Living Arts Therapy & Co-Design

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Redfern, NSW
Living Arts Therapy & Co-Design

Living Arts Therapy & Co-Design offers peer led art therapy and co-design services within the Mental Need a new logo or web design that won't cost a fortune?

Want to have a custom card designed especially for someone you love? Are you in need of someone to help with your branding and packaging for your new up and coming business? Contact Mahlie. She loves doing things for artists, good people, not for profits and self starters.

08/02/2026

A chapter I co-wrote with Dr Catherine Camden-Pratt has just been published in Materials and Media in Art Therapy (second edition), edited by Cathy Hyland Moon.

Our chapter, Art From Inside, explores living with — and working alongside — complex identity systems through art.

This second edition brings together the narratives and expertise of outliers in the field — the rebels, rule-breakers, questioners and activists. Many are womxn and people of colour, culture and q***rness. The book challenges the dominant white supremacist, hetero, upper-middle-class power structures that still shape the art therapy profession, and pushes it to do better.

It’s also a reminder that art therapy did not begin in England, and it did not begin in universities. Art as healing has been practised for 65,000 years by my people here in Oceania, and by other First Nations people across the planet, long before colonisation tried to erase that truth.

Like the first edition, this book will be used in the training of art therapists around the world. That feels hopeful.

I’m deeply grateful to Dr Catherine Camden-Pratt & Co. for being the best co-authors, mentors and friends. Cathy Hyland Moon for their care and collaboration, and for inspo, allyship and truth-telling.

Three years. Slow, exhausting, and worth it. I’m thankful, relieved, and quietly proud of what we made.

DOI: 10.4324/9781032720166-10

23/12/2025

Holiday hArts starts tomorrow online via zoom. Registrations will close tomorrow at 1pm AEDT.

For many people "meeting" or observing a person for the first time is overwhelming due to the brain processing large amounts of cognitive and sensory information. For autistic people who process more information these differences can cause overwhelm, anxiety and meltdown. If you are joining us in the space for the first time this week or you don't know me, here's a visual introduction to the space that you can spend time with to reduce the information and sensory overload.

My name is Mahlie. I am 43 years old and I am a Wiradjuri person currently living on stolen Dharug Country. I am autistic, q***r and my pronouns are she/they. I live with multiple disabilities including EDS, POTS, MCAS, ADHD and I'm a young stroke survivor with a brain injury. I'm also a masters-qualified art psychotherapist. I have worked in community services since I was 20. I started in drug and alcohol, then domestic and family violence, then in crisis, acute and long-term care with those experiencing suicidality. I have lived experience in all these areas of life. I specialise in working with late diagnosed autistic people with co-occurring disabilities.

The first picture is a recent picture of myself in my home office space so you can become familiar with my face and the room before the session. I do have 2 different pairs of glasses I might wear and my tattoos are always visible.

The next four pictures are of my office space. I might be sitting at my session desk (the white one in the corner) or my art desk (the black one). When I'm in community group sessions, I often have another overhead camera above whatever I'm working on so you can see me work. This is done as a way to reduce any power dynamic - I make art alongside people because I am a part of the community. You do not need to do this in our sessions. My office is typically dimly lit using soft lights and I have a fan in the background that makes some noise but is not visible.

The 6th picture is of the couch in my office where my 'gang' is. These are sensory plushies that I sometimes use for self-regulation, joy, comfort, safety and just because they give great therapy tips. I encourage you to bring along any of the things that help support you in spaces.

The last picture is of my 13 year old pug Skylar who typically sleeps (loudly) in her bed behind my desk, sometimes she wanders around and might be visible. Skylar doesn't bark but her nails tap loudly on the floor at times and she snores loudly. Sometimes she wrestles her bestie, Mr Sharky.

I'm excited to spend time with you over the next week. If you would like to sign up to the free Holiday hArts space, the link is in my bio or you can visit my website:

www.livingartstherapy.com/holidays/

***rarttherapist

20/12/2025

Registration is still open for the holiday harts online space. The online zoom sessions provide an unstructured community peer soace over the holidays. There is no set tasks, no requirements and everyone is welcome. This is not a therapy space or a crisis space. Cameras do not need to be activated and you can drop in and out across the session time. Registration is essential to receive the zoom link.

Link in bio or on website: www.livingartstherapy.com/holidays

16/12/2025

Been working on this blanket since March. Still not finished. Hundreds of hours, and lots of pain. My EDS affects my hands badly so I can only crochet for short periods and with days or weeks off in between. The braces help. Social media is an illusion where wools throw yarn in the air and a blanket appears. That’s not reality. It’s slow, tedious and also painful at times. Let’s sit with that instead of some weird capitalist productivity machine ideology. The retail value of this blanket would be thousands of dollars if it were based on my effort and time. Luckily, it’s just something I made whilst living in a pretty homophobic place, a reminder that my community still existed despite being silenced. It was an act of resistance for me against that silence

12/12/2025

Holiday hArts is a FREE online open art-based space that runs every year to bridge the gap in December and January when many people experience service and support withdrawal alongside increased stress and need for connection. There is no requirement to attend the group once you receive the email or attend every group. You can join the space at any time in the session window below.

HOLIDAY hARTS SESSION DATES AND TIMES

Tuesday 24 December 2024: 3pm - 5pm (AEDT)
Wednesday 25 December 2024: 6pm - 8pm (AEDT)
Thursday 26 December 2024: 6pm - 8pm (AEDT)
Tuesday 31 December 2024: 3pm - 5pm (AEDT)
Wednesday 1 January 2025: 6pm - 8pm (AEDT)
The program is totally free and open to anyone with access to the internet from anywhere in the world. The dates are in Australian Eastern Daylight Saving Time (AEDT).

Linktree in bio or visit www.livingartstherapy.com/holidays

11/12/2025

WIP, I guess…..

09/12/2025

I have never drawn faces “smiling”. When I was in school that was commented on a lot, so I started drawing smiling faces. Then I got to art school and they were like “what’s with the smiling faces!!” So I stopped again, which felt better. I’m not much of a smiler but I smiled for so many years. Because I was masking. Now the people in my art never smile and neither do I, unless it’s really real. That’s unmasking. What’s does your unmasked self look like?

05/12/2025

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN 2026 AT LIVING ARTS?

Holiday hArts - a free art-based community care peer space to land over the holidays.
- not therapy - just community connection
- no scheduled tasks or prompts
- drop in and out
- Ages 16+ welcome
- FREE

Autistic Identity Art Therapy Group Program
- Applications open now
- Begins late January
- 12 week program exploring autistic identity for late diagnosed humans
- May be accessed under NDIS plans fo some
- Ages 18+ Australian residents only

Open Art Therapy Group
- EOI open for 2026 groups
- Ages 16+ welcome
- Semi-structured art therapy groups (2 hours)
- May be accessed under NDIS plans fo some

**All my spaces are online using zoom**

For more information, head to my website www.livingartstherapy.com or use linktree in bio.

01/12/2025

I went to a drawing soace tonight. There was a still life set out for us (see picture 2 & 3). I have an autistic brain and I’m also a synesthete. I have never seen the world like most people. I saw the flowers and the colour and there were new people I just met. All of that is a sensory overload for me. Not always negative, but it’s a lot of moving colours everywhere. This is what I created from that still life. Instead of painting the still life, I painted my internal and external reaction to it. The artist facilitating the space didn’t seem to mind. We spoke about autism and synaesthesia and what it means to be creative… sometimes it’s nice to know that there are people who will let you be, even if they don’t get it, they are okay to sit beside it.
Maybe next week I will go back.

Artwork title: “there is no such thing as a still life”
Watercolour pencils and oil pastels.

06/11/2025

Goodbye to my resident blue tongue, Thug. Good to see you out and awake again buddy. You were here the first day I moved into this house and you’re here the day I leave. You are such a lovely shy slow boy and I’m glad you always seemed happy, slow and chunky. I hope the next tenants treat you with kindness and give you all the space you need to life your best life.

14/10/2025

♥️🧡💛💚💙💜 still shining 🤍💗🩵🤎🖤❤️‍🩹

29/09/2025

New friendo - broad-tailed gecko. So beautiful. 🦎

Address

Redfern, NSW

Website

https://linktr.ee/livingartstherapy

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