Wrap up - Bringing it all together towards the future
Day 5 will weave together the threads from previous conference days and clarify what PACFA members and other participants will take forward as actions for the counselling and psychotherapy profession.
Download Day 5 Run Sheet
Nigel Polak M. Counselling & Psychotherapy
he/him
Nigel is a psychotherapist in private practice working with individuals, couples, groups, and supervisees online and in person in Coffs Harbour. He is an academic teacher and supervisor in the School of Counselling at the Australian College of Applied Psychology. As founding Secretary of the Victorian Association for Restorative Justice, and having been Secretary of key community organisations in the wake of the Black Saturday Bushfires, he brings more than 20 years of experience leading diverse volunteer organisations. Having had prior careers as a Solicitor, Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner and mediator, he also brings knowledge of the law, corporate governance and diverse industry experience to his role on the Board. Nigel served for a number of years with the PACFA Victorian Branch, continues to sit on the College of Counselling Leadership Group, and also serves as Convenor of the PACFA 2022 "Safety in Therapy" Conference Committee. He lives in Bellingen, NSW, where he enjoys cycling, ocean swimming, learning to surf and spending time with his partner and three growing boys.
Rachel Friebel
she/her
Rachel Friebel is a counsellor and clinical supervisor based in Adelaide, SA. Rachel has a background in community services, including program management and leadership. She has enjoyed working as part of multidisciplinary teams and gaining exposure to a number of different areas within community services, affording her a wholistic view of client support. Rachel has worked as a generalist counsellor and educator in Family and Relationship Programs, Mental Health and currently works in both private practice and an organisational setting. Rachel has broad counselling experience and works both face to face and online. Rachel is interested in supporting the provision of high quality, inclusive, ethical and accessible counselling services in Australian communities.
Judy Atkinson
she/her
Emeritus Professor Aunty Judy Atkinson is a Jiman (central west Queensland) and Bundjalung (northern New South Wales) woman, with Anglo-Celtic and German heritage. Her academic contributions to the understanding of trauma related issues stemming from the violence of colonisation and the healing/recovery of Indigenous peoples from such trauma has won her the Carrick Neville Bonner Award in 2006 for her curriculum development and innovative teaching practice. In 2011 she was awarded the Fritz Redlick Memorial Award for Human Rights and Mental Health from the Harvard University program for refugee trauma. Her book ‘Trauma Trails – Recreating Songlines: The transgenerational effects of trauma in Indigenous Australia’, provides context to the life stories of people who have been moved from their country in a process that has created trauma trails, and the changes that can occur in the lives of people as they make connection with each other and share their stories of healing.
Dr Gávi Ansara
he/him
Dr Gávi (He/him) (PhD Psychol, MCouns) lives on the unceded lands of the Boonwurrung People of the Kulin Nations. He is a multilingual, polycultural man of faith with lived experience of disability, homelessness, racist violence, and poverty who grew up in urban and rural China, the unceded Eora Nation, and elsewhere. He is an AAFT-Accredited Clinical Supervisor and PACFA-Registered Clinical Psychotherapist who has provided over 20 years of Anti-Oppressive/Liberating Practice alongside people and communities with lived experience of marginalisation and oppression across a wide range of cultures and societies.
Dr Gávi is an internationally recognised psychotherapist, researcher, clinical educator, community activist, and policy advisor. Gávi received the American Psychological Association’s Transgender Research Award for an original and significant research contribution to the field, 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.
Gávi has 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. He also has over a decade of experience providing polycule-centred clinical supervision and therapy that value and prioritise polyamorous people, families, polycules, kinship systems, and communities. Gávi has also sole-authored and co-authored a diverse range of international, peer-reviewed publications that provide clinical guidance for practitioners. With Phoenix (she/her), he co-facilitates a peer development group that focuses on honouring diversity, examining privilege, and challenging oppression.
Gávi's positioning statement / reflection acknowledging the intersections of his privilege, affinities, and marginalised lived experiences can be found here:
https://ansarapsychotherapy.com/positioning/
Francis Voon
he/him
I acknowledge that I live, love and work on the unceded lands of the Gadigal, and yearn for a day when the work of healing and justice especially for First Nations people is not linear but circular.
I am a gay, cisgender man and person of colour, with lived experiences of migration, polycultural balancing, religious discrimination, ageism, racism, religiously & culturally based queerphobia, sexually racist lateral violence, intergenerational trauma, linguistic and profession-based discrimination. These experiences of discrimination and violence coexist alongside the privileges I acknowledge as cisgender, male, able-bodied, sighted, hearing, speaking, mobility, literate, lighter-skin, allistic, middle-class, city-based, anglo-centric & tertiary education, citizenship, fluent anglophone, monogamous-kinship, heteronormative-perceived, self-employment, easy access to health, food, technology and resource privileges.
I have had access to opportunities across the multiverses of education, religious, cultural, health, not-for-profit, advocacy, queer/LGBTIQA+/rainbow/gender-bodily-kinship-sexuality celebratory, diversity-friendly, nonviolence and performing arts. I have enjoyed educating, supervising and presenting to colleagues and university students on issues of psychotherapy, intersectionality and social justice. As a psychotherapist & supervisor, my interests are somatic, psychodynamic, jungian, gestalt, narrative, existential, and creative in expression.
Aleksandra Trkulja
she/her
Aleks (she/her) is a certified clinical counsellor and sex therapist who runs The Pleasure Centre based in Eora/Sydney. She specialises in issues of mental health, sexual function, sexuality, body image, and relationships. Aleks has completed specialty training in sexology, eating disorders, and couples therapy.
Her therapeutic practice is based on intersectional feminist and queer theory frameworks, and incorporates a combination of psychotherapy, psycho-education, sex-education, and practical strategies for people to apply.
Aleks is a first-generation Serbian-Australian woman, identifies as bisexual, and has a 4 year old labradoodle named Roger.
Dr Cathy Bettman
she/her
Cathy has lectured and practiced counselling in diverse contexts for over 20 years. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at The University of Notre Dame. She also supervises students, interns and practitioners in clinical and research settings. For her PhD, Cathy conducted a qualitative research study in the area of domestic violence. Her thesis was entitled: ‘Patriarchy: The Predominant Discourse and Font of Domestic Violence.’ This study resulted in her achieving a reputation as a feminist researcher (although she prefers her philosophical stance to be understood as more inclusive). Having been trained in humanistic and systemic frameworks, she embraces social constructivist, constructionist and dialogical paradigms.