Making Our Marks: Reflections on ND Affirming practice by Neurodivergent Creative Arts Therapists.
Making Our Marks: Reflections on ND Affirming practice by neurodivergent creative arts therapists explores the perspectives of neurodivergent identifying CATs and what ND affirming practice means to them.
This research project involves 7 ND identifying CATs participating in collaborative co-inquiries and interviews. The workshops/inquiry sessions were focused on 2 access points phrased as questions.
- What does being a ND CAT mean for you?
- How does identifying as ND impact your CAT practice when working with ND participants?
Image: a mixed media self-portrait using paint and collage by Freya Pinney.
This presentation summarises the terms and concepts within the ND Affirming paradigm, and presents what emerged from the qualitative research.
Further, it puts forward the basis of Neurodivergent Affirming practice within Creative Arts Therapies and identifies gaps within our industry that we all need to address.
Image: Freya wears a flowing orange garment and is sitting in a woven, hanging, circular shaped basket chair looking out over lush green surroundings.
We are thrilled to welcome Freya as a facilitator at the 2025 Creative Mental Health Forum and Collective Care Retreat.
Image: Smiling Freya Pinney
About Freya Pinney
Freya Pinney (she/her), aka The Process Repository, is an Autistic Artist and Neurodivergent Affirming Creative Arts Therapist exploring concepts around identity and their relationship to the body. As a lesbian, her work also engages with and explores gender, sexuality, history, critical theory and processes these themes across multiple media – from textiles to painting, sound, video, performance and sculpture.
She owns and runs TART Gallery (a free community tiny art gallery) and POP TART Gallery (a pop-up tiny gallery with art for sale). She has been exhibiting art since 1995 in group and solo shows in SE Queensland, around Australia and in Japan, the UK and the USA. With a BA in Visual Arts with Hons from QUT and MA in fine arts by research from QCA, Griffith University, she currently works in private practice as a Neurodivergent Affirming Creative Arts Therapist.
She has published on Neurodivergent Affirming Therapeutic Arts Practice within JOCAT Australia and presented on Somatic Experiencing and Autistic Emotions at the 15th IEATA conference in Taiwan. Her creative writing has been published in The Neurodiversity Times (USA). Her artwork can be seen on the cover of the Australian Federal Government Attorney-General Department’s Disability and Mental Health Action Plan 2022-25. Her chapter ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’ is published within the book on the intersection of disability and sexuality, ‘In Our Words’, edited by Yenn Purkis and Wayne Herbert. She recently contributed to, edited and published the ShareSpace Writing Group Anthology, and regularly performs spoken word online with Prickly Pear (UK) and Gestalt Poetry (USA), and is one of 2024’s feature artists in the Zine project by Dwelling Art Magazine.
In her spare time, she does Viking Reenactment and hosts lesbian pool parties.
Join us for the fifth annual Creative Mental Health Forum. 2nd – 5th May 2025.
Boon Wurrung Country: Inverloch, Victoria, Australia.
An immersive professional development event for allied health professionals, educators and creative practitioners who are deeply interested in the new paradigm of creative mental health and wellbeing.
Join us for the fifth annual Creative Mental Health Forum.
2nd – 5th May 2025.
WE WELCOME
CREATIVE THERAPISTS,
ALLIED HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
AND EDUCATORS WHO:
want to learn more about creative mental health,
be inspired by holistic and diverse workshops and presenters,
connect with like minded practitioners,
and “refill your well” with time in a beautiful nurturing environment and space for self care.
Leave a Reply