Northside Somatic Sexology
Tia
Cloher
Year of training:
2025
Related qualification:
Am a Certified Sexological Bodyworker through ISS, and am currently completing my Certificate in Somatic Sex Education (graduating in Jan 2026)
How many and what type of workshops/classes have you previously facilitated?
Very new to facilitating workshops! Have facilitated seven, and will have a lot more under my belt by the time FEAST rolls around. Have taught a couple of erotic embodiment classes, some workshops around boundaries/limits/consent (including Wheel of Consent content), and a bit of leadership development stuff in the community org space.
What qualities do you bring to your facilitation?
Curiosity and openness, excitement about experimentation and the human experience, ability to elicit and tease apart complex ideas, somatic engagement
What relevant skills and experience/qualifications do you have in addition to Sexological Bodywork?
I'm certified in embodied counselling (which is currently most of my work) and mind-body coaching, have trained with Betty Martin and have been engaged with that bodywork of work for a long time (currently assisting on the local Like a Pro trainings). I have over 12 years experience as a sex worker, and I have long been involved in kink community and ethical non-monogamy practice.
Facilitator Bio
Tia Cloher (they/them) is a Sexological Bodyworker and Somatic Counsellor based on Wurundjeri country in Naarm/Melbourne. They’re interested in the expansive potential of group spaces and the ways that embodied practice can resource communities, particularly those built around struggle. They founded Northside Somatic Sexology with a commitment to bringing Somatic Sex Education and Sexological Bodywork to queer and trans community, and through this work and their somatic counselling practice are also passionate about supporting those with lived experience in sex work, kink & BDSM and alternative relationship structures.
Workshop 1 Name:
WANTING
# of participants:
12-30
Workshop 1 duration:
2 Hour Workshop
Equipment needed:
Cushions
Workshop 1's Intention:
'- Opportunity for participants to explore and gain insight around their relationship to wanting, especially through social/group engagement and connection.
- Invitation for more curiosity and active engagement in the process of desire, an expanded sense of what’s possible, and more self-permission to connect to wants that might be big, vulnerable, or beyond what they’ve historically allowed for themselves.
Workshop 1 rough format:
Will use the ESA(R) model, and there will be a mix of solo innerwork, small group work and large group practice and discussion. Emphasis on somatic and social engagement.
Workshop 1 program description:
How expansive is your wanting? Do you let yourself get creative, vulnerable? Do you find pleasure in the experience of wanting itself, or perhaps you jump immediately to fulfilling your desire? Do you tend to shape your wants around the desire of others, or limit yourself to only certain kinds of desire?
WANT is an exploration of your personal relationship to wanting — how you feel it, express it, suppress it, or make meaning from it. Together, we’ll explore the patterns that shape how (or whether) we let ourselves want, and gently expand our capacity to be in contact with our wants, however big or small.
You’re welcome here whether your desire feels alive and overflowing, distant and dormant, or something you’re still learning how to feel. Come explore the shape, rhythm, and power of your wanting — and what might be possible when you allow it to be fully felt.
Does W1 actively invite nudity?
No
Workshop 2 Name:
The Erotic Potential of Disgust
# of participants:
12-30
Workshop 2 duration:
90 Minute Workshop, 2 Hour Workshop
Equipment needed:
Cushions
Workshop 2's Intention:
'- Opportunity for novel exploration into an emotion that for many may feel far from erotic and pleasurable but may hold a lot of potential.
- Greater insight and possibility around disgust as an experience, and opportunity for playfulness, experimentation and inner work in connection with others.
- A model/practices/tools they may use to explore other kinds of challenging emotional experiences or internal resistance.
Workshop 2 rough format:
Will use the ESA(R) model, and there will be a mix of solo innerwork, small group work and large group practice and discussion. Emphasis on somatic and social engagement.
Workshop 2 program description:
Disgust is one of our most visceral responses — an instinctive contraction, a pulling away, a full-body no. But what if that reaction, rather than being a dead end, is an opportunity for discovery?
The Erotic Potential of Disgust is a guided somatic exploration of an emotion we’re often practiced in avoiding. In this workshop, we’ll slow down and get curious about what disgust feels like in the body, and gently experiment with its edges. What happens when we meet this sensation with awareness, rather than avoidance? Can disgust—like fear, pain, or shame—transform into something rich with erotic charge? Or perhaps disgust already has erotic charge at its core, in the way it moves us, fixates us, or even draws us toward the subject of our repulsion.
This is an invitation to play at the edge of willingness, where resistance may be abundant—to stay with discomfort just long enough to see what might emerge.
Does W2 actively invite nudity?
No
Workshop 3 Name:
Accelerated Intimacy
# of participants:
20-35
Workshop 3 duration:
2 Hour Workshop
Equipment needed:
Cushions
Workshop 3's Intention:
'- On the meta level this workshop intends to amplify common relational dynamics that are cultivated or play out in workshop spaces in terms of social/partner engagement, intimacy and safety. It will invite more awareness in participants around what is actually happening in their nervous systems in partnering with others, as well as how to be responsible in containing meaning-making / feelings of accelerated intimacy during or at the close of a workshop.
- In terms of their everyday lives, participants will come away with tools and practices they can use to nourish and deepen existing relationships or increase feelings of safety and connection in newer dynamics.
Workshop 3 rough format:
Will use the ESA(R) model, and there will be a focus on partnered work supported by guided inner work and large group engagement. Emphasis on social engagement and somatic inquiry.
Workshop 3 program description:
Those of us who frequent workshops know how quickly you can feel deeply at home and connected to others in these kinds of spaces. We’re often called into vulnerability, altered states and meeting our most challenging edges. We’re supported to be in our bodies and the present moment, and engagement with others is often the very foundation of the learning container. This is the process that can support - if not create - deep comfort and connection with strangers and even immediate, lifelong friendships. Alternatively, this process can also be excruciating and even disconnecting, throwing up questions of belonging.
This workshop is a conscious exploration of that process; an experiment in social engagement and vulnerability. We’ll journey through practices that accelerate or play with connection and intimacy (or the lack thereof!), tracking what emerges without attaching to outcome.
Does W3 actively invite nudity?
It's optional but not a central part
Are you happy to facilitate support pods?
Fuck yes!
Are you interested in contributing to/facilitating at pre-retreat events
Very interested!
Is there anything else that you would like us to know as organisers?
'-