Hey Caddyshackers

You know how we love a good inception story? Well, we thought we’d take you back to the start of “On The Couch”. This is our annual webinar (and soon to be) podcast series where we host a guest(s) and chat about topics around sex and relationships that matter.

LET’S GO BACK A BIT

Way back in BC (Before Covid) we used to host sessions called on On The Couch (OTC) at the Nan Tien Institute in Unanderra.

Side note: If you haven’t been to the Nan Tien Temple it’s well worth the visit. Established in 1995 it has stunning grounds, a peaceful atmosphere, the food is amazing, loads of activities, tai chi, meditation, calligraphy & retreats.

When we started On The Couch, it was a capped, intimate event of about 20 people with a panel of speakers on various topics, hosted Q&A style like Insight on SBS.

We had some great sessions, with topics such as Transgender, Sex Workers, Injecting Drug Users, Living with HIV, LGLBTQ, Sex & Disability, Body altering drug use, the Culturally & Linguistically Diverse community & HIV. We have so much gratitude to the people who gave their time freely to join us on the panel, and generously shared their stories. Too many to name, but here are a few stand outs.

SPESH SHOUT OUTS

Teddy Cook is ACON’S Director of community health, where he oversees client services and LGBTQ+ health, equity, and harm reduction programs and wellbeing. Watch his powerful speech to parliament in 2021 as then Vice President of Australian Professional Association of Trans Health (AusPATH).

Dai Aoki is an active member of the Sydney gay community and has been HIV positive for more than 20 years. Dai migrated to Australia in 2001, from Japan. Dai is also a keen advocate for HIV positive people, a HIV positive public speaker with Positive Life NSW Positive Speakers Bureau (PSB).

Zainab Ali Kahiye is a Somalian woman who has lived with HIV for 40 years. A mother of six and grandmother to eleven, Zainab has called Australian home since 1998. Fluent in English, Somali, Swahili and Indonesian, Zainab works as an interpreter and co-worker with the Multicultural HIV and Hep C Service (MHAHS). She is a HIV positive public speaker with Positive Life NSW Positive Speakers Bureau (PSB).

Saul Ibister is a Sex worker activist and President of Touching Base Inc. Saul has over 30 years' experience as a sex worker in both New Zealand and Australia and is co-editor of the Touching Base Policy and Procedural Guide for disability service providers supporting clients to access sex services (2010). Saul has a keen interest in professional development as a sex worker and has experience seeing clients with a range of special needs.

Julie Bates is the Principal of Urban Realists Planning & Health Consultants. She is also a sex worker and has been a harm reduction advocate and sex worker rights activist for more than half her life. Today she is a political lobbyist for the decriminalisation of sex work and social researcher investigating harms associated with legislative regimes that criminalise aspects of the sex industry. Her sex work practice today focuses on senior citizens living with a range of disabilities including dementia both in and outside of care facilities.

Dianne Nyoni is a national public speaker, blogger and entrepreneur. Dianne is a loving mother of four children and has previously worked in the field of Domestic Violence and supporting people through trauma. She has a degree in Social Science and has been on numerous boards and was the former chair of the National Women’s Network for women living with HIV. Dianne is passionate about raising awareness and empowering people to stop new HIV infections after surviving her own AIDS diagnosis 15 years ago.

Where we’re up to now

Fast forward to now and why we shifted to being online and more intentional about our digital presence. We touched on the “On The Couch” webinars in the April 2023 blog.

OTC is a bit like the old iceberg analogy. The one hour webinar is the tip of the iceberg, but loads goes into making that one hour actually happen beneath the surface. We have a modest budget for speakers as of course we want to honour and value people’s time (but most guests appear pro bono) and we do the bulk of the back end work to make the experience as seamless as possible for them.

It’s one of those strange things that when you look at the overview of an annual calendar, take out all the school holidays and bump in and out around public holidays (obvs December and January are a wipe out), there are only a few solid months to promote and run webinars. We have found 6-8 OTC guests per annum to be the ideal amount.

Beneath the berg

Creating a webinar checklist involves selecting guests, locking in a date, building tickets, PowerPoint book ends, thumbnail tiles for promotion across all platforms and so on. One of the things we need to be very mindful of, is, if we do record the webinar, is the guest happy to have that loaded onto our YouTube channel in perpetuity, or for a limited time, or as an unlisted video that only those people who registered will get the link to. Maddy also likes to use bites from the recording to use for reels on The Gram, all with the hosts permission and consent of course! Coming soon! We are behind the scenes turning the publicly listed webinars into podcasts. Launching in June 2024!

Anyway, a quick look back at previous online OTC episodes and some of the fab guests you may want to catch up on either by watching or listening to the recordings.

Maggie Smith (they/her) is the Clinical Nurse Consultant at the t150 Service, one of Australia’s first publicly funded trans specific HIV and sexual health services at The Albion Centre in Sydney, Australia. They have over 20 years experience working in HIV, sexual and transgender health.

Ruiqi Fan (she/her) is a Clinical Nurse Specialist at the Sydney Sexual Health Centre, Sydney, Australia. Ruiqi shares her journey from being an international student in Sydney to working in the field of sexual health with members of culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

Chris Cheers (he/him) is a psychologist and educator based in Melbourne, Australia. He is passionate about creating accessible, accepting and safe spaces where people become empowered to reach their life goals. Chris brings a rich experience and understanding of the arts industry in providing specialised mental health care to clients who work in acting, music, dance, other arts workers and workers in creatives industries.

Aleks Trkulja (she/her) is a certified sex therapist and clinical counsellor running a private practice in Eora (Sydney) Australia. Aleks has specialty training in issues of mental health, sexual function, relationships, and eating disorders. Her therapeutic practice is sex-positive, trauma-informed, and guided by multiple evidence-based therapeutic approaches.

Sophie Keeffe (they/them) is a Community Health Promotion Officer at ACON, Sydney, Australia in the Trans Health Equity Team. Sophie works on the peer resilience building workshop program Trans Vitality, adding to resources on TransHub or one of ACON's other Trans programs.

Nurse Nettie (she/her) is a sexual health nurse based at the Sydney Sexual Health Centre, Sydney, Australia answering sexual health and relationship questions from young people, aged 15-29 across NSW. Nurse Nettie is passionate about de-stigmatizing Sexually Transmissible Infections (STIs) & HIV and making health information accessible and inclusive for everyone.

Liz Dore (she/her) and Jan Maguire (she/her) from Relationships & Private Stuff are counsellors in Sydney, Australia working with people to help them achieve their educational, employment and personal goals. People on the autism spectrum, with disability or brain injury face the same issues as other people when it comes to relationships. Friendship is important and the desire to love and be loved, whether as a friend or an intimate companion, is a drive that defines a person in a way that no disability ever can.

Still to come in 2024!

Get your free tickets and be part of the live online audience for an On The Couch visual podcast episode.

In May, Danyelle Mei Kaplan from Magkasama with Egan Magee from Every Body

In August, Laura Crozier from Youth Affairs Council of Victoria

In September, Dr Tessa Opie & from In Your Skin with Kerrin Bradfield

In October Rachel Wotton with Mohammed Samrah

In December Josef Garrington from ACON

Register here

One more time! We are currently exploring podcast production of previous episodes. Stay tuned and you will be seeing Caddyshack on your favourite podcast app this year.

Until next time.

Peace, love & protection

x

Behind The Couch