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.
Creative Arts Therapy and the NDIS – new training offers from Dr Alisoun Neville
I want to work with NDIS Participants For therapeutic practitioners considering registration Friday 4 June, 1pm - 4pm ($150; 4 hours CPD) Cost: $150 ... Have you been thinking about registering for
Creative Self Care: Coming to our Senses Part 1 – relaxation
With Dr Carla van Laar AThR Feature image credit: Carla van Laar In this series of articles, I invite you to embark on a creative journey of self care. I
‘The Artist’ or ‘The Critic’ – the Judged or the Judge; why we need more roles in our repertoire when it comes to art.
Dr Carla van Laar AThR most of us have been socialised from a very early age to develop only two roles in our repertoire when it comes to art -
Healing the core wound through the arts – with Jemima Beaumont-Robberds AThR
Imagine… what would it feel like if you could accept more of yourself and live life with greater ease and confidence? Do you struggle to with low self-worth, lack of
Arts Therapists Recognised by Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System
Our voices are part of a chorus who want greater choice for people in managing their own mental health care, and greater inclusion for Arts Therapists as highly skilled and
Here’s the Evidence: Employing Arts Therapists in Schools is Good for Student Mental Health.
Prepared by Dr Carla van Laar and Dr Lisa Mosely for the ACTivate Arts Therapy Campaign Evidence for the efficacy of Arts Therapy in mental health and wellbeing. The World
Jane Burns: “Looking at our Practice through the Lens of Sustainability”
"creative expression intersects with environmental and social issues, climate activism and wellbeing in nature"Jane Burns The 2021 Creative Mental Health Forum and Self Care Retreat is delighted to welcome award
PROGRAM: 2021 Creative Mental Health Forum and Self Care Retreat
14th – 17th May 2021 We pay our deep respects to the First Peoples of Boon Wurrung Country where we will meet. Inverloch RACV Resort, 70 Cape Patterson Inverloch Rd,
Dr Alisoun Neville: “Look again” – how can we see in new ways, with our words?
"I remember standing on a street corner with the black painter Beauford Delaney down in the Village waiting for the light to change, and he pointed down and said, “Look.”
Natalie Poole: Ebb and Flow- the rhythms of activation and settling
Natalie Poole is a midwife of the dance floor. Sometimes you need a little help to birth your vital, expressive, and creative self. Natalie Poole, sometimes known as "Twirling Wolf",
Michelle Smith RN – “Warriors and Peace Makers”: Cultural Identities, Connections, Strength and Resilience.
"Healing is grounded in our cultural identities and connections and builds on our strengths and resilience"Michelle Smith RN Michelle is a true community worker. For over 30 years she has
Join Jiancong (Eric) Zhang in “Unfolding Art Therapy”
As an artist, Eric fell in love with paper folding (origami) as a form of artistic reflection. Influenced by his earliest experiences of learning origami from his mother, the medium
Emma van Daal (nee Hodges) – Contemplating the radical potential of the therapeutic space.
“The individual is…not prior to their environment but codetermined with it, constituted within and through the patterned interaction of affects and movements and changes of bodies in relationships”Duschinsky et al.,
Svetlana Bykovec: Nature and Replenishing the “Well”
"How does your relationship to Earth inform your creative/professional work?"Svetlana Bykovec Svetlana Bykovec AThR joins us as a facilitator at the 2021 Creative Mental Health Forum and Self Care Retreat.
Trish Thompson: The Co-Creative Process of Writing Together – Shining a Light on the Relationship between Client and Therapist
"Practice wisdom points to the relationship between the therapist and client as the main driver of change, but we don’t often hear the voice of the client and their experience
Chris Petrie AThR brings you UPBEAT BUCKET DRUMMING
"Therapeutic value is gained when people gather to share creative experiences. When people are witnessed, encouraged and feel open to be themselves, they feel the upbeat benefits of therapeutic group
Professor Dan Harris: Creative Mental Health Special Guest Presenter
The Creative Mental Health Forum and Self Care Retreat is honoured to welcome Professor Dan Harris as a Special Guest Presenter. In December 2020, Dan posted this ground breaking news:
Dr. Amanda Musicka-Williams: “Imitate, Innovate, Become” How Dramatherapy supports positive self- image and communal belonging
"Imitate, Innovate, Become" Dr Amanda Musicka-Williams brings her expertise in drama and well-being to the Creative Mental Health Forum and Self Care Retreat in the "Imitate, Innovate, Become" workshop. In
Tara Harriden AThR: Culturally Sensitive Practice – Art Based Supervision with Support Workers in Remote Indigenous Communities, a PhD Research Project.
"I believe in the power of research as a social change-maker – I hope that my research will affect some change in the lives of Remote Area Aboriginal people living with
Melissa Nelson-Campbell’s lived experience as a woman of colour propelled her to make meaning through working human rights. Now, she empowers multicultural school communities through the transformative potentials of art making.
"As a woman of colour, artist,and art therapist, I am driven to support people from diverse backgroundsyearning to find their voice and be heard."Melissa Nelson-Campbell Melissa Nelson-Campbell, owner and founder
Dr Carla van Laar. “Standing Strong in our Professional Identity” – Art based and collaborative approaches in individual planning and responding as humanising alternatives to assessments and interventions.
In our recent article, The Balancing Act: Performing Stories of our Practice within Systems of the State, Dr Alisoun Neville and I wrote: "We invite arts therapists to reflect on
“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