The Kerry Gleeson Centre is working to fill the gap in support services
Warning: This article mentions suicide. If you need help, contact Lifeline 13 11 14
The Kerry Gleeson Centre is a recently registered charity and aims to improve mental health and wellbeing on the Beaches.
Kerry Gleeson has worked in mental health and suicide prevention for 15 years, and is a lived experience facilitator for Lifeline, helping run bereavement groups. She facilitates groups for WayAhead and is chair and secretary for other local groups, plus she has a private counselling business.
Through her work, she noticed a gap in support services, with people often feeling overwhelmed, disconnected and unsure where to turn. “People were falling through the gaps, not fitting the eligibility criteria and then feeling failed by services or running out of money after seeing private allied health professionals. By the time they came to me they had no money, felt hopeless and overwhelmed,” Kerry says.
She established the centre in response to the need for more accessible and community-based support. Her vision is to open a centre on the Beaches but currently, she runs support groups on Tuesday evenings at the Tramshed in Narrabeen, offering connection, sounds, relaxation, and breath work.
“We provide tea, biscuits with connection and mutual understanding; I’m finding that it’s the power of connection through a cuppa and providing a welcome safe space that’s impactful. People open up and really connect,” she says.
Being a holistic counsellor, a trauma-informed breath work facilitator, sound healer, meditation teacher, Reiki teacher and master, she offers various modalities. “We’re working towards a no-wrong-door approach, drop in and barrier-free for anyone, for whatever they’ve got going on,” says Kerry. “It is a safe space for them to come, to reduce isolation and to offer authentic connection and hope.”
Kerry is currently seeking volunteers, ‘peer allies,’ with lived experience to connect with others who have similar experiences, with mentoring and training provided.
Her lived experience and personal struggles drive her passion to help others. “I survived a suicide attempt as a teenager,” Kerry says. “My purpose is sharing hope through my lived experience; I want to mentor and train volunteer peers to offer hope and mutual understanding through connection, It’s powerful to sit in a safe space with someone else that’s been through a similar journey, a space to just feel comfortable and held to be your true self just as you are”
“Our Tuesday group sessions are for others that are going through the same thing and to offer tools, hope and connection over a cuppa,” says Kerry. “Because the power of a cuppa and connection can be life-changing and for someone to feel less alone in what they’re going through.”
Kerry recently received a Community Recognition Statement from NSW Parliament for her work, presented by Pittwater MP Jacqui Scruby.
For more information, visit thekerrygleesoncentre.org or @thekerrygleesoncentre on socials.