what to expect
Online & in-person sessions
What to expect in our sessions
Sessions are collaborative spaces to access ongoing or short term support. They are led by you, which means what you want to talk about and the way you want to be supported are prioritised.
The focus of sessions can include a deep dive and awareness into your experiences and identities, a place for developing skills, tools, strategies and practices, for nervous system resourcing, for connection and for sensory and emotional regulation,
You do not have to arrive at a session knowing exactly what you want. Our role as practitioners is to ask useful questions and share our knowledge and perspectives so that we can guide you and clarify our intention and focus together so we have a direction and sense of purpose in our work.
The way sessions unfold is usually non linear - this means on the surface it may look like all we have to do to for change to happen is x, y and z. In reality, a range of unexpected interconnected things will emerge and the process can be much slower.
Reflecting and thinking about your process of change can be useful. Change is a process that happens overtime; it requires intention, it is relational, it happens within awareness and through practice, it often includes a combination of discomfort and sitting at the edges of your window of capacity as well as finding ways regulate and create safety to grow.
Doing your practices and homework, thinking, reflecting, reading and connecting outside of sessions will support your work and change within a session.
Our practitioners politicize therapy (see Decolonizing Therapy by Dr Jennifer Mullan). We acknowledge and attempt to mitigate power dynamics by not framing ourselves as the expert, through sharing our own experiences of vulnerability and humanity without centring ourselves and by being congruent, allowing you to lead, inviting you to share your wisdom and insight, asking you to let us know how you want to be supported and welcome and hold feedback and what isn’t working without consequences and giving you choices in this work.
Unlike traditional therapy, our sessions are a place of support which includes care, curiosity, validation, new perspectives, sexual/pleasure/relational skills and education, a regular place of support, learning skills and practices for becoming more embodied and aware, expanding your capacity to stay with emotions and be with difficult experiences while also experiencing pleasure and connection.
The goal of sessions is not to treat you, fix you or diagnose a “problem”, “disorder”, “dysfunction” or “mental illness”. Most of the difficulties that people face and why they arrive in therapy is not due to them failing as individuals. Nor is it because they are “broken”, “mentally ill”, “abnormal”, “pathological”, “lazy” or “that they just need to work or try a little bit harder to be better”, but because we live within systems that are deeply entrenched within white supremacy, colonisation, capitalism, patriarchy and that are racist, ableist, queerphobic throughout all structures of society.
What is embodied counselling?
Embodiment processes are a relational, co-created, purposeful and trauma-informed way to build more awareness, create more choice, regulate our nervous systems and is an integral part of the process of change. Growing in embodiment involves learning how to intentionally place awareness into the present moment and increase capacity for feeling, sensing and connecting within our communities and environments. This approach to therapy is interested in meaning making, what you’re feeling and what experiencing in all aspects of your self or soma.
The soma refers to all the intersecting parts of an organism, from your identity, gender, race, disability, the environment you live in, your relationships, your stories, your narratives, feelings and meaning, to the erotic, your experiences of arousal and your sensorimotor asepcts (which what’s happening in your body - such as muscle tension and movement and sensations from your organs such as your heart and lungs).
Embodiment practitioners can support you to recognise how all these aspects of your self are interconnected realms, rather than seperate experiences, and find ways to explore them with curiosity. Embodied counselling approaches recognise the usefulness of placing awareness into these different elements.
in person & online sessions
In person and online sessions are accessible for disabled people. The space has wheelchair and power-chair access and disabled toilets in the main building. Our room in Hawthorn has comfortable seating for those in larger bodies and it is a low-sensitivity space for those with sound and sight sensitivities.
Duration: Appointments run for 60 minutes and can be extended up to 75 or 90 minutes in advance.
Cost: from $200 (GST inclusive) for individual sessions and $265 (GST inclusive) for relationship sessions. If finances are a barrier, we offer sliding scale/low cost sessions. Note: there is currently a wait for reduced fee sessions. Please complete the form to be added to the waiting list for a free reduced place https://forms.gle/rjd8reTswpy714nw6
Cancellation policy: Cancellations more than 48 hours before the session will have no charge, cancellations between 24-48 hours will be 50% of the full fee and cancellations less than 24 hours will incur the full fee. If you’re unable to make your session please contact us and let us know.
Online location: Zoom or Facetime for video chat, phone call or What’s App, signal, telegram or Skype Messenger for text-based chat support, Mondays, Wednesdays & Thursdays, morning and afternoons
In- person location: SWell Centre - 2 Minona St, Hawthorn VIC 3122 - Monday & Thursday, morning and afternoons
Experiences of people who have worked with Kass