Carla van Laar,

Master of Creative Arts Therapy.

 

Carla is a painter and arts therapist. She is currently the Director of ‘aHa Studio’, where she provides sessions for individuals, small group supervision, runs workshops, and hosts exhibitions and life drawing classes.

 

For six years, Carla was Senior Advisor with the Art2Healing project working with women in Nepal as a facilitator addressing the problem of sex trafficking. She is currently the Principle Therapist with the VincentCare Young Adults COunselling Service, working with young people expereincing homelessness.

 

An educator in Arts Therapy, Carla currently provides supervision for arts-based Masters researchers at the MIECAT Institute, has been an international guest lecturer at Whitecliff University in Auckland, researcher for Victoria University and has previously taught art therapy at MIECAT, RMIT, IKON Institute and The Phoenix Institute where she was Head of Faculty.

 

For more than 20 years, Carla has worked in the fields of disability, grief and loss, youth justice, sexual abuse, mental health, personal development and education. Her publications include the book, “Bereaved Mother’s Heart”, “Chill Skills” and co-authored chapters in “Healing the Inner City Child” and “Knowing Differently”.

 

Carla’s interest in interpersonal and intergenerational healing flows from her work with perpetrators and survivors of sexual abuse, people experiencing homelessness, refugees, relationships with Aboriginal culture and stolen generations in Australia, involvement in eco-awareness communities and emergent themes in her current Doctoral research project, “Seeing Her Stories”.

 

Carla is passionate about the power of collaboration, imagination, the arts and action methods as facilitators of well-being, empowerment and growth for individuals, groups and social action.