A wrap in 2024 for Mindful Consent
October and November 2024 were both huge months for Mindful Consent, with 5 different offerings in three different Australian states.
On October 17th I convened the now-annual Mindful Consent Public Consent Forum in Melbourne, Vic. It was the largest forum to date, with 30 attendees filling the venue. I was incredibly proud to speak to a public group so engaged in discussing consent which included Clinical Psychologists, mental health consumers, PhD candidates, social workers, health and sexuality educators from both Australia and the USA, as well as members of the public. I was excited to present new aspects of consent negotiation that I had been working on, injecting vigour into an already full presentation.
Following the success of the Forum, I delivered the Mindful Consent Model to a small group of attendees at the Oz Kink Fest workshop weekend on October 19th. This time I tailored my new presentation to those who practice alternative relational practices and activities. Discussions of consent and privilege featured prominently during the presentation, and I feel there is much I can actively work on for future iterations of the workshop delivery to unpack what we explored.
On November 7th I delivered the Mindful Consent Model 90min workshop at the Scarlett Alliance National Forum in Brisbane, QLD. I was honoured to deliver to those whom competency in consent negotiation is a safety and survival measure in a work environment different from any other occupation. I offered that SWers are the experts at sexual consent due to the nature of this context, and that consent MUST be understood intersectionally to recognise the effects of stigma and discrimination on this cohort.
On November 10th I delivered the Mindful Consent Model for the first time to the TAFFI Festival (Transgender and Friends Festival Illawarra) in Wollongong NSW. TAFFI had approached me in 2023 to present in 2024 after a couple of years of schedule clashes! I was honoured as a cisgender person to be asked to present my work to a diverse group such as TAFFI, and was also excited to see school teachers who teach gender diverse cohorts in the room. I am privileged to report I now have the reflections of others about the intersection of the Mindful Consent Model and the trans experience of body and gender dysphoria to offer future Mindful Consent workshop attendees.
I continue to deepen my understanding of consent and broaden what I can offer as an educator and consultant every time I present my work, and look forward to more opportunities to do so in 2025.
