In this workshop Anna facilitates an engaging 30-minute deep relaxation session. You will be gently guided to a potentially blissful space where waking and sleeping consciousness intertwine. This restorative practice allows participants to unwind and rejuvenate, crucial for those working in high-demand environments, especially with children and families. … Read More
Dr Carla van Laar
Artist | Creative Arts 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. Her mother grew up in remote North Queensland and most of her extended family still live up North.
Carla currently lives and works in Boon Wurrung Country in the South Eastern coastal town of 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 worked as an Art Therapy educator at a number of training institutions since 2001. 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 book “Seeing her stories” presents her Doctoral research into making unseen stories visible through art. It was published in 2020 and is available to read for free on this website under the Seeing Her Stories menu.
CLICK HERE to Listen to Dr Carla interviewed on the FAT MOON Podcast
FAT MOON Podcast, created by Kirsty Greene, is a platform for creative therapists to connect and learn from each other.
In each FAT Moon episode, Kirsty interviews a creative therapist from around the globe.
Watch this short clip filmed at Carla’s “Unsung Spaces” exhibition during her fellowship at RMIT University’s “Creative Agency”.
Anna Kellerman of “Mama Creatives” invited Carla as a special guest. In this interview, Carla talks about being a woman, creative and therapist, being a bereaved mother, her journey into creative arts therapy, radical research and the art of activism and social change.
“Connection to Country through the Practice of Wayapa” with Justine Lenart.
Justine Lenart, a passionate movement practitioner and First Nations woman, has embraced a practice that not only nurtures her well-being but also fosters a deeper connection to the Earth. This practice is called Wayapa Wurrk, which translates to “connect to the Earth” and is rooted in ancient Indigenous wisdom. … Read More
“Welcome to Country and Cultural Discovery Walk” with Sonia Weston.
Get ready for a very personal experience being Welcomed to Country by Sonia Weston at the 2025 Creative Mental Health Forum and Collective Care Retreat in the beautiful coastal town of Inverloch. … Read More
“Promoting Creative Healing and Preventing Human Trafficking” with Nepalese Activist and Psychologist, Anuradha Acharya.
Anuradha, or ‘Anu’ is a compassionate psychologist with over 15 years of experience dedicated to supporting survivors of violence, sexual exploitation, and trafficking in Nepal. Her unwavering commitment focuses on helping survivors heal and grow after these traumas. This has led Anu to discover and embrace arts-based and creative approaches as healing modalities. … Read More
Supervision Studio – an online safe creative space for allied health practitioners
If you are in the mood to reflect in good company on the year gone by, perhaps consciously letting some things go, and embracing an intention for the coming year, please join us for this creative and reflective, supportive sharing space. … Read More
Publications & Resources
SNAPSHOTS OF A BEREAVED MOTHER’S HEART – RESEARCH In Carla’s 2001 Master’s research project, she investigated her own lived experience of being a bereaved Mother using arts based and narrative methods. Through this research, findings were generated that illuminated aspects … Read More
Curriculum Vitae
Dr Carla van Laar MCAT Prof Doc ThAP PACFA reg. Clinical 27769 PACFA accredited supervisor Arts Practitioner, Educator, Researcher and Therapist “With over 25 years experience working with people to enhance life through art, I am committed to creativity and … Read More
