Art Therapy Group Offerings
Details of current & upcoming Offerings…
'Heart Garden': Small group Art Therapy for children
Heart Garden is a small Art therapy group that provides opportunities for children aged 7-9 to engage within a social space in fun, nature-based activities and imaginative play. With a gentle, therapeutic approach, these sessions offer a delightful way to connect and collaborate with each other and the natural world, while promoting confidence and self-advocacy. Melinda invites participants to engage in creative discoveries and problem-solving that supports communication and emotional independence skills.
Each session offers an invitation to explore different themes using a range of materials and props to inspire improvisation and creative possibilities.
Children are invited to work together and navigate social spaces on their own terms through strength-based and affirming approaches. During each session, each child’s regulation and interoceptive awareness is supported through modelling and gentle therapeutic guidance.
Melinda fosters a safe and inclusive space for children to express themselves and is guided by neuro-divergent affirming principles and a trauma-informed approach that promotes healthy, emotional well-being.
These are small group sessions. Maximum 4 participants.
4:00-5:00 pm Thursdays during school term.
APRIL 24th – JUNE 26th (no group MAY 1)
9 weeks/ $450 per term
Private + NDIS funded participants welcome. Please contact me for all enrolment details.
Please note, as this is an Art therapy group, an intake form will be required to ascertain if this will be a suitable space for your child’s needs.
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Bilateral Drawing Sessions
Weekly group
Bilateral Drawing is a type of sensorimotor stimulation that activates both hemispheres of our brain and both sides of our body through drawing with both hands, eyes closed. It can be a space to access flow– to attend to our nervous system, to help process difficult interactions, feelings, emotions, memories. A space that we can create for ourselves to allow for integration of our experiences, thoughts, emotions, and body. To consider all of the things we’re learning, unlearning, feeling, experiencing, avoiding, holding.
It is an accessible way of getting out of our heads and finding the rhythms of breath, music, and movement and notice the sensations of the materials that we are holding and drawing with. This is a space to connect with our bodies, to invite them into an alternative kind of conversation through exploring rhythm, repetition & movement as resources for well-being and care.
No experience with art-making is required.
The sessions are 45 minutes, starting with a gentle guided, grounding practice and then using a prompt we move into drawing (with music).
The practice of Bilateral drawing challenges notions of both what it means to make art and what it can mean to take care of ourselves, personally & collectively.
I hope you love it as much as I do.
WEDNESDAYS: 10 am, from APRIL 23rd.
Payment is $15 per person, pay as you go.
Please get in contact if you are interested in joining any of these small group sessions. Currently limited of 4 people per session. These groups are for people who identify as women.
Nature-connection Studio sessions
Starting Tuesday 29th April
This art therapy group is about exploring possibilities for self-care and personal healing through mindful immersion in nature – using sensory experience combined with gentle and meaningful art-making, guided journalling and somatic practice.
Overall Program:
To explore and deepen connections to nature for self-awareness and healing.
To utilise journaling for reflection and personal growth.
To incorporate somatic practices for body awareness and emotional regulation.
To create an environment to explore emotions, express creativity, and support each other in an integrative, emergent way.
To increase mindfulness and develop skills for being present in the moment.
Please contact me if you are interested in joining this group & would like to be added to the class list.
Tuesdays 9.30-11.00am.
Starting APRIL 29th
$375 includes materials | 5 week blocks
Sessions will be starting in late April running for 5-week blocks, and are dependent on numbers
Creative Journalling for Collective Care
...taking expressions of interest
We will start with the creative process of being gently guided in the making of our unique journals, using handprinted papers and basic stitching & glueing techniques. Your journal will become a place for self-care through expressive methodologies & creative meanderings that support processing emotions and experiences while enhancing creativity.
We will be exploring a different art therapy prompt each week – a simple practice that we can bring into our lives to offer ourselves some soothing balm for these unsettled times.
This will be a small group, with the invitation to share what you feel comfortable with and to attend to your own process within the cohesion and care of the collective.
No previous art experience is necessary to join this group,
and the group will be limited to 3 participants with a minimum of 2 to get started. This group is only open to women.
Fridays 9.30-11.00am.
Starting in MAY
$375 includes some materials | 5 week blocks
Please contact me if you would like more information and for
all expressions of interest.
