The Canberra Creative Arts Therapy Network

History

Alkeiya (Music Therapist), Holly Edworthy (Art Therapist) and Rénald Navilly (Creative Arts Therapist) met initially to share their experiences as Creative Arts Therapists in the ACT. Their work takes them into the fields of dementia, disability, severe brain injury, multicultural youth and mental health.

The intention of these first meetings was to embrace the wider community of professionals working in the field, in the hope of facilitating the emergence of a network. The Canberra Creative Arts Therapy Network was formed.

Aims

Our initial aims included: networking with like minded people who are interested in Creative Therapy in its varied modalities, helping to alleviate a sense of isolation among therapists and connecting with interested others in the Canberra Community. As professionals, we agreed we were not at this stage creating a training ground for therapists. Instead we decided for too long the boundaries of our respective professional organisations had kept the various modalities separate. We agreed we would benefit from breaking down these barriers.

So far

At our meetings this year in 2006, ideas around what people wanted from the Creative Arts Therapy Network meetings were wide and varied. These included; supporting any movement that would enable the recognition of our professional standing, exploring our commonalities as well as differences, drawing inspiration from others working in different modalities and professions, considering directions of possible tertiary qualifications, supporting our lifelong learning in passing around information about what is available in terms of training and maintaining and supporting the use of our skills in our different work situations.

Presently

We are currently establishing a website for CCATN.

At our meetings we share our skills in the creative in music, art, drama and dance with a hands on approach.

Registered members also meet for supervision.

Long live creativity.