Profile
Elisabeth Udl
Birth:
1975
Training Location(s):
Mag., Karl-Franzens University Graz, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and University of Vienna (1993)
Cert., Curative riding and vaulting and instructor for inclusive riding (1999)
Cert., Vienna (2014)
Primary Affiliation(s):
Independent therapist for therapeutic riding and vaulting with children and adults with disabilities) (until 2015)
Association Ninlil - Empowerment and counseling for women with disabilities, Vienna:
- Voluntary work on the association's board (2000-2009)
- Employment as a team member (since 2006)
- Managing director of the Ninlil Association (since 2009)
Activities in the Ninlil association:
- Coordination and public relations work, project development and implementation
- Individual and team counseling
- Diverse lecture and seminar activities
- Content collaboration in the EU-Daphne project "Access of women with disabilities to victim protection and support services for women who have experienced violence", together with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute (2013-2015)
- Project management "Mein Kraft-Rucksack. Support for women* with disabilities* affected by violence" (2021)
- Board member of the Network of Austrian Women's and Girls' Counseling Centers
- Member of the Vienna Monitoring Agency - For the rights of people with disabilities
Independent practice as a psychotherapist in training under supervision (since 2018)
Career Focus:
Feminist counseling, empowerment counseling on living with learning difficulties and disabilities, against violence against women, intersectionality, self-awareness, queer feminism, public relations, project development and implementation, specialist author, curative riding and vaulting, person-centered psychotherapy
Biography
Elisabeth Udl is a feminist counselor and long-time managing director of the Viennese Association Ninlil, the first association in Vienna to specifically address the issue of sexualized violence against women with learning difficulties. The topic is still central to the work area Kraftwerk - against sexual violence against women with learning difficulties, which is also headed by Elisabeth Udl; since 2012, the association has also been specializing on women-specific peer counseling in the work area of Zeitlupe - Peer Counseling for Women with Disabilities. Udl is a qualified therapist for equine therapy and vaulting and is training to become a person-centered psychotherapist.
Udl grew up in Bruck an der Mur in Styria, together with her twin sister and a younger sister who is a wheelchair user. Coming from a well-off "educated middle-class household", it was always clear to Udl that she would study, which is why - inspired by her former "very great German teacher" - she decided after school to study German and French to become a teacher at the University of Graz. However, despite enjoying her studies, Udl soon realized that teaching was not her desired career field. Parallel to her Master's degree in German and French philology, Udl therefore began a diploma course in curative riding and vaulting.
Udl was already familiar with equine therapy at this time thanks to the commitment of her mother, who actively campaigned for more therapy options for her younger sister in the Bruck an der Mur region. At the age of 10, Udl and her twin sister got their first horse of their own and gradually took on more responsibility for other therapy horses. Udl therefore describes it as a "logical consequence" for her to continue her training in the field of therapeutic riding and vaulting after completing her studies. But even though she appreciated the work, Udl realized over time that "you just don't have much of a team, you're alone with the horse and the children, it's a lot of responsibility for everyone [...] and I can no longer respond to the individuals in the same way". The search for more communal contexts eventually led Udl to Vienna.
Arriving in Vienna at the age of 25 meant a new social world for the young feminist. Through the contact of a friend and living in shared flats, Udl met women for whom a feminist self-image was the basis of their existence. This immersion in queer-feminist environments had a profound effect on her - she realized: "I felt at home [there], both politically and socially. It just felt really right."
Udl's own political commitment, her time and energy, began to flow into the Ninlil association in 2000, where she joined as an honorary board member. The association, founded in 1996 and the first of its kind in Vienna and Austria, is committed to combating sexual violence against women with learning difficulties and multiple disabilities. It was a feminist starting point for Udl and she began to support the association's activities. Surrounded by politically active women, Udl herself increasingly developed a feminist drive, "because at the time I had the feeling that I really wanted to do something and wanted to get involved and contribute to the feminist cause".
At this time, Ninlil's board consisted mainly of the association's founders, for whom "it was clear from their feminist commitment that something was needed, that there was a huge gap, that there was a big problem, namely sexualized violence against women with learning difficulties and no answer to it." As a result of her volunteer work, the opportunity arose in March 2006 to fill the only substantive position at the counseling center to date - Udl took the job and has remained ever since.
In the course of her work, Udl also began training as a person-centered psychotherapist. For Udl, this humanistic approach to psychotherapy was a valuable addition to her work, as "the relationship is the important thing and [...] that there are no methods that you have to implement, but rather you focus on the moment, where does this take us and how can we get into good contact". According to Elisabeth Udl, this space for the existence of feelings is precisely what is very often neglected in the everyday lives of women with learning difficulties. From her ongoing work with horses, Udl also offered a recurring empowerment seminar "Growing with Horses" for several years at Ninlil, which was intended to give women with learning difficulties back the self-determination that they are often not given in supervised structures. "Horses are great for [...] feeling your own strength, you can let them carry you and relax."
As the Viennese association Ninlil consisted of only two employees in 2006, Udl as a substantive employee and a colleague in the administrative area, the feminist consultant was able to, and also had to, gain a lot of experience in lectures and seminars. Udl has therefore also been responsible for public relations and networking activities, with raising awareness in politics and society for the concerns of women with learning difficulties being one of her main areas of work. For Udl, Ninlil acts as an important connector between the issues of living with a disability and living as a woman. As managing director, collective work and international networking are of particular importance to her. She has long been part of the board of the Network of Austrian Women's and Girls' Counseling Centers, works with the European WAVE-Network (Women Against Violence Europe) and has contributed to the EU-Daphne project "Access of women with disabilities to victim protection and support services in cases of violence", led by Sabine Mandl for the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute.
Over time, the Viennese association Ninlil underwent several restructurings and in 2012 an additional area of work was added. Since then, there have been two areas of work in the association: on the one hand, the Kraftwerk - Against sexual violence against women with learning difficulties, which Udl heads, and on the other hand, Zeitlupe - Peer counseling for women with disabilities. The fact that Udl "does everything" at Ninlil has developed over time, which is why Udl is currently in the process of handing over tasks to new colleagues and emphasizes: "I really liked the fact that I could do everything and [do] a bit of everything at Ninlil from the very beginning. And I have to let that go now, it's still challenging, but hopefully it will work out."
For Udl, a feminist attitude has always been one of the pillars on which Ninlil has been built, as she recognized that "women's counselling work also needs this feminist analysis and this feminist foundation". She regards the experience of working in a feminist collective as particularly formative for her life, because "it feels to me that this feminist [...] analysis of power structures and social structures [...] also this queer-feminist context has carried me from the very beginning". She was accompanied on her journey by mentors, such as the women on the board, which consisted mostly of the founders of Ninlil, and Udl feels that this togetherness of the former plenary team is now being carried on into the current team of the association.
For her own role as a mentor, Udl considers it crucial that the issues that the Ninlil association works on - as the only Austrian association with the aforementioned focal points - mean a high level of identification for her. "You can feel how passionate we are about these issues and how important it is to us that structures also change for women and how honestly outraged we are that the structures are still the way they are." At the same time, it is also important to her to give her employees space for their own developments and paths.
According to the feminist counselor, important changes for women with learning difficulties have been set in motion since she started in 2006. For example, it is now common for most care facilities to have sexual education concepts. However, there is still a long way to go before "self-determination is the rule and not the exception", whereby Udl criticizes: "there is [...] so much political unwillingness and so much is being held back and people keep saying 'now we have to develop strategies; now we're making an action plan' - [but] we don't need all that, we don't have to try anything out, we already know what needs to be done."
For Elisabeth Udl, these achievements are part of a feminist movement, which for her can only work with intersectional and trans-inclusive approaches. In her private life, too, it is important for Udl to think and live intersectionally. She considers herself lucky to be able to decide freely where and how she lives and to have been part of queer-feminist networks. For Udl, it is therefore important to emphasize "that feminism is an analysis of social structures [...] from which action then develops [...] and building on this knowledge, you can see where you can shake things up and where you can chip away at them and where you can do things differently yourself."
By Emelie Rack & Lea-Jule Gerbert (2023)
To cite this article, see Credits
Selected Works
Selected Works
By Elisabeth Udl
Frketic, V., Brem, A., Geisler, M., Team des 24-Stunden Notruf, Notruf – Beratung für vergewaltigte Frauen und Mädchen, Udl, El., & Bolyos, L. (2011). Handeln gegen Gewalt. Sieben Statements. In E. Smodics-Kuscher (Eds.), Und weiter. Feministische Perspektiven für Wien.
Verein Ninlil und Verein Leicht Lesen. (2013). Kraft-Rucksack. Für Frauen* mit Gewalterfahrung. Federal Chancellery.
Udl, E., Vogt, K., Mandl, S. &Schröttle, M. (2014). Zugang von Frauen mit Behinderung zu Opferschutz- und Unterstützungseinrichtungen bei Gewalterfahrungen. Ergebnisse und Empfehlungen [Brochure].
Udl, E., Buxhofer, E., & Chlebecek, E. (2017/2018). Besuch bei der Frauenärztin. Fragen und Antworten in leichter Sprache. MA24, Health and Social Planning of the City of Vienna.
Udl, E. (2020). Frauen* mit Behinderung* in Wien und die Corona-Krise. Herausforderungen so vielfältig wie Lebensentwürfe. In Büro für Frauengesundheit und Gesundheitsziele/ Wiener Programm für Frauengesundheit (Eds.), Frauengesundheit und Corona. Sammelband des Wiener Programms für Frauengesundheit (p. 221-226).
Udl, E. (2021). Wir wissen, was wir wollen! Sexuelle Selbstbestimmung von und sexuelle Gewalt gegen Frauen mit Lernschwierigkeiten. In Frauenservice Wien (Eds.), Frauen.Wissen.Wien, 12. Was uns behindert? Über Teilhabe und Sichtbarkeit von Frauen mit Behinderungen in Wien, herausgegeben vom Frauenservice Wien (p. 89-101).
Udl, E. (2021). Gewaltschutz und Zugang zum Recht für Frauen* mit Behinderung* - Ein Bericht aus der Praxis. In U. Flossmann, S. Ulrich, K. Neuwirth & E. Greif (Eds.), Gewaltschutz und Gewaltprävention für Frauen und Mädchen mit Behinderungen, Linzer Schriften zu Gender und Recht, 65 (p. 231-244).
By and about Elisabeth Udl
Udl, E. (29. August 2022). Interview mit E. Rack [Audio Aufnahme].
Konopitzky, N. (21. November 2012). “Auch Frauen mit Behinderung sind Frauen” [Radiosendung]. Von Tag zu Tag. Oe1.orf.at.
Schmidt, F.S. (2015). Spielräume schaffen [Interview]. An.schläge – Das feministische Magazin. Available at: https://www.ninlil.at/kraftwerk/dokumente/2015-02_anschlaege_NINLIL.pdf
Barrierfrei aufgerollt. (03. October 2019). Gewalt an Menschen mit Behinderung [Radiosendung]. Sendung 28. Available at: https://www.barrierefrei-aufgerollt.at/sendung-28-gewalt-an-menschen-mit-behinderungen/
Verein Ninlil. (25. June 2021). Mein Kraft-Rucksack [Conference]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/live/nlZoZXs8D5g?feature=share
Udl, E., Naronnig, I., Schmerold, M., & Niedermoser, A. (20. May 2022). Gegen Gewalt an Frauen und Mädchen mit Behinderungen [Panel discussion]. Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg.
Elisabeth Udl
Birth:
1975
Training Location(s):
Mag., Karl-Franzens University Graz, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and University of Vienna (1993)
Cert., Curative riding and vaulting and instructor for inclusive riding (1999)
Cert., Vienna (2014)
Primary Affiliation(s):
Independent therapist for therapeutic riding and vaulting with children and adults with disabilities) (until 2015)
Association Ninlil - Empowerment and counseling for women with disabilities, Vienna:
- Voluntary work on the association's board (2000-2009)
- Employment as a team member (since 2006)
- Managing director of the Ninlil Association (since 2009)
Activities in the Ninlil association:
- Coordination and public relations work, project development and implementation
- Individual and team counseling
- Diverse lecture and seminar activities
- Content collaboration in the EU-Daphne project "Access of women with disabilities to victim protection and support services for women who have experienced violence", together with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute (2013-2015)
- Project management "Mein Kraft-Rucksack. Support for women* with disabilities* affected by violence" (2021)
- Board member of the Network of Austrian Women's and Girls' Counseling Centers
- Member of the Vienna Monitoring Agency - For the rights of people with disabilities
Independent practice as a psychotherapist in training under supervision (since 2018)
Career Focus:
Feminist counseling, empowerment counseling on living with learning difficulties and disabilities, against violence against women, intersectionality, self-awareness, queer feminism, public relations, project development and implementation, specialist author, curative riding and vaulting, person-centered psychotherapy
Biography
Elisabeth Udl is a feminist counselor and long-time managing director of the Viennese Association Ninlil, the first association in Vienna to specifically address the issue of sexualized violence against women with learning difficulties. The topic is still central to the work area Kraftwerk - against sexual violence against women with learning difficulties, which is also headed by Elisabeth Udl; since 2012, the association has also been specializing on women-specific peer counseling in the work area of Zeitlupe - Peer Counseling for Women with Disabilities. Udl is a qualified therapist for equine therapy and vaulting and is training to become a person-centered psychotherapist.
Udl grew up in Bruck an der Mur in Styria, together with her twin sister and a younger sister who is a wheelchair user. Coming from a well-off "educated middle-class household", it was always clear to Udl that she would study, which is why - inspired by her former "very great German teacher" - she decided after school to study German and French to become a teacher at the University of Graz. However, despite enjoying her studies, Udl soon realized that teaching was not her desired career field. Parallel to her Master's degree in German and French philology, Udl therefore began a diploma course in curative riding and vaulting.
Udl was already familiar with equine therapy at this time thanks to the commitment of her mother, who actively campaigned for more therapy options for her younger sister in the Bruck an der Mur region. At the age of 10, Udl and her twin sister got their first horse of their own and gradually took on more responsibility for other therapy horses. Udl therefore describes it as a "logical consequence" for her to continue her training in the field of therapeutic riding and vaulting after completing her studies. But even though she appreciated the work, Udl realized over time that "you just don't have much of a team, you're alone with the horse and the children, it's a lot of responsibility for everyone [...] and I can no longer respond to the individuals in the same way". The search for more communal contexts eventually led Udl to Vienna.
Arriving in Vienna at the age of 25 meant a new social world for the young feminist. Through the contact of a friend and living in shared flats, Udl met women for whom a feminist self-image was the basis of their existence. This immersion in queer-feminist environments had a profound effect on her - she realized: "I felt at home [there], both politically and socially. It just felt really right."
Udl's own political commitment, her time and energy, began to flow into the Ninlil association in 2000, where she joined as an honorary board member. The association, founded in 1996 and the first of its kind in Vienna and Austria, is committed to combating sexual violence against women with learning difficulties and multiple disabilities. It was a feminist starting point for Udl and she began to support the association's activities. Surrounded by politically active women, Udl herself increasingly developed a feminist drive, "because at the time I had the feeling that I really wanted to do something and wanted to get involved and contribute to the feminist cause".
At this time, Ninlil's board consisted mainly of the association's founders, for whom "it was clear from their feminist commitment that something was needed, that there was a huge gap, that there was a big problem, namely sexualized violence against women with learning difficulties and no answer to it." As a result of her volunteer work, the opportunity arose in March 2006 to fill the only substantive position at the counseling center to date - Udl took the job and has remained ever since.
In the course of her work, Udl also began training as a person-centered psychotherapist. For Udl, this humanistic approach to psychotherapy was a valuable addition to her work, as "the relationship is the important thing and [...] that there are no methods that you have to implement, but rather you focus on the moment, where does this take us and how can we get into good contact". According to Elisabeth Udl, this space for the existence of feelings is precisely what is very often neglected in the everyday lives of women with learning difficulties. From her ongoing work with horses, Udl also offered a recurring empowerment seminar "Growing with Horses" for several years at Ninlil, which was intended to give women with learning difficulties back the self-determination that they are often not given in supervised structures. "Horses are great for [...] feeling your own strength, you can let them carry you and relax."
As the Viennese association Ninlil consisted of only two employees in 2006, Udl as a substantive employee and a colleague in the administrative area, the feminist consultant was able to, and also had to, gain a lot of experience in lectures and seminars. Udl has therefore also been responsible for public relations and networking activities, with raising awareness in politics and society for the concerns of women with learning difficulties being one of her main areas of work. For Udl, Ninlil acts as an important connector between the issues of living with a disability and living as a woman. As managing director, collective work and international networking are of particular importance to her. She has long been part of the board of the Network of Austrian Women's and Girls' Counseling Centers, works with the European WAVE-Network (Women Against Violence Europe) and has contributed to the EU-Daphne project "Access of women with disabilities to victim protection and support services in cases of violence", led by Sabine Mandl for the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute.
Over time, the Viennese association Ninlil underwent several restructurings and in 2012 an additional area of work was added. Since then, there have been two areas of work in the association: on the one hand, the Kraftwerk - Against sexual violence against women with learning difficulties, which Udl heads, and on the other hand, Zeitlupe - Peer counseling for women with disabilities. The fact that Udl "does everything" at Ninlil has developed over time, which is why Udl is currently in the process of handing over tasks to new colleagues and emphasizes: "I really liked the fact that I could do everything and [do] a bit of everything at Ninlil from the very beginning. And I have to let that go now, it's still challenging, but hopefully it will work out."
For Udl, a feminist attitude has always been one of the pillars on which Ninlil has been built, as she recognized that "women's counselling work also needs this feminist analysis and this feminist foundation". She regards the experience of working in a feminist collective as particularly formative for her life, because "it feels to me that this feminist [...] analysis of power structures and social structures [...] also this queer-feminist context has carried me from the very beginning". She was accompanied on her journey by mentors, such as the women on the board, which consisted mostly of the founders of Ninlil, and Udl feels that this togetherness of the former plenary team is now being carried on into the current team of the association.
For her own role as a mentor, Udl considers it crucial that the issues that the Ninlil association works on - as the only Austrian association with the aforementioned focal points - mean a high level of identification for her. "You can feel how passionate we are about these issues and how important it is to us that structures also change for women and how honestly outraged we are that the structures are still the way they are." At the same time, it is also important to her to give her employees space for their own developments and paths.
According to the feminist counselor, important changes for women with learning difficulties have been set in motion since she started in 2006. For example, it is now common for most care facilities to have sexual education concepts. However, there is still a long way to go before "self-determination is the rule and not the exception", whereby Udl criticizes: "there is [...] so much political unwillingness and so much is being held back and people keep saying 'now we have to develop strategies; now we're making an action plan' - [but] we don't need all that, we don't have to try anything out, we already know what needs to be done."
For Elisabeth Udl, these achievements are part of a feminist movement, which for her can only work with intersectional and trans-inclusive approaches. In her private life, too, it is important for Udl to think and live intersectionally. She considers herself lucky to be able to decide freely where and how she lives and to have been part of queer-feminist networks. For Udl, it is therefore important to emphasize "that feminism is an analysis of social structures [...] from which action then develops [...] and building on this knowledge, you can see where you can shake things up and where you can chip away at them and where you can do things differently yourself."
By Emelie Rack & Lea-Jule Gerbert (2023)
To cite this article, see Credits
Selected Works
Selected Works
By Elisabeth Udl
Frketic, V., Brem, A., Geisler, M., Team des 24-Stunden Notruf, Notruf – Beratung für vergewaltigte Frauen und Mädchen, Udl, El., & Bolyos, L. (2011). Handeln gegen Gewalt. Sieben Statements. In E. Smodics-Kuscher (Eds.), Und weiter. Feministische Perspektiven für Wien.
Verein Ninlil und Verein Leicht Lesen. (2013). Kraft-Rucksack. Für Frauen* mit Gewalterfahrung. Federal Chancellery.
Udl, E., Vogt, K., Mandl, S. &Schröttle, M. (2014). Zugang von Frauen mit Behinderung zu Opferschutz- und Unterstützungseinrichtungen bei Gewalterfahrungen. Ergebnisse und Empfehlungen [Brochure].
Udl, E., Buxhofer, E., & Chlebecek, E. (2017/2018). Besuch bei der Frauenärztin. Fragen und Antworten in leichter Sprache. MA24, Health and Social Planning of the City of Vienna.
Udl, E. (2020). Frauen* mit Behinderung* in Wien und die Corona-Krise. Herausforderungen so vielfältig wie Lebensentwürfe. In Büro für Frauengesundheit und Gesundheitsziele/ Wiener Programm für Frauengesundheit (Eds.), Frauengesundheit und Corona. Sammelband des Wiener Programms für Frauengesundheit (p. 221-226).
Udl, E. (2021). Wir wissen, was wir wollen! Sexuelle Selbstbestimmung von und sexuelle Gewalt gegen Frauen mit Lernschwierigkeiten. In Frauenservice Wien (Eds.), Frauen.Wissen.Wien, 12. Was uns behindert? Über Teilhabe und Sichtbarkeit von Frauen mit Behinderungen in Wien, herausgegeben vom Frauenservice Wien (p. 89-101).
Udl, E. (2021). Gewaltschutz und Zugang zum Recht für Frauen* mit Behinderung* - Ein Bericht aus der Praxis. In U. Flossmann, S. Ulrich, K. Neuwirth & E. Greif (Eds.), Gewaltschutz und Gewaltprävention für Frauen und Mädchen mit Behinderungen, Linzer Schriften zu Gender und Recht, 65 (p. 231-244).
By and about Elisabeth Udl
Udl, E. (29. August 2022). Interview mit E. Rack [Audio Aufnahme].
Konopitzky, N. (21. November 2012). “Auch Frauen mit Behinderung sind Frauen” [Radiosendung]. Von Tag zu Tag. Oe1.orf.at.
Schmidt, F.S. (2015). Spielräume schaffen [Interview]. An.schläge – Das feministische Magazin. Available at: https://www.ninlil.at/kraftwerk/dokumente/2015-02_anschlaege_NINLIL.pdf
Barrierfrei aufgerollt. (03. October 2019). Gewalt an Menschen mit Behinderung [Radiosendung]. Sendung 28. Available at: https://www.barrierefrei-aufgerollt.at/sendung-28-gewalt-an-menschen-mit-behinderungen/
Verein Ninlil. (25. June 2021). Mein Kraft-Rucksack [Conference]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/live/nlZoZXs8D5g?feature=share
Udl, E., Naronnig, I., Schmerold, M., & Niedermoser, A. (20. May 2022). Gegen Gewalt an Frauen und Mädchen mit Behinderungen [Panel discussion]. Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg.