diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
index 5e6f9e7f..1c57463b 100644
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -124,3 +124,4 @@ that much better:
  * Stefan Wójcik
  * dimonb
  * Garry Polley
+ * Adrian Scott
diff --git a/mongoengine/django/sessions.py b/mongoengine/django/sessions.py
index f1783429..810b6265 100644
--- a/mongoengine/django/sessions.py
+++ b/mongoengine/django/sessions.py
@@ -15,13 +15,23 @@ MONGOENGINE_SESSION_DB_ALIAS = getattr(
     settings, 'MONGOENGINE_SESSION_DB_ALIAS',
     DEFAULT_CONNECTION_NAME)
 
+# a setting for the name of the collection used to store sessions
+MONGOENGINE_SESSION_COLLECTION = getattr(
+    settings, 'MONGOENGINE_SESSION_COLLECTION',
+    'django_session')
+
+# a setting for whether session data is stored encoded or not
+MONGOENGINE_SESSION_DATA_ENCODE = getattr(
+    settings, 'MONGOENGINE_SESSION_DATA_ENCODE',
+    True)
 
 class MongoSession(Document):
     session_key = fields.StringField(primary_key=True, max_length=40)
-    session_data = fields.StringField()
+    session_data = fields.StringField() if MONGOENGINE_SESSION_DATA_ENCODE \
+                                        else fields.DictField()
     expire_date = fields.DateTimeField()
 
-    meta = {'collection': 'django_session',
+    meta = {'collection': MONGOENGINE_SESSION_COLLECTION,
             'db_alias': MONGOENGINE_SESSION_DB_ALIAS,
             'allow_inheritance': False}
 
@@ -34,7 +44,10 @@ class SessionStore(SessionBase):
         try:
             s = MongoSession.objects(session_key=self.session_key,
                                      expire_date__gt=datetime.now())[0]
-            return self.decode(force_unicode(s.session_data))
+            if MONGOENGINE_SESSION_DATA_ENCODE:
+                return self.decode(force_unicode(s.session_data))
+            else:
+                return s.session_data
         except (IndexError, SuspiciousOperation):
             self.create()
             return {}
@@ -57,7 +70,10 @@ class SessionStore(SessionBase):
         if self.session_key is None:
             self._session_key = self._get_new_session_key()
         s = MongoSession(session_key=self.session_key)
-        s.session_data = self.encode(self._get_session(no_load=must_create))
+        if MONGOENGINE_SESSION_DATA_ENCODE:
+            s.session_data = self.encode(self._get_session(no_load=must_create))
+        else:
+            s.session_data = self._get_session(no_load=must_create)
         s.expire_date = self.get_expiry_date()
         try:
             s.save(force_insert=must_create, safe=True)