ABOUT THE AUTHOR: DR TRACIE O'KEEFE DCH, BHSc, ND

Dr Tracie O'Keefe DCH, BHSc, ND is a sex researcher, teacher and therapist, clinical psychotherapist, clinical hypnotherapist, counsellor, clinical supervisor, naturopath, medical nutritionist, medical herbalist, and Director of the Australian Health and Education Centre (AHEC) in Sydney, Australia.

An intersex and trans woman, Tracie was born hypogonadal with a mild insensitivity to androgens but was classified as transsexual. She was forced to live for the first 15 years of her life as male against her will and then began transitioning to living as female at 15 years old. She had to battle with clinicians who were against her transition.

Tracie has worked in the sex and/or gender diverse community since being at college in 1970. She has been in private practice since 1994 at the London Medical Centre in the UK before becoming the full-time director of AHEC in 2001. In clinical practice, she has seen more than three thousand patients from sex and/or gender diverse groups as well as encountering thousands more in the community.

Tracie holds a degree in complementary medicine, a degree in clinical hypnotherapy, a post-graduate advanced diploma in psychotherapy and hypnosis, and a doctorate in clinical hypnotherapy (DCH). She is a registered mental health professional and member of the College of Psychotherapy of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA), a member of the Australian Society of Sex Educators, Researchers and Therapists (ASSERT, NSW), a member of the Australian Hypnotherapists Association (AHA) and a member of the Australian Naturopathic Practitioners Association (ANPA).

Apart from being a researcher, writer, teacher and clinician, she has spent decades as a political lobbyist and advocate for the human rights of sex and/or gender diverse people.

Tracie’s other titles in this field include Trans-X-U-All: The Naked Difference, Sex and Gender Diversity: 21st Century Transformations, Trans People in Love (co-editor), and Finding the Real Me: True Tales of Sex and Gender Diversity (co-editor).

She is the co-founder of Sex and Gender Education (SAGE), a campaign group that lobbies for the rights of sex and/or gender diverse people..