“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.” I looked and all I saw was the water. And he said, “Look again,” which I did, and I saw oil on the water and the city reflected in the puddle. It was a great revelation to me. I can’t explain it. He taught me how to see, and how to trust what I saw. Painters have often taught writers how to see. And once you’ve had that experience, you see differently.”
James Baldwin for The Paris Review, 1984.
Well known for her training and mentoring of Art Therapists working through the NDIS, Dr Alisoun Neville joins the 2021 Creative Mental Health Forum and Self Care Retreat as a creative workshop facilitator. She invites participants to consider the relationships between seeing, writing and therapeutic practice.
Alisoun shares:
“While writing has always been my preferred form, I became a better writer when I learnt how to paint. If we take James Baldwin’s point, that painters have often taught writers how to see, I wonder if there is more to discover, and whether painters and other visual artists might experience a mutuality here too.
It is easy for therapeutic arts practitioners to lean towards the visual. The visual arts most easily meet the expectations of our peers, of those who seek our service, and even of ourselves. Despite this, our practice and profession have moved with insistence towards movement, the object, the poem, the reflective journal, music, song”.
Writing as therapeutic practice
Alisoun’s workshop offers a space to explore around the edges in the multimodality of our practices, with a focus on writing ‘fiction’ as an expressive art. She will ask, in particular:
“Can we do more with writing as therapeutic practice and apply the lessons of visual art to ‘see’ in new ways with our words?”
Alisoun Neville
How might we engage with confidence in writing from our senses, our experiences, and our encounters, and steer around (maybe even disrupt) some of the fears, cognitive traps, and violent histories of language and the written word?
Might we contribute collectively to new genres and forms and, through this, new contributions to our healing and potentials?
Participants will be invited to write from experience in fiction and/or other forms, reflect on these processes as a practice and generate new ideas and activities for use in our daily work.
About Alisoun
Alisoun’s therapeutic practice builds on academic study in psychology, English literature, and therapeutic arts practice, and over 15 years’ experience in policy, advocacy, training and program development across community services, health, education, legal and public service sectors.
Her experience includes substantive work with, and a commitment to, Aboriginal community controlled organisations, and the overlapping contexts of mental health, disability, women’s safety and services for people impacted by imprisonment.
Alisoun’s broader commitment to pursuing a better world through both traditional and creative forms has led her to therapeutic arts practice and a belief in the collective potential of multimodal / expressive arts therapies.
The 2021 Creative Mental Health Forum and Self Care Retreat is delighted to be hosting Dr Alisoun Neville as a workshop facilitator this year.
We pay our deep respects to the First Peoples of Boon Wurrung Country where we will meet.
Friday 14th – Monday 17th May 2021
Inverloch RACV Resort, Bass Coast, Victoria
Your host, Dr Carla van Laar is a Professional Member and Accredited Supervisor with ANZACATA.
This training event is proudly endorsed by PACFA for 11 hours of continuing professional development.
We welcome Professor Anne (Dan) Harris, Director of Creative Agency Research Lab, ARC Future Fellow, Associate Dean, Research & Innovation, School of Education, RMIT University.
Profits from this forum/retreat will be donated to support CATA’s work employing qualified Arts Therapists to work with families of children receiving end of life care.
$600 registration fee covers core program, Friday night Welcome Dinner, morning and afternoon teas, and is payable in 3 instalments.
Registration does not include accomodation or meals other than the Welcome Dinner.
The core program includes Welcome Dinner, morning mindful activities, 6 x keynote presentations, 6 x 1.5 hour experiential workshops and a number of optional wellness activities for self-care including dance, art making, swimming and walking. Surfing, Stand Up Paddle Boarding and Snorkelling are available as optional add ons at affordable prices.
This forum supports the goals of the ACTivate Arts Therapy campaign – to have Arts Therapists recognised as mental health professionals.For this purpose, the forum is designed to be educational in an experiential sense – by providing opportunities to participate first hand in creative and holistic workshops and activities, as well as hear from dynamic keynote presenters and a panel of lived experience experts.
Experience for yourself how:
Creative practices support mental health
Contemporary Arts Therapists are working to promote and recover mental wellbeing
Arts Therapies are inclusive, holistic, trauma-informed and socially relevant.
The 2021 Creative Mental Health Forum and Self-care Retreat is an opportunity to look after yourself and learn while enjoying good company and restorative time in the living world.
It is hosted only two hours drive from Melbourne in the beautiful surrounds of the Bass Coast Bunurong Marine Park and township of coastal Inverloch.
This Professional Development event is suitable for Therapists interested in understanding more about creative approaches in mental health care.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CREATIVE MENTAL HEALTH FORUM AND SELF CARE RETREAT
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