Associate Professor Gavin Ivey

Gavin trained as a clinical psychologist at Rhodes University, South Africa, and went on to lecture and supervise trainee psychologists at various South African universities. He migrated to Australia in 2010 and is currently the Clinical Psychology Masters Course Chair at VU, as well as Director of Professional Postgraduate Psychology Programs. Gavin is registered as a clinically endorsed psychologist and clinical supervisor with the Psychology Board of Australia.

Gavin’s teaching and research interests concern the process of adult individual psychotherapy, particularly the unconscious influences on the psychotherapy relationship, and the teaching, learning, and supervision of psychodynamic psychotherapy. He is also involved in migrant psychology and gender research, with a focus on conflicted masculinities. Gavin is primarily a qualitative researcher, using psychosocial inquiry, auto-ethnography, thematic analysis, and interpretative phenomenological analysis to explore the nuances, layering and complexity of experience. He also practises part-time as a psychodynamic psychotherapist and clinical supervisor. 

Gavin teaches Research Methods, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Professional Ethics, Child Observation, and Reflective Practice to postgraduates, and Introduction to Psychoanalysis at undergraduate level. He also supervises clinical masters students’ psychotherapy case work. In his research supervisor capacity, Gavin works with honours, masters and PhD students conducting qualitative research projects.

Gavin is an elected fellow of the College of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis and is a member of the Glen Nevis Clinic Research Subcommittee, as well as the Community, Identity and Displacement Research Network. He is a reviewer for ten local and international scholarly journals.