About Collective Being
Our Purpose
The wellbeing gap is real — and it’s getting wider.
Across Australia, many people and communities are navigating stress and trauma without the support they deserve. Care is too frequently costly, clinical, or out of reach.
Collective Being exists to change this.
Founded in 2017, we are the only organisation of our kind in Australia. We provide accessible, body-based support that builds on people’s strengths, wisdom, and capacity to heal. Our programs take place in hospitals, prisons, community health services, libraries, neighbourhood halls, and other everyday spaces — prioritising connection and community.
Our experienced team has 7 years of delivering trauma-informed, inclusive programs that:
Adapt across ages, cultures, and access needs, so everyone feels welcome
Hold space in complex environments, with care and confidence
Collaborate with interpreters and partners, strengthening trust and reach
Work responsively and respectfully, even in fast-changing or high-pressure settings
Apply body-based and mindfulness practices in ways that are research-informed and trauma-aware—making them safer and more accessible for people living with stress, mental health challenges, or trauma.
At the core of what we do is a vision of communities that are connected, well and thriving — with equitable access to somatic mindfulness practices that support both individual and collective wellbeing.
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 50 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
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.
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.
Stay in touch with our activities and events.
Enrolments now open for Term 2 Programs
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Enrolments now open for Term 2 Programs *