By Eleanor Wilson
Striving to help women explore their identities, Casey local Kylie Arndt is reinvigorating Brentwood Park Neighbourhood House’s (BPNH) Women’s group.
The women’s group, which allows women of all ages and life experiences to gather and chat about issues big and small, is being relaunched on Thursday 28 April, with Ms Arndt facilitating the group.
“It’s just about trying to feel grounded again in life. Often when we have children we lose our own identities,” she said.
“The group is really about reconnecting with women in an environment without any judgement, and one that isn’t connected to any other parts of our lives.”
After the previous facilitator moved to another area, Kylie said she hopes her involvement in the group can help local women who feel isolated and disconnected.
A soft launch of the group was held a few weeks ago, with local women ranging from new mums up to a lady in her 70s attending.
“We had no real agenda and we touched on some really intimate subjects, so it was nice to be able to provide a space for women to speak about things they mightn’t want to talk about with their husbands, or with mums from playgroups or school,” Ms Arndt said.
She said she believes she would have benefited from a group such as the BNPH Women’s group as a new mother.
“I was a mature mum and I had my two girls quite close together, so when you see other people and you think they have it all together and you’re barely holding it together is quite difficult,” she said.
“Even when we would go to playgroup you felt the need to pretend everything was fine, so to be able to have something like this where you can reach out and find support and honesty and wisdom from women of different ages and life experiences would have been great.”
Ms Arndt said she has organised a range of inspirational speakers to attend the groups and provide some inspiration and wisdom.
“ We have a life coach booked in to speak about finding joy, a psychologist, a naturopath to chat about proactive healthcare for women, a multidisciplinary deaf artist to talk about overcoming adversity,” she said.
The BNPH Women’s Group is held on Thursdays from 10am in the studio at Brentwood Park Neighbourhood House in Berwick.
It will initially be held every fortnight, with space to increase the frequency of meetings if there is demand for it.
