Mind & mental wellbeing in Fremantle

Claire Belton runs breathwork and shamanic breathwork practitioner trainings from Fremantle — regular courses locally and around Australia — for those who want to move from receiving sessions to facilitating them.

A free weekly community meditation held outdoors at Bathers Beach in Fremantle, meeting at the hut in front of the art centre on Mews Road. Sessions start at 6.30am each Saturday and follow three steps: a welcome circle, a 20-minute meditation combining mindfulness, breath and gratitude, then a closing circle. Trained volunteer facilitators lead each session. It is free, open to beginners and experienced meditators, has no religious affiliation and needs no registration.

A small studio within the Sanctuary Wellness Collective on Wood Street, Fremantle, founded by Amy and run as a collective of women practitioners. The published programme includes a fortnightly Monday meditation and sound bath from 6.30pm to 7.30pm, a weekly Thursday evening stretch class, and monthly sound bath and yoga events. Practitioners also offer one-on-one sessions in reiki, breathwork, yoga therapy, kinesiology and remedial massage, by appointment.

Paula Flinn holds conscious connected breathwork in a small Fremantle studio, deliberately kept intimate — group sessions cap at six people, on the first Friday evening of each month, alongside private one-to-one work.

Somatic breathwork out of Fremantle in every format the practice comes in — group circles, private sessions, workshops and retreats — with the somatic emphasis on letting the body lead rather than the technique.

Monthly two-hour conscious connected breathwork in a warm room at Spanda Yoga, capped at ten people. Sessions pair the guided breathing with plain-science education and a follow-up email the next day, which is more aftercare than most group breathwork offers. Mats, bolsters and blankets provided.

Kristina Ritchie pairs Reiki I and II certification with diplomas in remedial massage, remedial therapies, herbal medicine, naturopathy and mind/body psychotherapy. Her Fremantle practice offers reiki at $120 an hour ($170 for ninety minutes), intuitive counselling and coaching from $120, and remote sessions by Zoom or phone.

Fremantle's Spanda School runs structured silent retreats built on non-dual meditation, gentle movement and rest — one-day sittings at the school itself, and three- and seven-day residentials at Donnelly Lakes near Pemberton. Two formats serve different depths of practice: a guided version for those newer to silence, and longer unguided sits for experienced meditators. Around a hundred students come through each year, some from interstate and overseas.

Fremantle's yoga and Ayurveda house, running since 2008: daily classes from gentle to dynamic, Friday-evening yoga nidra and deep-restore sessions, and an Ayurvedic clinic alongside — consultations, massage and steambox treatments. Six-week beginner courses from $126 prepaid; even Bollywood dance gets a slot in the week.