Feature Image: “Looking up”, Carla van Laar. Congratulations to the Editors, designer and contributors of the first edition of our new Australian publication, the “Journal of Creative Arts Therapies” – JoCAT. Alisoun Neville and I have coauthored an article for … 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.
Supervision with Carla in 2021
Just a quick update to let you know what’s happening with Supervision this year… Some things change, some stay the same… What’s the same? Supervision Studio continues ONLINE on Sundays 10am – 12.30pm. 2.5 hours of small group and arts … Read More
Michelle Morgan: Spirituality and Mental Health
What offers us hope, or helps us to make meaning? What values guide us, particularly in times of challenge? What are our anchors and roots in the shadowy depths and wild turbulence, and what paths do we take to access … Read More
Creative Mental Health Forum and Self Care Retreat – REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
We pay our deep respects to the First Peoples of Boon Wurrung Country where we will meet. CREATIVE MENTAL HEALTH FORUM AND SELF CARE RETREAT Friday 14th – Monday 17th May 2021 Inverloch RACV Resort, Bass Coast, Victoria Your host, … Read More
Lee Agius “The Artful Warrior”: Yoga for Self Care at the 2021 Creative Mental Health Forum and Retreat in Inverloch
“incorporate slow mindful movement with your breath that sends a message back to your body which completely supports your nervous system to relax…” … 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
