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ABOUT ME

An image of Zan Maeder, doula and counsellor in Adelaide, smiling, wearing a colourful shirt and yellow cardigan in front of rainbow stripes in pastel yellow, orange, rust and peach.

Hi there! I'm Zan (they/them)

 

Since I was a little person, and well before I knew how to speak about it, I've had a strong sense that our world does not care for everyone equally. I've spent the time since then trying to make sense of and carve out a role for myself in disrupting this state of things.

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Relationships have become my life's work. I believe that the to make change on a global scale, we must attend to the most micro of our interactions: with those we love, those we work with, those we don't know, with the lands and waters we live on and the creatures we share them with. Which is what has drawn me to counselling and doula work. 

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After working in community services for many years, I discovered the work of the Dulwich Centre and dove

head first into a Masters of Narrative Therapy and Community work.

I began my practice as a counsellor in a family counselling team specialising in family violence and sexual violence. In my time there I set up a service to support trans young people and their families. This work helped me grow the roots that I needed to strike out on my own.

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More recently, my experience of conceiving, carrying and birthing my first baby in my queer, non-binary family has sparked a fiery passion for supporting other families (of all kinds) through these kaleidoscopic and tectonic shifts.

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HOW I WORK

The personal is the political is the professional. I do not see myself as separate from the the folks I work with. I am shaped by our work together.

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I see the you as the expert in your life. Not me. My job is not to advise you on what to do. It is to support you to reconnect with all the wisdom and skill you already have and to bring forth your values and beliefs that may guide your choices in the future.

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Although my ways of working differ depending on my role (counsellor, doula, facilitator), my practice is always informed by intersectional feminism and my lived experience as a queer person. What this really means is:

  • I deeply value respect, and I will not assume I know what that looks like to you, so where possible I will ask you;

  • I will always be paying attention to and curious about how the context of your life is influencing your sense of identity and what feels possible;

  • I believe that struggle often coexists with resistance, pleasure, connection and any number of other things- you don't have to be either/or, you can be both/and and I'm here for all of it; and

  • I am committed to considering how my privilege limits my perspective and all the ways that I risk perpetrating oppression. I welcome the courageous generosity it takes for folks to let me know about any harm I have caused.

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Get in touch

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