“2021 Creative Mental Health Forum and Self Care Retreat” is a twelve minute documentary filmed on location in Boon Wurrung Country, South Eastern Victoria, at the event of the same name. This short film features footage and interviews … Read More
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.
This training event is proudly endorsed by PACFA for 11 hours of continuing professional development.
The Creative Mental Health Forum and Self Care Retreat supports the goals of the ACTivate Arts Therapy campaign in
showcasing how the Creative Arts Therapies are holistic, person centred, inclusive and value lived experience.
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.
Presenters include:
Your Host, Dr Carla van Laar MCAT, Prof Doc ThAP, AThR, author of Bereaved Mother’s Heart and Seeing Her Stories
Special Guest Presenter, Professor Anne (Dan) Harris, ARC Future Fellow, Associate Dean, Research & Innovation, School of Education, RMIT University www.creativeresearchhub.
Dr Amanda Musicka-Williams, MDMT, PhD, Dramatherapist and Graduate Researcher CATRU, University of Melbourne
Dr Alisoun Neville MCAT, PhD, AThR, NDIS Arts Therapy training provider, Author and Advocate
Tara Harriden MMH, PhD candidate, AThR, Founder Whole Hearts and Minds, Leader in Indigenous Research in Art Therapy
Trish Thompson M Counselling, Clinical member PACFA, psychotherapist and accredited supervisor
Svetlana Bykovec MThAP, AThR, Lead Art Therapist for Creative Art Therapy Australia (CATA)
Michelle Smith RN, Masters of Art Therapy Candidate. Aboriginal Arts and Health Worker.
Your Self Care Workshop Facilitators are:
Lee Agius MCAT AThR, award winning Creative Arts Therapist, Founder Artful Warrior Mental Health Therapy Service
Anjali Sengupta, Grad Dip DMT, Dance-Movement Therapist and Founder Embracing Spirit
Michelle Morgan MThAP AThR, Founder Cocoon Creative Arts Therapies, Creator of Mandala Soul Oracle Cards
Melissa Nelson-Campbell MThAP AThR, Lived Experience Practitioner and Primary School Art Therapist
Jiancong (Eric) Zhang MA Art Therapy, AThR, Founder Unfold Art Therapy, NDIS Art Therapist
Natalie Poole, Grad Dip DMT, Masters candidate, Dance-Movement Therapist and Five Rhythms Teacher
Chris Petrie, MThAP, AThR, Founder Upbeat Arts, NDIS Arts Therapist
Bronwyn Roberts, BPsySc, Chief Happiness Officer: Let’s Laugh, Laughter Yoga Wellbeing Master Trainer, Skillful Mind Mindfulness Teacher
$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
Optional wellness activities for self-care including dance, yoga, art making, swimming and walking.
Surfing, Stand Up Paddle Boarding and Snorkelling are available as optional add ons at affordable prices.
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 Creative Arts Therapists, Psychotherapists, Health and Allied Health Professionals, Educators and Caring Professionals who are interested in understanding more about creative approaches in mental health care.
The Creative Mental Health Forum and Self-care Retreat includes:
Cultural awareness, welcome dinner and keynote
Creative Mental Health workshops and presentations
Participation in wellness practices including mindfulness, dance, swimming, nature walks, surfing and paddle boarding
Time to relax, explore and connect with your friends and colleagues
Exhibition of Creative Mental Health projects
“Decolonising Therapy” lived experience experts panel discussion on the future of Creative Mental Health in Australia.
We will keep updating this page as more details are confirmed.
Please register now to ensure your place.
2021 Creative Mental Health Forum brings 60 Arts Therapists to Boon Wurrung country, South Gippsland, Australia
https://youtu.be/I302-fmzMUY Sixty Creative Arts Therapists from all over Victoria and interstate gathered on the traditional lands of the Boon Wurrung People in Inverloch for the first Australian summit of its kind from 14th – 17th May 2021. “We want more … Read More
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 winning Environmental and Sustainability Educator Jane Burns as a … Read More
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 … Read More
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.” I looked and all I saw was the water. And … Read More
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”, is a seemingly bottomless well of energy for dance, dance … Read More
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 worked consistently in Aboriginal programs through the arts and … Read More
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 is closely connected to this mother-child relationship. He believes that … Read More
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., 2015 Emma van Daal joins us as a presenter … Read More
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. She shares: “I am lead Art Therapist for Creative … Read More