WHEEL OF CONSENT® - FOR QUEERS!
With Stella Topaz & Tia Cloher
Fri 30th Oct: 6pm to 8pm
(must attend this 2 hour session to then attend Sat & Sun)
Sat 31st Oct: 10am to 6pm
Sun 1st Nov: 10am to 5pm
The Wheel of Consent® is a model and a practice; it’s a powerful tool to improve the quality of your touch and create clear agreements so you can experience satisfying connection with yourself and others.
In a queer-only space, we'll explore embodied consent, body-freedom, boundaries, communication and touch through the practices of the Wheel of Consent®.
ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP
This workshop guides you through practices of the Wheel of Consent® so you can feel it in your own body; the Wheel of Consent is learnt best by experiencing it.
You’ll explore how to…..
bring attention to sensation in your own skin for greater access to pleasure and choice
notice and trust your desires and limits, and practice how to communicate them
move away from 'going along with’ and towards what you actually want
experience ‘receiving’ and ‘giving’ separately, to explore the difference and know why this matters
practice 'two ways of giving' and 'two ways of receiving' and how these expand the possibilities for pleasure
experience each of the four quadrants of the Wheel of Consent.
The core practices of the Wheel are based on exchanges of touch and can also be explored without touch. We’ll offer options, and you choose what’s best for you.
In this workshop 'touch' is explored as separate from 'sex'. As adults, many of us experience 'sex and touch' as intertwined. This can make it difficult to explore 'touch' free of sexual connotations or expectations. The Wheel can offer great insights on sex and play, but that's a different workshop! This workshop has a non-sexual focus, and clothing stays on.
There are many ways to participate, opting in or out of activities, working solo or with others, with touch, or no touch, taking time to journal, or rest, and changing your mind along the way.
We will support and encourage you to take care of your own needs and preferences throughout the workshop. Choosing is more important than doing.
You can read about us (Stella and Tia) below, and how we facilitate. There will also be an assistant in support of us and of the group. They are experienced in the Wheel, and we will introduce them closer to the workshop.
*Please read the section on 'Payment Options' below before choosing your ticket from the sliding scale.
WHO'S IT FOR
This workshop is specifically for queer people: if this resonates for you, then you are welcome!
‘Queer’ has no single definition. It’s self-identifying; relating to sexuality, gender, bodies, and relationships outside of dominant norms: to LGBTIQA+ people's lived experience and expressions, in community, families, intersectionality and activism; it can be a feeling, a label, a way of seeing, a way of being. It's yours to describe.
This will be a queer-only space, time-out from the hetero-dominant world. Gathering with shared ground, and differences too. An opportunity to explore how the practices of the Wheel can support us in our queerness; in how we relate to ourselves, to each other, and within our queer communities.
No knowledge or experience of the Wheel is needed. You are welcome if it's very new to you, or if you have experience with the Wheel.
Whether you are shy or outgoing, comfortable in groups or less so, you are welcome. You can come along solo, or with partner/s, friend/s, others.
You can go at your own pace, and opt in or out of the activities offered. Participation is possible in many different ways.
Location
The Dale Studio - in the Library Room
27-39 Abercrombie St, Chippendale NSW 2008, Australia
ORIGINS OF THE WHEEL OF CONSENT®
The Wheel of Consent® was developed by Dr Betty Martin over many years, drawing on her 40+ years hands-on experience first as a chiropractor, then as a sex worker, and a somatic sex educator. Workshops and professional trainings are now run all over the world by certified facilitators as well as through the School of Consent.
You don't need to come with any prior knowledge of the Wheel but if you are curious to find out more, ‘'The Art of Receiving and Giving'’ by Dr Betty Martin with Robyn Dalzen, was released in 2021, in hard copy, e-book and audiobook. You can also find free videos and other resources about the Wheel by Betty here and the School of Consent here.
PAYMENT OPTIONS
We offer a sliding scale for different financial circumstances so that you can choose what aligns for you.
$400 is the standard rate. There is a $300 rate if you are low-resourced, and $500 if you are well-resourced. We rely on a mix across these ticket prices* to be able to offer this sliding scale and some lower cost places.
There are a small number of tickets from $150 - $280 if you are not able to afford the $300 rate.
There's an option to help with some light tasks during the workshop days as an exchange, but this is not required or viable for everyone, so please get in touch either way to discuss these tickets.
You can pay in installments for any ticket: just contact us to arrange!
*Humanitix charges a booking fee on top for each ticket.
SICKNESS POLICY
Please don't come if you have an infectious illness or symptoms eg: acute respiratory, gastro symptoms.
There may be people who are immunocompromised or live with someone who is, and we aim to minimise presence and transmission of acute illnesses.
We ask that everyone takes a Covid test within 24 hrs before we start and that you do not come if its positive.
Masks are welcome though not required, and we promote handwashing practices and will have hand sanitiser available.
Please also read our Refund policy, and if you have any questions or comments please contact us.
Refund policy
Until 6pm AEST Sun 25th October --100% refund of ticket price (excl booking fees) After 6pm AEST Sun 25th Oct to 6pm Wed 28th Oct -- 60% refund of ticket price (excl booking fees) -- 100% of ticket price if we fill your spot (excl booking fees) **LATE cancellations after 6pm AEST Wed 28th Oct: -- 60% refund if we fill your place by midday Fri 28th Aug (excl booking fees) -- NO refund if we can't fill your place by midday Fri 28th Aug or for cancellations after that time No ticket transfers to another person without prior discussion with us. Please contact us to discuss cancellation or transfer.
Queer Inbody
Queer Inbody is a collaboration between Stella Topaz and Tia Cloher, offering groups and workshops for queer people to come together for embodied learning, and practice.
Grounded in the Wheel of Consent®, sexological bodywork, and somatic approaches, Queer Inbody centres lived experience, choice, and the wisdom of the body. Our work invites a slowing down - creating space to notice sensation, explore desire and limits, and practise relating with more clarity, honesty, and care.
As facilitators, we are shaped by our queerness, our different lived experiences, and a shared commitment to consent, anti-oppressive practice, and cultures of care. We value the richness and diversity within LGBTIQA+ communities, and create spaces that welcome a wide range of bodies, identities, relationships, and ways of being.
Stella Topaz - Abundant Body
I'm a Certified Sexological Bodyworker, a Wheel of Consent® facilitator, and sex and body educator. Previously a registered nurse for 40 years, I worked in community-based sexual health, HIV, and LGBTIQA+ health. Through my own practice I now see people online and in-person (in Newtown and Wollongong), and offer workshops, groups, consultation and speaking requests.
I’m a queer, cis, older femme, (she/her), neurodivergent, of Irish German lineage, loving cultures of care, intergenerational queer kinships, and embodied consent practices. My queerness and feminism are trans-affirming. I'm a mother and a grandmother, an active learner in anti-oppressive practices, anti-racism, and socially-just communication.
Radically clear agreement-making is glorious; in touch, sex, kink, and relationships, in friendships, communities, work dynamics, and everyday relating.
Living on Dharawal Country, Wollongong, Australia. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.
Tia Cloher -tiacloher.com.au
I’m a somatic counsellor, intimacy coach, and facilitator offering spaces for people to reconnect with themselves and their bodies. I’m guided by the belief that meaningful change can happen through building a relationship with the body, learning to trust one’s own experience, and remembering you have a choice.
I’m a Certified Sexological Bodyworker and Somatic Sex Educator, a practitioner of the Wheel of Consent®, and am trained in embodied counselling, mind-body coaching and process-oriented approaches.
I live and work on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people (Melbourne, Australia) and my client work and certain group offerings are also available online worldwide. I’m white, queer, non-binary (they/them), and neurodivergent, and I bring an ongoing awareness of power, identity, and lived experience into the way I hold space. I’m particularly committed to working with LGBTIQA+ communities, and to offering spaces that are grounded, curious, and consent-led.
CONTACT US!
If there's anything you'd like to discuss before booking, please do get in touch.
Your questions on any aspects of the workshop are very welcome!
Stella Topaz & Tia Cloher
Queer Inbody
This workshop takes place on the land of the Gadigal people of the Dharug Nation. We pay respects to Elders past and present, and acknowledge the continuing care and custodianship of this land. Always was and Always will be Aboriginal land.