I love doing workshops and education sessions for groups and organisations, on sexuality, disability, gender, trauma, and survival. These are the workshops I have available right now:
- Your Yes, Your No, and Your May I? A Practical, Body-Based Approach to Consent Skills. (Presented at Playground 2015.)
What do you want? How can you ask for it? How do you respond to someone else’s offer? How well do you hear the answer? In this workshop participants will practice tuning into their bodies in order to understand whether they wish to say yes, no, or maybe to a (sexual or otherwise) activity — and then practice asking and responding to consent queries. This session was developed with a grounding in the experience of survivors of sexual trauma. - Healing Sexuality 101: A Workshop for Sexual Abuse Survivors
Are you a survivor who would like to heal their sexuality, but has no idea where to get started? Or do you feel overwhelmed whenever the topic of sexuality comes up, and anxious that you’ll never feel at ease about yourself as a sexual person? This workshop is a starting-from-scratch discussion, with many practical exercises, of the foundations of healthy sexuality. Participants will be learning the necessary ‘basic’ stuff that can then be used as building blocks to develop their own unique sexuality and their sexual self, including practical steps to making friends with their bodies and practicing embodied consent skills. - Gender Self-Advocacy 101
If you’ve ever been misgendered, pried at about your gender, treated without basic human decency for being trans, or forced to perform Trans Education 101 in order to be accorded said basic decency — and want to learn how to advocate for yourself so this shit happens less often and/or is less egregious, this workshop is for you. You will learn some basics of self-advocacy, discuss common Terrible Misgendering Situations you encounter, come up with you-specific scripts for what to say & do (I will also hand out a list of starter scripts), and will get to practice your new skills. Also, I might relate a few satisfying success stories of self-advocacy for encouragement. - Disability Self-Advocacy
How to advocate yourself as a disabled person: ask for your access needs effectively, shut down inappropriate questions, interrupt being treated like an object or someone not fully human, and deploy allies when needed. As with the Gender Self-Advocacy session, participants will learn some basics of self-advocacy, discuss common Terrible Situations they encounter, come up with them-specific scripts for what to say & do (I will also hand out a list of starter scripts), and will devote some time to practicing their skills. Also, I might relate a few satisfying success stories of self-advocacy for encouragement. - Intense! Expressing & Healing Strong Emotional Experiences through Poem Writing
If you have difficulty managing, or even knowing, your emotional states, if you have difficult feelings, or painful/traumatic experiences, that you’re having trouble letting go of, this arts-based life skills workshop might be for you. As participants you will learn about knowing and describing your emotional states, connecting to your bodies, and creating a container via words for your emotions. You will also be guided in writing a few short poems that express/release your strong emotions.
I am currently developing other sessions, on sexuality, disability, trauma, and gender, and more specific workshops for survivors. If you have a workshop idea that falls within my areas of passion/focus, do get in touch (Kamila.Rina.catalyst at gmail dot com) and let’s talk about it.