Hi, I’m Jo.

I’m a second generation settler from the Scottish Highlands, living and working on the sacred and unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people of the Kulin Nation. I am an educator, researcher, somatics practitioner, and NFP founder. My work lives at the intersection of systems, bodies, and care.

For the past 17 years, I've worked across mental health, education and social justice. I started my career as a secondary school teacher in community education, where I became interested in liberation pedagogy and the work of Paulo Freire, bell hooks (especially Teaching to Transgress), and theorists like Bourdieu, Bernstein and Noddings. As my interest in systems, policy and frameworks grew, I transitioned into strategic and policy roles at the Brotherhood of St Laurence, where I apprenticed in applied systemic change, and oriented to ideas that still inform my thinking, including Advantaged Thinking, social citizenship, and Nussbaum and Sen’s capability approach.

In 2017, I founded Collective Being, a mental health organisation delivering trauma-informed, body-based programs to people experiencing stress, trauma and systemic barriers to care. Applying principles of mutual aid, community-building and emergent strategy, Collective Being has been a prolonged experiment in somatic care. To date, the organisation has supported more than 10,000 people, trained 250+ practitioners, delivered 200+ programs, and partnered with 60+ organisations across health, justice, education, and community settings.

In 2026, I launched a new project, Taking Good Care, centred on the idea that change is something we practice together. Through this project, I will be working with practitioners, leaders and organisations who sense that better systems require deep cultural and embodied change, not just policy change. I also write and share ideas over at How We Change.

I throw the net wide when it comes to study and research, but dive deep when something captivates me. I’ve undertaken over 1,000 hours of training in trauma-informed and somatic approaches, and hold Masters degrees in both Teaching and Education. I also have (quite a few) partially-completed qualifications in law, psychology and social work, elements of which inform my thinking and work.

My approach is shaped by my professional experiences as an educator, community strategist, and non-profit founder, as well as my own lived experiences of chronic stress, trauma, and post-traumatic resilience. I take a relational approach to my work (and life), and deeply value the connections and collaborations that I make along the way.

Above all, I value my role as a friend, daughter, sister, collaborator, community member, and mother. I believe that relationships are the threads that hold everything together, and I’m grateful to be stitched closely to some very special people in this world.

If you are interested in connecting or collaborating, I’d love to hear from you.