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, Inverloch, Victoria.

Our Commitment to Sustainability

We are mindful of minimising our impact on this living environment that sustains us and all life.

We commit to using recycled, re-purposed and non-toxic materials.

We commit to avoiding the purchase of plastics, especially single use plastics.

We commit to separating green waste and recycling from general waste for appropriate disposal.

COVID-19 Safety

We follow recommendations from the Chief Health Officer, observing room capacity and hygiene.

We bring a small kit of our own art making supplies such as pastels, water colours, inks, brushes and scissors.

Whenever we share an implement or tool, we wipe it with disinfectant.

Welcome!

We have designed the forum/retreat to have plenty on offer in a spacious way where there are core workshops and presentations as well as optional activities.

Black = Core Program

Blue = Optional Activities

Orange = Breaks

On Saturday and Sunday there is “Choose your own Self Care Adventure” time between 11am and 2pm.

This is flexible time when you can

have lunch at your leisure

as well as participate in an activity of your choice.

All activities are included in your registration fee unless stated otherwise.

Click on the name of each presenter to learn more about them and their offering.

Friday

Art Therapy Supervision

10am – 12pm “Stand up Paddle Boarding Experience”

OffShore Surf School ($65 p.p. optional self-care activity BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL)

2-3pm “Welcome to Country”

RACV Amphitheatre

Sonia Weston Hume

3-4pm “Lay of the Land” Orientation to the locations of our weekend.

Leave from the RACV amphitheatre

Image credit: Tara Harriden

4-6pm “Collaborative Curating: The Improvised Art of Creative Mental Health”

(optional activity)

Inlet Hotel – 3-5 The Esplanade Inverloch

  • Bring your own artwork that you have previously prepared, and a brief written statement on a piece of card to display in the space where we will have our welcome cocktail dinner.
  • We will improvise together in installing the artefacts around the room to collaboratively curate the space for our celebration.

Image credit: Anjali Sengupta

6.30 – 8.30pm

“The Art of Creative Mental Health” Cocktail Party, Exhibition and Dance

Inlet Hotel 3-5 The Esplanade Inverloch

  • Dare to flair! Rummage through your wardrobe and dust off your most creative, flamboyant threads. This evening is an invitation to shimmer and celebrate together, dressing to honour this special event… perhaps you might even like to create something special to wear just for the evening itself? A floral crown? A piece of jewellery? Heck, an installation! Whatever best celebrates you and your body.
  • Enjoy “The Improvised Art of Creative Mental Health Exhibition”
  • Have a dance with Anjali Sengputa’s “Bollywood Dance for Wellbeing”: music, dance, drama, story-telling and performance come together to create a magical world where anything is possible!

Saturday

7-8am “Let’s Laugh” – Laughter Yoga at OffShore Surf School 8 Ramsey Boulevard

Bronwyn Roberts (optional self-care activity)

9-9.30am Opening, Art and Healing:

Dr Carla van Laar and Melissa McDevitt Weston

RACV main room

  • Melissa McDevitt Weston, Traditional Owner, is a Boon Wurrung woman and accomplished artist. She joins us to share some of her stories of art and healing.

9.30-10.00am “Nature and Replenishing the well” – Warming up with Collaborative Creating

Svetlana Bykovech

RACV main room

10-10.20am “Looking at our Practice through the Lens of Sustainability”

Jane Burns

RACV main room

10.20 – 10.40am “Contemplating the Radical Potential of the Therapeutic Space”

Emma van Daal

RACV main room

10.40 – 11am Morning Tea Break and Travel Time

11am – 2pm CHOOSE YOUR OWN SELF CARE ADVENTURE

and HAVE A LUNCH BREAK

Art Therapy Supervision

11am-1pm “Surfing Experience”

OffShore Surf School ($60 p.p. optional self-care outdoor activity BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL)

Inverloch Surf beach

11am-12.30pm “Embodied Self Care: Medicine Drum and Dance”

Anjali Sengupta (optional self-care dance/movement therapy workshop)

RACV main room

12.30 – 1.45pm “Spirituality and Mental Health”

Michelle Morgan (optional self-care and reflective practice workshop)

RACV main room

2 – 3.30pm “Shining a Light on the Therapeutic Relationship: The Co-Creative Process of Writing Together”

Professor Dan Harris and Trish Thompson

RACV main room

3.30 – 4pm Afternoon Tea Break

4 – 4.20pm “Warriors and Peacemakers” Cultural Identities, Strength and Resilience

Michelle Smith

RACV main room

4.30 – 6pm “Unfolding Art Therapy” paper folding and artistic reflection

Jiancong (Eric) Zhang

RACV main room

6.30 – 7.15 “Upbeat Bucket Drumming at the Beach”

Chris Petrie (optional communal wellbeing activity)

Sunday

7 – 8am “Yoga for Self-Care” on the dunes

Lee Agius (optional self-care activity)

9 – 10am “Standing Strong in our Professional Identity” – Art based and collaborative approaches in individual planning and responding as humanising alternatives to assessments and interventions.

Dr Carla van Laar

RACV main room

10 – 10.45am “COVID 19 Response to Art Therapy Services” a Not-for profit Perspective

Svetlana Bykovec

RACV main room

10.45 – 11am Morning Tea Break and Travel Time

11am – 2pm CHOOSE YOUR OWN SELF CARE ADVENTURE

and HAVE A LUNCH BREAK

Art Therapy Supervision

11.30am-1.30pm “Surfing Experience”

OffShore Surf School ($65 p.p. optional outdoor activity BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL)

Inverloch Surf beach

11am-12.30pm “Ebb and Flow: The Rhythms of Activation and Settling”

Natalie Poole (optional 5Rhythyms dance/movement therapy and reflective practice workshop)

RACV main room

12.30 – 1.45pm “Clay Your Way into Being”

Melissa Nelson-Campbell (optional self-care workshop)

RACV amphitheatre

2 – 3.30pm “Imitate, Innovate, Become” How Dramatherapy Supports Positive Self Image and Communal Belonging

Dr Amanda Musicka-Williams

RACV main room

3.30 – 3.45pm Afternoon Tea Break

3.45 – 5.15pm “Look Again” How can we See in New Ways, with our Words?

Dr Alisoun Neville

RACV main room

5.15 – 6pm “THE FUTURE OF CREATIVE MENTAL HEALTH”

Panel Discussion

RACV main room

6pm TIL LATE

CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE

with friends and colleagues out and about or have some quiet time to yourself

Monday

Art Therapy Supervision

7 – 9am “Dawn Stand up Paddle Boarding Experience”

OffShore Surf School ($65 p.p. optional self-care activity BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL)

Inverloch Inlet

8 – 9am “Yoga for Self-Care” on the dunes

Lee Agius (optional self-care activity)

10.30am – 12pm “Bringing Together and Taking Home”

Everyone

At the Beach – to be announced

5 Comments

  1. Maggie Date

    Hello Carla,

    your retreat and program look amazing. I especially love the welcome cocktail and dress up session. Unfortunately I will not be able to attend due to prior arrangements.

    I wish you, your presenters and you participants a bit of magic for the voyage.

    Maggie x

  2. Liat Kremer

    Hello! And Thank you for this big and important idea. I would like to know more details about the costs.

  3. annie Wilson

    I know I’ve asked this before, but are any of these amazing speakers allowing their sessions to be taped, I’m stuck in England and have no way of escape !!!!

  4. Carla van Laar

    Hi Annie, I am having mine filmed and we are planning on making a podcast of some of the others 🙂

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