Eleven years of listening, and a lot of paint

You do not need a formal diagnosis to work with me. Self-identification is enough.

I build the room around your nervous system

I blend art psychotherapy with a deep respect for neurodivergent minds and the many ways we experience the world. That means the room is built around how your nervous system actually works, not around how a session is supposed to look.

You do not need to be good at art. You do not need to have made anything since school. Art therapy is for people who do not have the words, or who have plenty of words and are tired of them being the only option. The materials give you somewhere else to put a feeling while we look at it together, which is often the difference between talking about something and actually getting near it.

Together we create space for what’s real, untangling what feels heavy and making room for what matters. At your pace. In your way. More on what art therapy actually involves.

Where the eleven years went

I started my career with the headspace Primary Care Program in Penrith, where I was the first art therapist hired into the program. I went on to work in the Functional Recovery Team at the headspace Early Psychosis Program across the Penrith, Mount Druitt, Parramatta and Castle Hill sites, supporting young people between 12 and 25 who were experiencing early signs of psychosis and schizophrenia.

In that role I helped build and lead a team of creative therapists, occupational therapists, vocational and education specialists, peer support workers, psychologists, social workers and psychotherapists. I was responsible for developing and running the therapeutic programs, and for the research and outcomes behind using creative therapies with people living with acute mental health presentations and psychosocial disability.

Eleven years on, that is still the thread. Creative work is not a soft alternative to real therapy. Used properly, it reaches things that talking alone does not.

Training and the ideas I lean on

My training spans art therapy, family therapy and trauma-informed practice. The frameworks I keep coming back to are the neurosequential model of care, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), internal family systems, and narrative and somatic practice.

In practice that combination means I pay as much attention to your body and your nervous system as to the story you tell about yourself, and I treat the parts of you that are difficult as parts that are trying to help.

Special interests

Over eleven years these are the areas I have worked in most, and the ones I keep learning about:

• Autism, ADHD, AuDHD, PDA profiles and twice-exceptional (2e) folks
• Late-identified autistic adults
• Complex trauma and PTSD
• Autistic burnout and shutdown
• Psychosis and schizophrenia, with an affirming lens
• Neurodivergent families, parents and carers, and carer burnout
• Anxiety, depression, grief and life transitions
• LGBTIQA+ clients

More about who I work with.

Schools, carer services and other clinicians

I run mental health educational workshops and art therapy groups at rural schools and with family and carer services across NSW, and I offer training and consultation to clinicians who want to work more creatively and more nervous-systemically.

Workshops and clinician training.

Registration, and who I answer to

I am registered with ANZACATA, the professional body for creative arts therapists across Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Registration means supervised practice, ongoing professional development, and a code of ethics I am accountable to.