The things people ask before booking

No, and it genuinely does not help. Art therapy is not about skill, and it is not about making something that looks like anything. You do not need experience or training. The focus is entirely on the process rather than the product, and there is no right or wrong way to create in that room.

No. Self-identification is enough. A lot of the people I work with are late-identified, still working it out, or sitting on an assessment waiting list, and none of that needs resolving before we start.

Less than people fear. We talk about what brought you here, at whatever level of detail you want to go into, and I explain how I work and what the boundaries are.

Materials are there if you want them and there is no obligation to touch them. You are not required to produce your whole history in the first hour, and you are allowed to spend the session deciding whether you like me.

An art class is led by an instructor teaching a skill, and what you make is the point. Art therapy is facilitated by a qualified and registered art psychotherapist inside a confidential therapeutic relationship with an emphasis on safety. Nothing is taught and nothing is assessed.

The longer answer is here.

Yes, online across Australia. You use your own materials at home. For plenty of people that works better than travelling to an unfamiliar room, and for anyone who finds leaving the house the hardest part of the week it is often the version that actually happens.

I work across Western Sydney and the north west, including Blacktown, Rouse Hill, Marsden Park, Quakers Hill, Castle Hill, Parramatta and Penrith, out to the Blue Mountains. Sessions also run online across Australia.

Details for in person sessions get arranged directly once we have spoken.

Often, yes. Art therapy is commonly funded as a therapeutic support where it links to your plan goals. Self-managed and plan-managed participants can usually engage directly, while agency-managed funding is more restricted, so check with your plan manager or support coordinator before booking.

More about art therapy and the NDIS.

Art therapy is not currently covered by Medicare. Some private health funds do offer rebates for creative arts therapy depending on your level of cover, so it is worth asking your fund directly whether they recognise ANZACATA registration.

Yes, with the standard legal limits that apply to all therapy in Australia: where there is a serious risk of harm to you or to someone else, or where records are subpoenaed by a court. I will talk you through this properly at the start, so nothing about it is a surprise later.

It is yours. It can stay with me between sessions, come home with you, or be destroyed, and any of those three can be the therapeutically useful choice depending on what the work is doing.

Nothing is displayed or shared with anyone without your explicit consent.

It depends entirely on what you are working on. Some people come for a short, focused piece of work. Others stay with it for longer. We review how it is going together rather than committing you to something open-ended at the start.

Yes. I am a family therapist as well as an art psychotherapist, and a lot of my clinical background is in youth mental health, working with people between 12 and 25. I also offer parent and carer support in its own right, not only as an add-on to a young person’s therapy.

More on family and carer support.

Then it is not for you, and that is a legitimate outcome rather than a failure. Fit between a therapist and a client matters more than method does. If I am not the right person I would rather help you work that out early, and where I can I will point you somewhere more useful.