Sixty Creative Arts Therapists from all over Victoria and interstate gathered on the traditional lands of the Boon Wurrung People in Inverloch for the first Australian summit of its kind from 14th – 17th May 2021.
“We want more people in the community to know about Arts Therapy and how we work with people towards health, healing and wellbeing by engaging through the Arts“
Dr Carla van Laar
The Creative Mental Health Forum and Self Care Retreat supports the goals of the ACTivate Arts Therapy campaign in showcasing how the Creative Arts Therapies are holistic, person centred, inclusive and value lived experience.
Organiser, Dr Carla van Laar, said,
“The recent Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System highlighted that Arts Therapists are important and valued members of the overwhelmed mental health workforce.
We want more people in the community to know about Arts Therapy and how we work with people towards health, healing and wellbeing by engaging through the Arts.
“We are working to help the Government understand what we do and make our services available to more people in need through programs like the Mental Health Practitioner in Schools positions“
Dr Carla van Laar
Ultimately, we want people in our communities to have more choices and be empowered about how they manage their own mental health and wellbeing in the ways that work best for them. Talking therapy doesn’t work for everyone, and that is why we use creative processes. We are here and ready to help. We want to help the Government understand what we do and make our services available to more people in need through programs like the Mental Health Practitioner in Schools positions.”
Boon Wurrung woman and traditional owner, artist Melissa McDevitt Weston, was the opening speaker for the event, and Professor Dan Harris, Director of Creative Agency Research Lab and RMIT’s Associate Dean of Research & Innovation was one of six keynote presenters who include local Inverloch resident, Dr Carla van Laar.
RMIT’s Professor Dan Harris is Director of the Creative Agency Research Lab and Associate Dean of Research & Innovation and joined the forum as a keynote presenter.
Guests enjoying the welcome cocktail party and improvised Art exhibition at Inverloch’s Inlet Hotel on Friday night. Image credits: Susan Carmody.
The forum included creative mental health workshops at the RACV resort on Saturday and Sunday using visual arts, drumming, dance, yoga, writing and drama for healing and wellbeing. It began on Friday with a Welcome to Country presented by Sonia Weston, and then an art exhibition and Cocktail Dinner Party at the Inlet Hotel, and concluded on Monday with a closing ceremony at Anderson’s Inlet.
Drumming circle on the beach for communal wellbeing on Saturday evening. Image credit: Chris Petrie.More information here:
View the full program here:
Contact Carla van Laar:
“Ultimately, we want people in our communities to have more choices and be empowered about how they manage their own mental health and wellbeing in the ways that work best for them“
Dr Carla van Laar
Dr Carla van Laar
Artist | Art Therapist
Master of Creative Arts Therapy
Doctor of Therapeutic Arts Practice
PACFA Reg. Clinical and Accredited Supervisor – PACFA
Carla van Laar is a painter and therapeutic arts practitioner from Australia. Born in Brisbane, Carla is first generation Australian on her Dutch grandparents side, and 7th generation through her maternal bloodline who were mostly English and came to Australia in the early colonisation of the 1800s. Carla currently lives and works in Victoria, residing between Wurrundjeri country in Melbourne, and Boon Wurrung country in Inverloch, paying deep respects to the First Peoples of the Kulin Nations whose land was never ceded and will always be Aboriginal land. Identifying as a cisgender woman, Carla is passionately disinterested in socially constructed identities that disempower anyone. Carla has over 25 years’ experience working with people and the arts for health and well-being in community organisations, justice, health and education contexts.
Carla’s first book “Bereaved Mother’s Heart” was published in 2007 and broke social taboos about maternal grief. From 2008-18 she established and ran an independent art therapy studio and gallery in Melbourne. Her Doctoral research “Seeing Her Stories” continues the mission to make women’s stories visible, through art.
Carla has lectured and supervised Art Therapy students at RMIT, MIECAT and currently the IKON Institute. She is a practicing artist and in 2018 received an Artist Fellowship at RMIT’s creative research lab, “Creative Agency”. She insists on being part of a creative revolution in which art re-embodies lived experience, brings us to our senses, makes us aware of the interconnectedness of all life and is an agent of social change.
Carla’s new book “Seeing her stories” presents her research into making unseen stories visible through art, and is available to read for free online here or purchase a hard copy of the full colour hard cover coffee table book here.
2 Comments
Nova
Hello lm hoping you can direct one in finding a art therapist in the inverloch area
Thankyou
Carla
Hi, yes sure. I have a studio in INVERLOCH where I provide Art Therapy services. Have a look here: https://carlavanlaar.com/inverloch-art-therapy/