic), binary gender, sighted, speaking, and non-Aboriginal privileges.

I currently have the privilege of rental housing, relative food security, indoor plumbing, electricity, a sit-down flush toilet, hot water, and clean drinking water where I live, although this has not always been the case.