Language: English
Level of audience: Advanced

This workshop aims to create a space to delve into our inner sense of what our gender identity means to us, and to perhaps think about gender in a non-binary way, holding ambivalence as OK. Let’s see what happens when we let go of the need to know and fit in neat boxes.

How may TA’s legacy hinder the legitimacy of Gender, Sex and Relationship Diversity (GSRD)? What concepts in TA invite us to not only acknowledge change in the world, but accept it at a deep level, without feeling threatened? How does our gender identity intersect with the other aspects of our identity? And how do societal expectations overlap, reinforce or relieve the outcome of our inner sense of who we are? How much do we assume about the other based on their physical appearance, on their way of moving, their voice? There is a lot that is taken for granted, while not being acknowledged. Many spoken realities and visibilities, on the other hand, are not accounted.

This is an invitation to come together to explore our vulnerabilities, and perhaps reconcile some of the tensions between the personal, the political and the professional. The participation in this workshop is experiential and will engage those who choose to attend into an immersive experience of being in the world. We will be thinking about how we developed our gender identity, how much it conforms or not with societal expectations and our local environment. We will hold in mind how this affects our way of relating with our clients and colleagues.

I believe that sharing a safe, reflective space can help uncover some of our assumptions and encourage us to take action to increase comfort, improve competence and reduce the risk of harm in our interactions with clients and colleagues.