Grounding in embodied possibility

Jem Gay (they/them) is a parent and somatic therapist living on Djaara Country, born on Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Country, and carrying lineages from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Jewish communities of Eastern Europe. Drawn to non-binary and fluid ways of being, Jem’s practice tends the fertile ground where body, ancestry, and earth meet.

Their work grows from lived experience of trauma and the search for coherence, kinship, and belonging. Jem’s path has been shaped by diverse trainings — from Somatic Experiencing and trauma-informed facilitation to meditation, yoga, and ecological psychology — always seeking ways these practices can be woven into collective resilience and ecological belonging. They were deeply shaped by years of study and facilitation with Collective Being, whose commitment to accessibility and relational practice continues to inform Jem’s orientation today. Jem now assists on the Somatic Experiencing® training Melbourne cohort, continuing to deepen within this lineage of trauma repair and embodied resilience. This role reflects a commitment to both learning and tending — honouring the roots of Somatic Experiencing while allowing the work to evolve in relationship with ecology, ancestry, and community.

Through Nurturing Ground, Jem invites co-created processes of nervous system coherence and story-weaving. Their work is less about fixing and more about tending — cultivating belonging with body, kin, and the living world. In these threshold times, Jem holds space for stories to be remembered, composted, and re-imagined together.