Explore "The Nature of Reciprocity" through printmaking at the 2025 Creative Mental Health Forum.
How might we bring ourselves into meaningful relationships with other bodies, both human and non-human, using embodiment, reciprocity and expressive play?
Using creative printmaking as our primary modality, the invitation will be to explore connection, kinship and reciprocal relationships, with place, with materials and with others.
Image: a collection of colourful and textured artworks made with the pictured geli print plate and roller.
Together we will consider inquiry questions such as;
What am I noticing, here in this intersubjective space?
How am I engaged relationally with these other bodies- both human and other-than-human?
- What do I bring?
- What am I receiving?
- How might I gently invite a practice of decolonisation into my therapeutic work?
Trusting embodied knowing as our guide we will engage the creative process. Working collaboratively alongside others we are invited to explore opportunities of playful experimentation and noticing the nature of reciprocity.
There will be space for quiet and shared reflection
You are invited to bring a journal if that feels supportive.
Image: Close up view of a gelli print made using organic materials to create the layered shapes.
We will use gelli-printing plates, paints/pigment, brayers (hand rollers) and some found objects surfaces in this process.
This is a multi-step print-making process in which 2 surfaces (bodies) come into contact marking one other, it is an act of connection and of reciprocity.
Inherent in the printmaking process is the act of making impressions, connection & reconnection, releasing, revealing, mirroring, feeling into, letting go (decentring of ego) and the very nature of working with a visual language is a decentring of the dominant language of colonialism.
The therapeutic qualities inherent in printmaking can be:
o Experimentation
o Collaboration ( with the printing block & others)
o Spontaneous imagery
o Awe and wonder
This workshop is accessible to all levels and abilities.
We are thrilled to welcome Melinda and Emma as facilitators at the 2025 Creative Mental Health Forum and Collective Care Retreat.
Image: Melinda Jane in her studio.
About Melinda Jane
Melinda is a multi-disciplinary artist, creative arts therapist, educator and writer.
Her own art practice explores the connection to place and the intersubjective space between us and the other-than-human world. She weaves aspects of archetypal psychology, attachment theory and eco-centric considerations through her chosen modalities.
In private practice Melinda works creatively with children and young people bringing many years of experience as a trauma-informed educator, along with her deep values of connection to the earth, a growing wisdom of somatic experiencing and the importance of play, to her therapeutic companioning with others.
Melinda is currently working on a personal arts-based research project exploring attachment wounding, legacy trauma and the nature of emotional wellbeing that underpins rewilding attachment theory.
Practice name: Melinda Jane Art Therapy
www.melindajanearttherapy.com.au
Artist website: www.melindajaneartist.com.au
Image: Emma Fayelecaun in a sun dappled, ferny setting.
About Emma Fayelecaun
Emma is a creative therapist, a multimodal artist, teacher and arts-based researcher.
Working across her own practise in dance/movement, creative writing, film and visual arts, her work merges expressive modalities, blurs lines and moves in and around art as expression, as story and as response.
As an artist and therapist, Emma works collaboratively with communities and individuals both 1:1 and in small groups to create dynamic eco systems of possibility through emergent creative co-inquiry processes.
Join us for the fifth annual Creative Mental Health Forum. 2nd – 5th May 2025.
Boon Wurrung Country: Inverloch, Victoria, Australia.
An immersive professional development event for allied health professionals, educators and creative practitioners who are deeply interested in the new paradigm of creative mental health and wellbeing.
Join us for the fifth annual Creative Mental Health Forum.
2nd – 5th May 2025.
WE WELCOME
CREATIVE THERAPISTS,
ALLIED HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
AND EDUCATORS WHO:
want to learn more about creative mental health,
be inspired by holistic and diverse workshops and presenters,
connect with like minded practitioners,
and “refill your well” with time in a beautiful nurturing environment and space for self care.
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