About Collective Being
We are a movement for collective wellbeing.
Founded in 2017, Collective Being delivers group programs that support mental health through the body.
Using movement, mindfulness and nervous system awareness, we help people manage stress, recover from trauma, and feel more connected, especially those most excluded from mainstream mental health care.
Through our programs, education, advocacy, and public events, we reimagine how care is shared, supported and practiced in everyday life.
Our vision is a future where communities are connected, well, and thriving.
Our approach
Our work is grounded in our Somatic Model of Care.
Underpinned by trauma-informed, body-based, and community-centred practice, this model integrates movement, mindfulness, and nervous system education to support people navigating trauma, stress, and disconnection.
We apply this model across everything we do from our community-based programs to our professional training, public events, and systems advocacy. Whether we’re delivering a program on a hospital ward, working with frontline teams, or contributing to sector change, our model centres the body, relationship and community as essential to recovery, regulation, and connection.
Our commitments
Solidarity, not charity
Our work is guided by those who request and access our services. We use a co-design model that allows us to trial programs and adapt them based on local needs and participant feedback, fostering innovation, creativity and lasting impact.
Accessible and safe
We specialise in a therapeutic, body-centred approach that supports people with lived experiences of trauma, psychosocial disabilities, neurodivergence, chronic illness and mental health challenges to safely access the benefits of mindfulness and movement-based practices. We honour the wisdom of participants and affirm their rights to make choices about their own bodies.
Inch-wide, mile-deep partnerships
We resist big, fast and surface-level interventions, and instead focus on partnerships that nurture slow, steady and sustainable change within communities and organisations. We take a long-term view of systems change, and respect the time and trust it takes to get there. We partner with services, funders and communities who share these values.
Rigorous and consistent
We adopt a rigorous approach to our work, out of respect for our participants, partners and our vision as an organisation. Rigour begins internally and weaves through all aspects of our work — from curriculum design, staff recruitment and training, monitoring and evaluation, to impact reporting.
Grounded in culture and place
We are committed to alleviating systemic injustices and building community resilience through culturally-grounded and socially-just practices. In recognition of the foundational and ongoing trauma enacted by settler colonialism in Australia, our offerings are free for First Nations people and Aboriginal-owned and controlled organisations. This always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.
From Collective Being’s
Founder and Director
“Before launching Collective Being, I spent 10 years working across education, social policy, and community services, focusing on supporting people experiencing systemic barriers. My work as a teacher in a community school introduced me to trauma-sensitive and mindfulness-based practices, which I integrated into my classrooms to help young people to navigate learning. This led me to pursue a Master’s degree in Education, alongside roles in social policy and strategy, where I developed a deeper understanding of how to create meaningful, accessible programs rooted in a vision for systemic change.
In 2016, I designed a trauma-informed mindfulness program for young people; the catalyst for Collective Being. Partnering with our original Co-Founder, Alice Hobday, we began piloting similar programs with other organisations, refining our approach to meet the diverse needs of participants.
By 2017, we officially launched as State of Being, focused on broadening access to yoga and mindfulness. After Alice moved overseas in 2018, we audited our programs and impact, eventually rebranding in 2020 as Collective Being, with a focus on both therapeutic interventions and programs that sustain long-term wellbeing, such as community classes, workshops, and events.
Since then, Collective Being has grown into a thriving non-profit, partnering with 60+ organisations and supporting over 9,000 people. Our programs address the impacts of stress and trauma, and we’ve built a reputation for creating innovative, evidence-based approaches tailored to each community we work with. From therapeutic yoga in hospital wards to supporting crisis workers with somatic practices, we seek to make wellbeing accessible, equitable, and inclusive for all.”
- Jo Buick
Community Wellbeing Fund
To expand our service to those who need it the most, this Fund supports the delivery of free and subsidised Collective Being programs for under-resourced groups. Find out if your organisation is eligible.