Dr Carla van Laar Creative Arts Therapy

27/12/2025

I’m looking forward to welcoming some inspired young creatives to my Inverloch studio on Tuesday!

There are just a couple of spots left so please book in quickly to ensure your child has a place 😊

“IMAGINATION LANE”: School Holidays Creative Wellbeing Sessions for Young People

Tuesday 30 December
Tuesday 6 January
10:00am – 12:00pm

Cultivating a creative imagination is one of the most important resources we can nurture in children and young people.

Imagination helps young people grow into creative, emotionally intelligent and adaptable beings — confident in their abilities to participate as valued, contributing and connected members of the world.

“Imagination Lane” is a small-group creative wellbeing experience designed to support this development in gentle, joyful and meaningful ways.

Inverloch Creative Therapies Studio
Small group (max 8, minimum 3 participants)

$120 per young person for a 2-hour session
All creative materials supplied.

Extra times available on request for small groups of three or more.

Please contact Dr Carla van Laar Creative Arts Therapy to book in:
Carla@carlavanlaar.com

More info here:

Inverloch Creative Therapies Creative and Experiential Therapy provided by Qualified Registered Professionals Book Now Try Creative and Experiential Therapy for yourself in our welcoming private studio. A Safe Space for you: Inverloch Creative and Experiential Therapies A non-clinical space where .....

24/12/2025

Thanks VisitInverloch for featuring my school holidays kids workshops in the brand new guide:

“Best bits for Kids”

“Inverloch Creative Therapies
Imagination Lane – A Creative Holiday Break for Young People

Travelling to Inverloch with kids or teens these holidays? Give them a grounding, screen-free break with Imagination Lane, a creative wellbeing session for young people aged 10–15.

Held in a warm, welcoming studio, these small-group sessions invite kids to unwind and explore hands-on art activities that spark imagination and confidence. Guided by PACFA-registered Creative and Experiential Therapist Dr Carla van Laar, Imagination Lane helps young people feel calm, connected and creatively alive — without needing to “talk about their feelings” unless they choose to.

Perfect for:
• kids who love making and exploring
• young people who benefit from sensory friendly space
• families seeking something meaningful (and fun!)
• parents who’d love time to shop, relax or enjoy the beach

Holiday Dates
• Tuesday 30 December
• Tuesday 6 January
🕙 10am–12pm
📍 Inverloch Creative Therapies Studio
👥 Small group (max 😎

Cost: $120 per young person (all materials included)

To learn more, visit the Inverloch Creative Therapies webpage.
Bookings essential‍ ‍email carla@carlavanlaar.com “

Are you looking for the best things for the kids to do in and around Inverloch these school holidays? Look no further as we have created a list of some of the best way to keep your kids entertained!

22/12/2025

Creative Health: The Question Being Asked Is No Longer the Right One

There’s been a global boom in practice, research and publishing about Creative Health this year.

This surge reveals the way forward - and also clearly shows that some questions are ready to be retired.

The outdated questions:

❓Are creative therapies effective?

❓Are art and music therapies viable allied health supports?

❓Do creative approaches really improve mental health and wellbeing?

These questions might have made sense decades ago when ‘evidence’ was emerging and professions were developing. They no longer fit the current global context.

💡Why these questions are outdated:

Global health bodies, psychiatry, and public health frameworks now recognise arts and creative engagement as vital contributors to mental health and wellbeing - like sleep, exercise and diet.

The issue is no longer uncertainty about effectiveness, but how systems respond to this knowledge.

🖼️ Reframing the questions:

If creative therapies are effective and evidence-supported, why are they still treated as peripheral rather than integrated as core public mental health infrastructure in Australia?

Why do our systems continue to hesitate in utilising creative practitioners as public mental health resources, despite overwhelming need and strong evidence?

In the midst of a mental health and su***de crisis, why are we still questioning the legitimacy of creative therapies instead of mobilising them as part of our public health response?

💗The human stakes:

The issue is no longer whether creative therapies are helpful. The issue is whether our systems are able to recognise, trust, and mobilise forms of care that don’t sit neatly inside older biomedical models — now more than ever when people are hurting, and help is urgently needed.

🌈 What I want to see:

Position descriptions for mental health roles in multidisciplinary teams that explicitly welcome PACFA-registered Creative and Experiential Therapists to apply.

GPs referring help seekers with mild-moderate mental health concerns to local, community based PACFA CCET registered creative and experiential therapists for timely, personal, creative care.

Schools engaging PACFA CCET registered creative and experiential therapists to help care for the mental health and wellbeing of both students and staff.

The Australian National Standards for Counselling and Psychotherapy now provide clarity and confidence about the role of tertiary-qualified counselling and psychotherapy practitioners, including Creative and Experiential Therapists.

⏰ Time for change! The question is no longer:

whether creative therapies work,

OR

Whether creative therapists belong in allied and mental health teams

OR

Whether creative and experiential therapies are safely regulated.

💫The real question now is:

How quickly will Australia’s systems adapt?

…

Want to read more?

https://ncch.org.uk/blog/creative-health-books-released-in-2025

19/12/2025

"Take your Imagination on Holiday"

Dr Carla's EOY News is out - This festive edition is an invitation to take your imagination on holidays as we close out 2025.

Inside you’ll find:

✨ a final EOY Supervision Studio and a new 12-month Creative Supervision Package for 2026
✨ Imagination Lane holiday workshops for children and young people
✨ new GP referral pathways for counselling & creative therapies
✨ Creative Wellbeing for Schools launching for 2026
✨ a free Art Therapy First Aid resource
✨ recent writing, reflection, and new artwork

If creativity is part of how you care, reflect, and renew — you’re warmly invited to read along.

👉 Read it here:
🔗 https://carlavanlaar.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=tnp&na=v&nk=9-86663b88f4&id=55

A happy and safe festive season to all my friends and colleagues around Australia and the world. And extra special love to you if this is a complex and difficult time to navigate.

Thanks for the amazing connections and conversations throughout 2025.

18/12/2025

What if creativity isn’t a luxury — but a life skill?

New neuroscience research into jazz improvisation shows how the brain becomes more flexible, engaged, and responsive when we’re allowed to improvise within a safe structure.

This mirrors what artists, educators, and creative practitioners see every day:

creativity helps us build confidence, adaptability, and hope — especially in times of uncertainty.

I’ve written a new blog reflecting on this research, improvisation, imagination, and why creativity matters for mental health and wellbeing across the lifespan:

👉 Read the full article here:
🔗 https://carlavanlaar.com/creativity-improvisation-and-life-skills/

Locally, this way of working comes to life through Imagination Lane — creative wellbeing workshops for children and young people, offering space to explore feelings, flexibility, and confidence through art-making and play.

👉 Learn more about Imagination Lane:
🔗 https://carlavanlaar.com/inverloch-art-therapy/

If you’re part of the Inverloch community, or connected with families visiting the area, please feel free to share.

“The Ability to Improvise Is the Ability to Live” What if creativity is not a luxury, but a life skill? A new neuroscience study on jazz improvisation offers something rare: a way of watching creativity unfold in real time. Researchers … Read More

17/12/2025

There’s been an important shift in Australia’s mental health system with the endorsement of the National Standards for Counsellors and Psychotherapists.

In response, I’ve put together a short Gippsland GP referral guide to help primary care services understand when referral to a PACFA-registered counsellor or creative therapist may support people experiencing anxiety, stress, grief, adjustment difficulties or emotional overwhelm.

This work sits alongside GP care and helps improve access to timely support in our region.

If you work in primary care, or are connected to GP practices, feel free to share.

I love working with local people and I am here to help.

📍 Inverloch (face-to-face)
💻 Telehealth across Gippsland

16/12/2025

Join me for a special
EOY Supervision Studio,
this Sunday 21st December
10am - 12.30pm AEST

A creative pause to:
- close off 2025
- clear out any unfinished business
- reflect on everything you have achieved this year
- set yourself up to enjoy the holiday season
- start to vision what you will create in 2026.

Book yourself in or email Carla to join as a new member:
carla@carlavanlaar.com

The bottom-up approach to supervision that honours embodied wisdom, art as a way of knowing, and the power of connection.

13/12/2025

I'm thrilled to announce the release of the

"Creative Mental Health Forum 2025 Documentary"

**now free to watch online in full.**

What happens when a passionate group of therapists, artists, educators and community members come together for four days to explore how creativity, community and collective care can reshape mental health and wellbeing?

Filmed on BoonWurrung Country in Inverloch, Australia, this documentary shares stories from our fifth Creative Mental Health Forum — a one-of-a-kind, values-led, crowd-funded gathering where we meet in solidarity to co-create practice, community and knowledge.

In a biomedical-dominated health system, where healing is so often reduced to billable units and isolated symptoms, the Forum remembers and re-generates another way. “Creative Mental Health” is grounded in art, movement, music, drama, play, story, and connection — ancient forms of healing that endure because they speak to the body, heart, and spirit.

What emerges is clear: creative practices support mental health, and their true strength lies in the relationships and communities that hold them. This is not work to be fragmented, marginalised or commodified — it is living, collective care.

After premiering with Forum participants and screening internationally at the Creative Therapies Global Business Summit, the documentary is now offered publicly so its stories, creativity and conversations can ripple outward.

🎥 Watch the full film:
https://vimeo.com/user146039271/cmhf2025?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci
(Please feel free to share)

May these stories nourish the ecosystems of care we continue to build together.

May Creative Mental Health approaches be integrated as core public health infrastructure for the greater good of all.

🌿 Creative Care, Anywhere.

Filmed on BoonWurrung Country, Inverloch, Australia This documentary shares stories from the fifth annual Creative Mental Health Forum — a four-day gathering…

11/12/2025

🌟 Creative Wellbeing for Schools — Now Available Across Bass Coast & South Gippsland 🌟

I’m excited to share a new suite of Creative Wellbeing programs designed to support the emotional health of students, educators, and whole school communities.

Schools are dynamic, relational environments — and creativity offers a natural way for people to process feelings, stay grounded, build emotional literacy, and reconnect with their inner resources.

My new offerings include:

🎨 Creative EAP for school staff
A gentle, preventative wellbeing support model for educators.

🖍 Art Therapy First Aid Training for Educators
Creative, trauma-responsive tools educators can use right away.

🌈 Creative Wellbeing for VCE Students
Practical, more-than-verbal approaches to stress and overwhelm.

💛 Funded 1:1 support pathway
For eligible young people through the FRMP Brokerage Program.

🌿 Imagination Lane holiday program
Creative wellbeing for children and young people aged 10–15.

You can explore the full range of offerings here:
👉 https://carlavanlaar.com/creative-wellbeing-for-schools/

If you work in a local school, or know someone who does, I’d be grateful if you shared this with your networks.
Together, we can help create school environments grounded in connection, creativity, and care.

10/12/2025

✨ New for 2026: Creative Supervision Annual Package ✨

I’ve been working on something special for counsellors, psychotherapists, and Creative & Experiential Therapists who want a more creative, reflective, and spacious approach to their annual supervision.

I’m excited to launch a 12.5 hour Creative Supervision Package, designed to align with PACFA’s supervision requirements (including the required 10 hours), with an extra 2.5-hour Supervision Studio session gifted to you to support peer connection, art-making, and reflective depth.

What’s included:
🌿 5 × 1:1 individual supervision sessions
🌿 3 × 2.5-hour Supervision Studio small-group sessions
🌿 12.5 hours total (valued at $1250)
🌿 Package price: $990 (20% off)
🌿 Valid for 12 months

Supervision Studio sessions offer a gentle, creative, bottom-up approach, with time for art-making, embodied awareness, and more-than-verbal reflection — in a warm, supportive peer community.
Individual sessions offer tailored guidance specific to your clients, contexts, and professional growth.

If you’re wanting a supervision year that honours creativity, integrity, and reflective spaciousness, I’d love to welcome you.

Purchase link is in the comments 🌿
Feel free to DM me with any questions.

10/12/2025

“Cultivating a creative imagination is one of the most important resources we can nurture in children and young people.”

-Dr Carla van Laar

💭Imagination helps young people grow into creative, emotionally intelligent and adaptable beings — confident in their abilities to participate as valued, contributing and connected members of the world.

🚸”Imagination Lane” is a small-group creative wellbeing experience designed to support this development in gentle, joyful and meaningful ways.

☀️Held in our welcoming coastal Inverloch Creative Therapies Studio, these sessions will be
Small groups with a maximum of 8 places per session.

🌟$120 per young person
for a 2-hour session
All creative materials supplied.

🗓️Tuesday 30 December
Tuesday 6 January
10:00am – 12:00pm

📣Extra times available on request for small groups of three or more.

⬇️Follow the link below to find out more about

🪄”IMAGINATION LANE”: School Holidays Creative Wellbeing Sessions for Young People

https://carlavanlaar.com/inverloch-art-therapy/

06/12/2025

Imagination Lane – A Creative Holiday Break for Your Young Person

Travelling to the Bass Coast or South Gippsland with kids or teens these holidays? Give them a beautiful, grounding break — and give yourself two peaceful hours — with Imagination Lane, a creative wellbeing session designed especially for 10–15 year olds.

Held in a warm and welcoming studio space, Imagination Lane offers young people a chance to unwind, get off their screens, and dive into hands-on creative activities that spark imagination and confidence.

Guided by PACFA-registered Creative and Experiential Therapist Dr Carla van Laar, these sessions help kids feel calm, connected and creatively alive — without needing to “talk about their feelings” unless they want to.

Perfect for:
• kids who love making, imagining and exploring
• young people who feel at ease in quieter, sensory-friendly spaces
• families wanting something meaningful (and fun!) during their Inverloch stay
• parents needing a couple of hours to grab a coffee, shop local or enjoy the beach

Holiday Dates
• Tuesday 30 December
• Tuesday 6 January

10am–12pm
Inverloch Creative Therapies Studio
Small group (max 8)
Cost: $120 per young person (all materials supplied)

Check out the Inverloch Creative Therapies webpage for all the info: https://carlavanlaar.com/inverloch-art-therapy/
Bookings essential — email carla@carlavanlaar.com to secure a spot.

A creative holiday moment they’ll remember — and a little breathing space for you too.