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Liza Dezfouli
she/her
About
Locations
- All of Victoria
Areas Of Expertise
- Advocacy and Inclusion
- Creating Safe and Inclusive Spaces
- Creative Expression and Activism
- LGBTIQA+ Awareness and Inclusion
- Mental Health and Wellbeing
Presentation Topics
- Community Engagement
- Creativity and Communication
- Empowerment
- Family Violence
- Healing and Compassion
- Inclusion
- Intersectionality
- LGBTIQA+ Advocacy
- Mental Health
- Neurodiverse Perspective
- Using Power and Privilege Well
- Womens rights
Open to Negotiating Fees
Yes
Biography
Liza Dezfouli is a queer speaker, writer and performer based in Melbourne.
She has a background in Teaching English as a Second Language, teaching creative writing, and arts journalism. She has been involved in a housing co-op for over 20 years, and has been on the committees of neighbourhood houses and various working groups, most recently the Health Literacy Working Group for StarHealth before it amalgamated with BHN. This involved various activities raising awareness at all levels of the organisation of Heath Literacy principles and seeing Health Literacy initiatives adopted and implemented.
In 2018 she co-founded a peer-based organisation, SWLRV, dedicated to advocating and lobbying for the decriminalisation of sex work. As well, she sat on a peer-based advisory group for RhED for several years.
She is a survivor of family violence and childhood sexual abuse, experiences which allow her to speak in depth about personal journeys of healing early experiences of trauma and childhood PTSD. As well, she lives with ADHD, and has had a history of substance abuse disorder, depression and anxiety, and is able to speak indepth about emotional well-being, masking, healing and recovery. She is keen to give voice to the experiences of the queer older woman. In 2019 she performed in unHOWsed, an acclaimed theatre production about older women and homelessness.
Recently she spoke at Generation Women, a women's storytelling event. She has spoken at StarHealth events, on panels and presented in Professional Writing and Editing classes at RMIT.
Liza has written short stories, plays, articles, a novel, and writes and performs her own songs. She has acted in film and theatre, performed cabaret, stand up comedy, and spoken word and poetry. Recently she was awarded the Darebin Mayor’s Creative Writing Prize for 2024.
Experience
Most recently she spoke at Generation Women.
Liza has been a guest on podcasts, on radio (ABC Radio National and 3CR), has appeared on Bent TV, and spoken at storytelling nights. She facilitated a workshop for the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) and performed sketch comedy at an IAP2 event in 2016.
She has experience in stand-up comedy and performance.
Here she is speaking on a podcast about challenging stereotypes of older women, and mental health: https://mentalasanyone.libsyn.com/maa-091-with-liza-dezfouli