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
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.
PACFA’s College of Creative and Experiential Therapies submission to the new National Cultural Policy
Image credit: “Gooloo’s Scar Tree” by Gooloo (100com x 120cm; multimedia on canvas) Finalist in Brisbane Portrait Prize - 2021 This submission has been prepared on behalf of the Psychotherapy
Congratulations PACFA for successfully achieving full membership of AHPA (Allied Health Professions Australia).
Congratulations PACFA for successfully achieving full membership of AHPA (Allied Health Professions Australia). This is excellent news for all members of PACFA and anyone considering becoming a member including Creative
REMOVING OBSTACLES: RECONNECTING TO CREATIVITY
Something that comes up frequently in the Supervision Studio is the challenge of staying connected to our own creative practice when our job involves facilitating others and supporting their creativity.
Arts, Creativity and Mental Wellbeing : Policy Development response from Dr Carla van Laar
Arts, Creativity and Mental Wellbeing The Australia Council for The Arts recently hosted a program to develop a policy paper focusing on Arts, Creativity and Mental Wellbeing. I was privileged
C.CET – The new College of Creative and Experiential Therapies with PACFA
In an Australian first, the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA) has voted unanimously to establish a new professional home for Creative and Experiential Therapists - the College of
“A Sense of Place” CARLA VAN LAAR Exhibition Catalogue 2nd – 31st March 2022
A Sense of Place : Carla van Laar2nd - 31st March 2022Inverloch Community Hub16 A'Beckett St InverlochOpen 7 days from 10am - 4pm Handcrafted Tasmanian Oak frames by L-Mac CarpentryFor SALES
New publication: “ART THERAPY FIRST AID – Growing Capacity with Art Therapists in Communities Affected by Australian Bushfires”.
Art Therapy in Response to Natural Disasters, Mass Violence and Crisis is a new Jessica Kingsely publication edited by Joseph Scarce. I am honoured to be one of the authors in
MY SUPER POWER IS…
What is your own specialSUPER POWER?Remember! Art Therapy is a time torelax, enjoy yourself, focus on your strengthsexpress your personality and how you like to make artthere is no right
FOUNDATIONS OF CREATIVE WELLBEING – online course with Dr Carla van Laar
Watch the overviewOPENING SPECIAL 67% DISCOUNT - THE FULL COURSE FOR ONLY $99PURCHASE NOW - CLICK HEREWhat to expect from this refreshing new course by leading Art Therapist Dr Carla
Creative Self Care: Choosing, changing and continuing Part 2 “Seeing Differently – Noticing Change””
With Dr Carla van Laar Feature image credit Carla van Laar In this article I share a personal story about how what we see can change, and then I invite
Creative Self Care: Choosing, changing and continuing Part 1 “Materials and moving – my choices today”
With Dr Carla van Laar Feature image credit Carla van Laar In this article I introduce some ideas about change as an inevitable part of life, and invite you to
HIRA DAHAL – author of “Phulmaya”, a new book sharing the stories of thousands of Nepali girls trafficked from the entertainment industry into sexual slavery.
Hira Dahal is one of my greatest heroes. I first met Hira over ten years ago when I was working with the Art to Healing project in Nepal. We continued to
Creative Self Care: Tuning in to our Environment part 3 “Making a creative space”
With Dr Carla van Laar MCAT DThAP Feature image credit Carla van Laar In this article I share some of the research into creative spaces, and invite you to make
Creative Self Care: Tuning in to our Environment part 2 “Notice what Nurtures”
With Dr Carla van Laar AThR Feature image credit Carla van Laar In this article I share about my own personal process of painting from life, and invite you to
CREATIVE MENTAL HEALTH – FILM LAUNCH
"2021 Creative Mental Health Forum and Self Care Retreat" is a twelve minute documentary filmed on location in Boon Wurrung Country, South Eastern Victoria, at the event of the same
Creative Self Care: Tuning in to our Environment part 1 “See a Rainbow”
With Dr Carla van Laar Feature image credit Carla van Laar In this article I share some of my research into how the environments that we live and work in
Victorian State Government agrees to fund Arts Therapy in schools – success for the ACTivate Arts Therapy campaign.
Following the announcement of the new State budget on 20th May, Acting Premier James Merlino announced on breakfast radio that the State Government will be creating a new $200,000 fund
Creative Self Care: Coming to our Senses Part 3 – Mapping the Territory of your Body
With Dr Carla van Laar AThR Feature image credit: Carla van Laar In this article, I share a description of my personal experience of art making to highlight the inter-relationship
2021 Creative Mental Health Forum brings 60 Arts Therapists to Boon Wurrung country, South Gippsland, Australia
https://youtu.be/I302-fmzMUY 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
Creative Self Care: Coming to our Senses Part 2 – Drawing Breath
With Dr Carla van Laar AThR Feature image credit Carla van Laar In this article I introduce the links between creative practices, mindful approaches, and traditional healing practices. I then
Supervision Studio 2021 – BOOK YOUR DATES NOW
Supervision Studio $150 - 2.5 hours ONLINE Supervision Studio Sundays 10.00am – 12.30pm Art based and experiential methods for reflective practice Small groups in an online studio environment This is
“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
“Awaken Your Senses: the ancient art of Besom-Making” with Kim Wren and Lindy Schneider..
This hands-on experience, led by well-loved and experienced Art and Equine Therapists Kim Wren and Lindy Schneider, offers a unique opportunity to explore the intersection of creativity, nature, and mental health. … Read More
“Making our Marks”: ND Affirming Creative Arts Therapy with Freya Pinney.
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. … 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
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