Smash the Kyriarchy

I purchase carbon offsets monthly

I work & see clients from home, and during those hours primarily use solar power from our rooftop solar.

However there's obviously a wide range of other things that contribute to my carbon footprint. Each month my business purchases 2 x tonnes of offset from Greenfleet which is about equal to the average use of two Australians (my partner and I).

I work to practice conscious consumerism & to participate in a circular economy

That means prioritising purchase of ethical products from sustainable sources. Buying less. Borrowing things. Buying second hand. Sometimes this is fucking hard. You know? Like the whole The Good Place condundrum. Sometimes there is no right choice, and sometimes, I'm fucking tired and just do the easy thing.

I work to minimise my plastic consumption, to purchase from sustainable sources, and to prioritise companies with social justice missions.

Here's some businesses with strong social justice & environmental ethos that I use (AND I only use them when I also LOVE the products!)

• Who Gives A Crap toilet paper, tissues, and bamboo kitchen towel;
• Zero Co cleaning & body care products; Ethique shampoo bars & moisturiser concentrate
• World of Books is B-Corp certified, and supports a circular econonomy by saving & reselling books (sometimes the books I buy there are new so not always circular, but always on mission). I buy A LOT of books and sometimes go elsewhere if I can't get a specific item here.
• I use refillable whiteboard markers from Auspen (and holy shit I love them more than I can say!)
• I use paper barrel ball point pens which I order from Flora & Fauna

I mean, there's a bunch of other things. It's a work in progress where I pick a thing we buy on the regular and work through how to switch that out for a better thing.

Education, and consistent continuous action are my goals.

I incorporate anti-racist learning into my education by ordering texts that are specifically written to educate therapists about how to better serve different communities.

Speaking up, voting, supporting and amplifying actions are ongoing.

• As a household, we contribute monthly monthly to Kiva and continue to relend.
• As a household we contribute 1% of our annual income as settlers tax to indigenous owned organisations. This is currently Awabakal.org 

I am learning from;

Sharyn Holmes, Layla F Saad, Bruce Pascoe, Ruby Hamad, Sonya Renee Taylor,

This is a place that heavily intersects with, and influence my approach to, and my work with, clients.

Conversations about patriarchal lenses and how they shape our relational patterns are built into the way I structure my sessions & programs, and I am actively and continually iterating to do this better.

I have started working with anti-capitalist and anti-patriarchal business coach Bear Hebert to do this more strategically (and to learn!)

I am learning, and have learned from;

• Bear Hebert - 121 coaching
• Indirectly (books, podcasts, Instagram, articles, interviews) Sonya Renee Taylor, Nkem Ndefo & Rae Johnson, Fairplay and Eve Rodsky, Clementine Ford, Julia Gillard,

I am committed to continually improving accessibility of information, premises, platforms, communication, and events.

That includes endeavouring to provide my content in multiple formats, delivering services both online and in person.

In 2023 I have done a deep audit & update of my website for accessibility.

I've significantly changed the format to be clean & clear, and selected fonts that are both easy to read and also environmentally friendly (arial & helvetica).

I have installed an accessibility plugin that allows individual users to select their preferred browser settings.

From a client work perspective I incorporate and seek out education from disabled communities to better understand how to serve them, as well as to gain a deeper understanding of issues effecting relationships.

I am simultaneously living within a capitalist system, as well as exploring anti-capitalist behaviours. There is nowhere that this is more apparent to me than here, in my business.

In 2021 I restructured the pricing structure of my client work so that there are no discounts for paying up front, nor for buying more sessions. I have also introduced long term, shame-free payment plans.

I am currently (in August 2021) working through a marketing program with Bear Hebert that is specifically designed to learn how to do 'marketing' without replicating systems of oppression. I also highly recommend their three-part webinar series FREELY: An Anti-Capitalist Guide To Pricing Your Work. It really helped me to take some tangible actions in my own business, and to better understand the way I can be in the system, while working against it.

Hint: It's not about not making money!

My anti-capitalist stance is something I am deeply committed to, and is currently leading me down some super interesting paths of learning!

I have started working with anti-capitalist and anti-patriarchal business coach Bear Hebert to do this more strategically (and to learn!)

I am learning, and have learned from;

• Anti-capitalist coach Bear Hebert - 121 coaching
• my good friend Jace (whose understanding of politics, human geography, and being a human is deeply supportive, and whose capacity to explain those things is juuuuussst the right fit for my ND brain)
• Indirectly (books, podcasts, Instagram, articles, interviews) Food Not Bombs,