Our Team

Dr Cal Volks is a Senior Counsellor at Thrive Fertility, bringing extensive experience in infertility counselling across clinics and private practice in both South Africa and Australia. She holds a BA Honours in Psychology and a Master of Arts from Rhodes University and trained as a fertility counsellor with the British Infertility Counselling Association.

Before moving to Melbourne, Cal served as Director of the HIV/AIDS and Inclusivity Unit at the University of Cape Town, where she conducted research, provided counselling and delivered training around reproductive and sexual health — including addressing stigma and promoting inclusivity. That grounding in reproductive rights and equitable access continues to inform her approach to counselling today.

From 2017 to 2019, Cal worked as a counsellor and then Senior Counsellor at Adora Fertility, before moving into a donor-linking counselling role at the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority (VARTA) from 2020 to 2022. From 2021 to 2023 she served as Coordinator of the Victorian Infertility Counsellors’ Group and was a member of the executive committee of the Australia and New Zealand Infertility Counsellors Association (ANZICA). She is currently co-chair of the TASA Families and Relationships Group.

Cal completed her PhD at La Trobe University in 2025, researching the experiences and motivations of Australian egg and sperm donors. She has also conducted research exploring the experiences of recipients of egg and sperm donation and has presented her findings at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE), the British Sociological Association, and the FSANZ Annual Conference. She has delivered training for infertility counsellors across Australia, South Africa, Vietnam, Japan and Canada.

Cal brings lived experience to her work, having navigated several rounds of IVF and her own experience of endometriosis. Since joining Thrive in 2025, she has focused on the strategic and governance side of counselling practice, including developing frameworks for informed consent and ethical practice around donor treatment and is returning to direct patient care.