Do you feel lonely? 

Are you struggling to meet likeminded people? 

Do you want to create deeper connections in your life? 

Join Carey Kirk at the next ACL Meet-up! 

As a trained ACL Global Leader, Carey facilitates monthly ACL Meet-ups in Lausanne. These meet-ups are in-person and take place at Lausanne Therapy Space on Sunday mornings from 10am-12pm. 

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What is an ACL Meet-up? 

ACL Meet-ups are safe spaces designed to help you connect more deeply to yourself and others. Each meet-up is 2 hours long and will be based around a monthly theme that will focus our conversations and interactions. To help us explore the theme, each meeting will include a short meditation, journalling prompts, and opportunities to connect with people in pairs or small groups.  Due to this, we recommend bringing your own notebook and pen. 

ACL meet-ups are not a form of therapy and are open to everyone age 18+

Meet-ups are conducted in English.  

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Is there a fee to attend meet-ups?

Meet-up attendance is on a donation-basis. The suggested donation is 10 CHF per meet-up. 

If this amount is not possible for you, please feel free to donate whatever you can. 

No one will be turned away due to an inability to donate. 

Donations can be made in cash at the end of the meeting or online

All donations go towards the running of ACL Global Project and the ACL Meet-ups. 

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What is ACL Global Project? 

ACL Global Project is a nonprofit organisation created in 2015 by Mavis Tsai, a psychologist and research scientist at the University of Washington and the co-founder of Functional Analytic Psychotherapy, to share the key components of Awareness, Courage and Love (ACL) that have proven to be so powerful in intentionally creating connection with oneself and others. ACL Global Project’s goal is to help alleviate the growing public health epidemic of loneliness and social isolation that is affecting people globally by giving people the tools and opportunity to practice intentionally creating amazing connections with ourselves, the people we love, and even strangers, wherever we are. You can find more information at https://www.livewithacl.org/

This workshop is about connecting to others in a way that feels safe and respectful of ourselves.

Trust allows us to know when it is safe to open up and connect, and when it is wiser to walk away or close off. 

Being able to reach out to others while staying centered in our own self brings meaning and vitality to life and relationships. 

You will leave knowing how to connect to others in a way that is authentic and respectful of your own experience of trust and opening up. 

Themes we will cover

• What is connection? 

• Your personal connection strategy

• Connecting to oneself first - learning to dance on our own

• Connecting to others: Dancing with other people

• Empathy + holding a space for connection

• The role of vulnerability in cultivating connection

• Misusing vulnerability: Floodlighting 

• Trust - knowing when and how to trust

• Dealing with rejection

• The crucial art of walking away

• Opening up while staying authentic

The workshop lasts 3.5 hours from 13:30 - 17:00 and includes a break + homemade snack.

The information shared is a unique mix of wisdom from: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) / Sensorimotor Psychotherapy / Brené Brown.

We will combine theoretical knowledge with fun, practical exercises where we also work with a felt sense of what is happening in the body.

Cost

90 CHF, including handout + snack.

After signing-up, you will receive an invoice which you can pay by bank transfer or credit card. Your sign-up is confirmed once payment is received.

Where

Lausanne Therapy Space - 6th floor

18 rue du Grand-Pont

1003 Lausanne

Sign-up

Please sign-up to secure your spot as space is limited to a small group of about 8 people.

How about ending the year a little wiser?

Join us on these Sunday afternoons of growth and learn practical skills to cultivate your internal village of thoughts, emotions, needs, desires - what makes you uniquely YOU.

This series of workshops is about:

Owning your village: Boundaries + Assertiveness

Getting to know your village: Emotions + Intuition

Authentically relating to others: Connection + Trust

A workshop for men

Do you sometimes wish there was an instruction manual for how to be there for a woman when she is upset or emotional? 

Does it feel like regardless of what you say or do, nothing seems to help - and it might even make things worse when you try to ‘fix’ the problem?

This practical workshop is co-facilitated by Carl Wahlers, Founder of men’s support group, Blokes & Black Dogs and Hiba Samawi, Psychologist at Wiser Humans & Lausanne Therapy Space.

It is aimed at men who want to be the hero women need - regardless of whether they are currently in a relationship or not. 

You will learn:  

• How women are different to men when facing problems. 
• How to put in place healthy boundaries so you can be there for her without losing yourself. 
• Simple tools for dealing with situations such as complaints and confusion. 
• How to be present in an effective way. 

Our goal is that you leave this workshop with a different definition of what it means to be her hero: Not as someone who needs to save or fix her, but as someone who can be there for her the way she needs, while standing in your strength. 

When + Where

September 19 - 19:30 - 21:30

Impact Hub Lausanne - Rue du Jura 11 - 1004 Lausanne

Cost

50 CHF

Join us!

A monthly peer to peer support group for English-speaking guys to talk openly about issues they are facing in life. 

Run by Carl Wahlers - sign-up below to join the next group taking place June 28. 

Do you notice that you often repeat certain patterns in your relationships (both romantic and others)? 

Maybe others take advantage of how nice you are and you feel resentment or frustration - like nobody supports you. 

Maybe you play small, take up as little space as possible or try to be easy-going and cool - and then feeling unseen or unappreciated. 

Maybe you help everyone out, are always there for them...but nobody is really there for YOU. 

Or you might feel cut off, disconnected, distant from other people - like nobody really understands you. 

The patterns we repeat in relationships make sense. They are often how we learned to act as children to be in connection with others and to be valued - and this relationship blueprint is what still guides us today as adults. 

It isn’t our fault - and it also isn’t our destiny. 

By better understanding why we do what we do, we can start to question and change how we show up in our relationships instead of just doing what we’ve always done.

This interactive talk will mix attachment theory and boundary styles to help explain in a fun way common relationship patterns. 

Location: Lausanne Therapy Space - 18 rue du Grand-Pont - 1003 Lausanne

Cost: 40 CHF

Space is limited - please sign-up here. 

A creative workshop for teen girls to learn to deal with emotions

Facilitated by Psychological Counselors Julianna Dragos, M.A. & Carey Kirk, M.Ed

It's not always easy to deal with emotions- especially the hard ones. Facing them can be overwhelming and opening up to others can be scary. 

In this workshop, we're going to explore our emotions through improv, art, and writing so we can get to know them better. 

Because the better we understand our feelings, the better we can deal with them.

Location: Lausanne Therapy Space - 18 rue du Grand-Pont - 1003 Lausanne

Cost: 150 CHF

A Workshop for Men Who Want to Act from Strength

Charles Darwin’s survival of the fittest is often understood as the survival of the strongest - yet what he meant was that survival of a species depends not on sheer force, but on the ability to be aware of and adapt to the environment - to the wilderness.

This is the broader definition of strength we will use in this workshop for men: We will explore what it means to be a man who is confident, assertive and adaptable, and not afraid of standing in and acting from his strength. 

We will use a mix of exercises and explorations from the world of Psychology to explore how to:

1. Overcome the obstacles in the way. 

2. Understand the boundaries of any man's strength - what he can and cannot shape in life and relationships.

3. Adapt to cues from the environment: Knowing when to be solid as a rock and when to be fluid like water.

4. Better communicate with members of the tribe: Tools for relationships. 

By the end of this exploration, you will discover a broader definition of strength based not on brute force but on assertiveness, confidence and adaptability. 

You will be able to start acting from your own strength in a way that is attractive and assertive without being overpowering.

Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless - like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. - Bruce Lee

when + where 

Saturday March 24 -14:00 - 17:30 @ Lausanne Therapy Space in central Lausanne - 18 rue du Grand-Pont, 1003 Lausanne

cost

60 CHF

a little about us

Hiba studied psychology in Lausanne, and worked for eight years in the international corporate world. Following a six-month travel sabbatical, she realised she wanted to return to her original passion: Psychology. 

Hiba refined her psychological training by focusing on acceptance and compassion in the therapy room, offering her clients a set of skills and tools to help them better navigate their lives.

She works in private practise with both men and women in Geneva and Lausanne.

why a mixed gender facilitation?

We met last year as part of the same peer supervision group and both expressed an interest in working with men in a group format. 

We share an interest in the topic of what it means to be a man in the age of #metoo, where men are asked to be vulnerable and show sensitivity, yet still expected to be strong.

We decided to hold this workshop as a man / woman team in order to share different perspectives - both a lived experience of being a man and that of a woman experiencing this from the other side. 

Hiba says of Aernout:

Aernout brings a wealth of life experience, of deep questioning and insight on what it means to be a man.  Even though he works in a field that is typically considered feminine, and shows incredible empathy and sensitivity, he also embodies strength and masculinity. I feel honoured to work with him in creating this experience!

Aernout says of Hiba:

“Hiba brings great experience, warmth, humour and power of presence to any engagement I’ve witnessed her in. She has tremendous insight into some of the challenges modern men face: How to be authentic, how to be real, how to be strong without being aggressive. I’m looking forward to facilitating this workshop with her, because she works hard to help others shine in their own right.”

Join us - let us know you if you are interested

How do we create intimacy in non-romantic relationships?

What holds us back from feeling more connected to other people?

How can we create a village around us instead of relying on one person to fulfil us?

These are the questions we will explore through a mix of open-hearted discussions / exercises + insights from the psychology of intimacy.

And because it is Valentine's Day after all, we will also enjoy some chocolate together! 

Cost: 20 CHF 

Everyone (men, women, single, not single, it's complicated) is welcome! 

When: Wednesday February 14 - 19:30 - 21:15

Where: At Lausanne Therapy Space in central Lausanne (18 rue du Grand-Pont, 1003 Lausanne)

This event is led by Hiba Samawi, Psychologist FSP from Wiser Humans. 

Space is limited - please sign-up:

Overcome self-doubt + do what matters 

I’ll do it when I feel more confident.

How many times have you said this to yourself?  

Do doubts and fears about yourself hold you back from fully living your life?

What if there was a way to build confidence instead of just waiting for it to happen?

Join this Yoga + Psychology Urban Retreat led by Ludmila, Yoga Teacher and Hiba, Psychologist and overcome the doubts and fears that are keeping your life small.

We will combine yoga focused on the Manipura Chakra (personal power) with a scientifically validated approach based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).

You will learn a new way to approach confidence so you can start doing the stuff that matters to you. 

You will leave with effective skills to build self-confidence in any life situation and and a felt sense of the strength present in your body.

No previous experience in yoga needed. 

when

Sunday February 11 -13:00 - 17:00

where

Ooom Studio - Rue de Bourg 20 1003 Lausanne

cost

110 CHF or 90 CHF if you bring a friend. This includes yoga, workshop, handouts and a healthy snack.

join us

Space is limited - please sign-up below:

Download the flyer here