Live Online Presentations
Trainers: Mark Pearson & Helen Wilson
Creative Counselling with Adult & Adolescent Clients
This course will be of benefit to those who conduct therapy with adult and adolescent clients, individually and in groups. Therapeutic writing helps clients know themselves, and write their way to wellbeing. Participation in the training does not require any previous experience - or specific skills - with creative or therapeutic writing. It brings together a range of current literature on the theory, evidence-base, principles and practice of writing for therapeutic purposes. Among its unique features are our own dynamic Expressive Therapies activities developed and tested over the last 35 years.
Therapeutic writing within counselling incorporates reflection, followed by expressing cognitive, emotional, somatic and transpersonal experiences. This supports psychological, emotional resolution, and contributes to physical wellbeing, motivation and psychological clarity.
The course will introduce and provide opportunities for exploring a wide range of practical therapeutic activities for engaging adult and adolescent clients. Therapeutic writing is an expressive therapy that can be combined with the use of art, music and movement, and be safely incorporated into both face-to-face and telehealth counselling.
On successful completion of this course, you should be able to:
APRIL - JUNE 2026
$785
Online Interactive Modules
5pm - 8pm [AEST]
6 days [30 hours]
6 x 3 hour Modules over 3 months
Foundations, evidence base and practice
This training introduces counsellors to the background, history, evidence base, and practice of the Australian multi-modal creative arts approach known as Expressive Therapies. This Expressive Therapies approach was developed from Creative Arts Therapies by Mark and Helen, weaving together creative arts, person-centred therapy, emotion-focused and somatic therapies, applied to client issues such as: relationships, grief and loss, anger, and self-judgement. Modalities discussed: Applications of visual art, Symbol Work (miniatures), use of music for connection with emotions.
2 MARCH 2026
$145
Online Interactive Module
5pm - 8pm [AEST]
1 day [3 hours]
Increasing Self-compassion
Over the years clinical observations and clinical supervision have confirmed the centrality of the need for clients and professionals to address reducing harsh self-criticism. This practical two-part live online training offers creative arts-based and self-reflective approaches for identifying and disempowering automatic negative thoughts critical of the self. The Expressive Therapy tools of visual art, symbol work, and self-discovery worksheets will be introduced. The eight step pathway to mastering the inner critic will be presented. Along with mindfulness and self-compassion practice, we will explore understanding of, and separation from, self-criticism. This live online training, while focused on supporting adult clients, provides much that can also be applied with younger clients.
23 & 30 MARCH 2026
$265
Online Interactive Module
5pm - 8pm [AEST]
2 days [6 hours]
2 x 3 hour Modules
Creative pathways with Expressive Therapies
The research strongly suggests we all have access to resilience, however, many have not developed the ability to use it when needed. Finding the most effective activities to suit each client is at the heart of integrative and pluralistic practice, and Expressive Therapies can lead to enhanced client resilience within therapy and in the face of life's challenges. This program presents some ways counsellors can act as guides and models, and provide a caring therapeutic relationship from which clients' resilience levels are bolstered. Two central Expressive Therapies activities for counsellors to build client awareness of strengths will be introduced: Enhancing therapeutic connections through use of image and symbols, and supporting life reviews with timelines.
27 APRIL 2026
$145
Online Interactive Module
5pm - 8pm [AEST]
1 day [3 hours]
With Expressive Therapies Approaches
The provision of therapy that relies on language and conversation has been in development since Freud and colleagues developed psychoanalysis. There is also, however, a long history of body-based approaches to providing therapy and supporting wellbeing. Focussing on the body, its sensations, feelings and energies enables clients to enhance therapeutic gains, achieve clearer cognition and establish a more rewarding relationship to the life of their emotions.
This two-part live online experiential training will introduce a range of creative arts-based therapy skills, including: the use of sensory art, body focus techniques, and effective relaxation techniques for those who may struggle to be still and quiet. In this training you will learn to guide clients to use somatic signals to support self-understanding, combat excessive self-criticism, enhance emotional regulation and improve self-care.
3 & 10 AUGUST 2026
$265
Online Interactive Module
5pm - 8pm [AEST]
2 days [6 hours]
2 x 3 hour Modules
Professional and Personal Development
In this highly experiential two-part live online training, you will learn multiple approaches to developing mindfulness and expressing self-awareness through creative arts activities. Mindfulness is defined as "paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally" (Kabat-Zinn, 1994). For most of us, our surrounding culture in our developmental years trains us to be externally focused, and to re-visit or regret the past and worry about the future. There are many ways to step into the present. In this course we explore somatic focusing, gentle movement, emotional awareness, observation of automatic thought processes, as well as ways to use the senses to arrive in the moment.
Mindfulness has been shown to lead to increases in wellbeing and therapeutic presence when we are supporting others. Practice with the activities, observing and sharing internal experiences, and integrating through writing, visual art, and use of metaphors, provides confidence for both our personal quest and support of others.
24 & 31 AUGUST 2026
$265
Online Interactive Module
5pm - 8pm [AEST]
2 days [6 hours]
2 x 3 hour Modules
Working with implicit knowing and creative doubt
The development of clinical intuition has long been discussed and advocated for in the training of counsellors and psychotherapists. In more recent times neuroscientists have begun the serious research of defining and measuring intuition, and comparing it to more conscious cognitive processes. This live online training presents some of the evidence and practicalities for learning to become more intuitive, as well as evidence on its relationship to outcomes. Informed intuition is discussed as being a likely outcome from the practice of working as a therapist in a state of creative doubt. Practising creative doubt can help us move towards a grounded wholistic way of knowing that can reliably guide in-the-moment clinical decisions. How do we get there?
7 SEPTEMBER 2026
$145
Online Interactive Module
5pm - 8pm [AEST]
1 day [3 hours]