Creative Mental Health Events 2026
Enjoy the Creative Mental Health Forum 2025 Documentary - and get a glimpse of what’s coming next in 2026.
Filmed on BoonWurrung Country in Inverloch, the documentary sits at the heart of a growing ecosystem of creative mental health events — bringing together therapists, artists, educators and community members to explore how creativity, community and collective care can reshape mental health and wellbeing.
In 2026, the Forum itself is taking a pause. Instead, I’ll be offering a series of online and in-person Creative Mental Health experiences that continue the same lineage: grounded, relational, imaginative, and community-centred.
Scroll down to read more about the film, and to see what’s on the horizon.
🌿 Creative Care, Anywhere.
Creative Wellbeing Day Out — Inverloch
This year’s Creative Mental Health Events begin with a simple, spacious invitation:
a one-day journey from Melbourne to the coast for creativity, music, nature, and connection.
Designed as an accessible, low-pressure way to gather in person, this day sits within the Inverloch Equinox Festival and brings together creative wellbeing, open studio practice, and live music — all without the need for accommodation or driving.
This is our first in-person Creative Mental Health Event of 2026.
Find your place
Creative Mental Health Forum Documentary 2025
Filmed on BoonWurrung Country in Inverloch, Australia, this documentary captures our fifth Creative Mental Health Forum — a one-of-a-kind, values-led, crowd-funded four-day gathering where therapists, artists, educators and community members come together in solidarity to co-create practice, community and knowledge.
In a biomedical-dominated health system, where healing is so often reduced to billable units and isolated symptoms, the Forum remembers and re-generates another way. “Creative Mental Health” is grounded in art, movement, music, drama, play, story and connection. These are ancient forms of healing that endure because they speak to body, heart and spirit.
What emerges is clear: creative practices support mental health, and their true strength lies in the relationships and communities that hold them. This is not work to be fragmented, marginalised or commodified — it is living, collective care.
After premiering with Forum participants and screening internationally at the Creative Therapies Global Business Summit, the documentary is now offered publicly so its stories, creativity and conversations can ripple outward.
You are warmly invited to watch, share and use the film as a conversation starter in your own communities, organisations and networks.
What’s Coming in 2026
In 2026, the Creative Mental Health Forum is taking a hiatus from its usual four-day gathering. Rather than pausing the work, this year will focus on a series of Creative Mental Health events designed to be accessible from anywhere.
Planned offerings include:
Creative Mental Health webinar PD Series
Creative Flow Open Studio
Wellspring: creative wellbeing online short course
Professional development for counsellors and creative therapists
These events continue the Forum’s lineage — grounded in creativity, relational practice, cultural awareness and collective care.
Details and dates will be announced here as they are confirmed.
If you’d like to stay informed, please keep an eye on this page or join my mailing list.
🌿 Creative Care, Anywhere.
Creative Flow Open Studio: weekdays, online, launching in March
Wellspring: creative personal development
A five-part, facilitated journey into your own creative wellspring.
Coming soon…
Creative Care Futures: Mapping the Landscape & Finding Your Place
Save the Date
Sunday 3rd May 2026
10:00am – 12:00pm AEDT
Online via Zoom
Bookings open soon
(Join the mailing list to be notified when registration opens.)
About the Event
2026 marks a significant turning point in the evolution of Creative Mental Health in Australia.
Alongside the release of the Creative Mental Health Forum 2025 documentary, the national landscape is shifting rapidly:
Creative Therapies pilot projects are underway in three regions.
Creative Australia, through the newly formed Creative Health Alliance Australia, is developing a national Creative Health quality framework, including a practitioner database, badge system, and support structures for creative health workers.
The NDIS Evidence Advisory Committee has begun reviewing the evidence for art and music therapy for a second time.
The National Standards for Counsellors and Psychotherapists have been endorsed by the Australian Government, creating a national framework for education, ethics, supervision, and scope of practice.
Creative & Experiential Therapists now sit uniquely across two emerging national infrastructures:
the Creative Health framework being established through Creative Australia
the National Standards for Counselling and Psychotherapy through PACFA
This dual alignment offers extraordinary opportunities — and raises important questions about identity, scope, governance, and future pathways.
Creative Care Futures: Mapping the Landscape & Finding Your Place
is an event designed to help practitioners, educators, community workers, and allies understand:
where Creative & Experiential Therapies have come from
where our field sits within current reforms
how Creative Health is being positioned as essential public health infrastructure
the implications for disability, mental health, education, and community sectors
how you can situate your practice within this expanding landscape
This is the opening Creative Mental Health event of 2026 and sets the tone for a year of connection, clarity, and collective care.
What We’ll Explore
🌱 Where We’ve Come From (50-year lineage)
the long history of creative and experiential therapies in Australia
growth of university programs and professional bodies
the NDIS era and the expansion of access
the formation of CCET within PACFA
creative, relational, more-than-verbal practice traditions that continue to evolve
🌿 Where We Are Now
the Creative Therapies Pilot Projects (three regions)
Creative Australia’s Creative Health Alliance and national quality framework
practitioner-facing tools, badge systems, and databases under development
the NDIS EAC review and implications for creative therapies
the National Standards for Counselling & Psychotherapy
CCET’s positioning across both frameworks
professional identity, scope, supervision, and recognition
🌏 Where We Are Heading
Creative Health as emerging public health infrastructure
parallels with the UK Creative Health and social prescribing movement
opportunities across disability, health, education, mental health, arts, and community sectors
the role of creative practitioners in strengthening community connection
workforce futures, leadership pathways, and new models of care
Experiential Learning
This gathering includes:
small-group creative reflection
an art-based integration activity
time to explore your own lineage and emerging identity
community sharing and connection
space to consider your place within the Creative Care ecosystem
Who This Is For
creative and experiential therapists
counsellors and psychotherapists
educators and students
community arts and wellbeing practitioners
allied health practitioners
disability, mental health, and community workers
anyone interested in Creative Mental Health futures
Save the Date
Sunday 3rd May 2026
10:00am – 12:00pm AEDT
Online via Zoom
Pricing
Standard Registration: $55
Concession / Student Registration: $35
Registrations open soon
If you’d like to be notified when bookings open, please join the mailing list or check back on this page.
🌿 Creative Care, Anywhere.
