Thresholds Art Therapy in Castlemaine, Victoria | Medical and health

Thresholds Art Therapy

Locality: Castlemaine, Victoria

Address: 1 Halford Street 3450 Castlemaine, VIC, Australia

Website: https://www.thresholdsarttherapy.com.au

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• Medical and health
• Mental health service
• Therapist

25.01.2022 Hej out there Fellow Beings... entwined in your seasonal threshold of winter/spring, or summer/autumn... Here's a beaut little animation on the power of Art Therapy...when 'SOMETIMES' we don't have the words. Created by Pearl Taylor! In support of the #ACTivateAT "Activate Arts Therapy: Professional Arts Therapist = Mental Health Practitioner" campaign! With encouraging energies for you all, through this turbulent time, Marita

25.01.2022 Hello One & All, I have just listened to this excellent podcast and share it here for parents & those who support kids & teens in any way, or those who are seeking some fresh inspiration for responding to big feelings. This paradigm goes beyond mainstream behavioural approaches, with Loving limits, the power of play & having true presence & compassion with ourselves & with our children, for whatever feelings we, or they, are feeling. Marion Rose has been a parenting shining... light & support for me since my almost 13yo, was a baby...and her work also nourishes my work with kids & teens & adults. Thank you Marion & Lael, Marita.

25.01.2022 Hello Creative Beings... a lovely multi-sensory experience for you all here: Dreamed up & Activated by the amazing Erica Rasmussen: www.ericarasmussen.com.au with music, painting and people improvising with an abundance of paint and shadows/silhoettes. 'Twas so enriching to be a part of and to witness live and again here on film, 5 years ago... Makes me want to do it all again. Enjoy! Can you adapt these creative ideas into your iso spaces? I will try, #homeschooling, #lockdown, #isolife with mess & fun... with heART, Marita

25.01.2022 Are you involved with children either in your work, or with your children at home? Then take a look at "Together In Art Kids" and consider taking part! This rec...ently launched online art project is designed to inspire and support children isolated from their friends and community during COVID-19. Presented by the Art Gallery of NSW and media partner the ABC, Together In Art Kids fosters creativity and imagination in challenging times. See more

25.01.2022 A note of request, I am echo-ing across the lands to you all: from my Arts Therapist colleague: Natalya: Please support this initiate being led by an integral member of the professional arts therapy community. We want to be included in policy which promote opportunities for mental health practitioners. At a time when mental health services are imperative please help us cut through the red tape. Arts Therapists = Mental Health Practitioner.... Thank you, Marita...

22.01.2022 Hey Beauties, In this in-between, liminal space or threshold, of life before the virus and our lives beyond... whenever that will be, lets turn up our self-care & connected care for others... heres some ideas...with compassion, Marita

22.01.2022 Ah, some of the beauty of settling into my new studio at 'Workspace' in Castlemaine, is slowly meeting my Amazing neighbours... And on the very day I was preparing to make my fortnightly trip to Maldon, to offer Creative Arts Therapy to an elderly Lady with dementia, where we read poetry, write poetry, paint, chat, collage, muse upon life, listen to music, sometimes sing, draw and even play... I met my Theatre Artist neighbour Samantha Bews and received an insight into her creative work with people with dementia...see her important work captured in film below. What profound gifts the Arts give! Thank you Samantha!! See you round... Marita ...

22.01.2022 I LOVE DANCING.... Exciting links to neuroscience & wellbeing!

21.01.2022 Hearty greetings....I have reinvigorated my early morning sitting in silence meditation practice over this Autumn/Winter and more recently it has emerged to holding my hands over my heart...inspired by readings on our 'heart brain', heart coherence and reflective conversations with dear colleagues and friends...and then listening to this conversation on trauma and the embodied brain, has solidified this practice even more, with the question: how to be a 'therapeutic presence' in the world, as Bonnie Badenoch inspires...with whomever crosses my path...and the 'helical heart' muscle action amplifies this wonder for my/our hearts even more deeply...as this helical action unfolds in my spinning dances in grassy paddocks... With H E A R T (I love that there is ART in HEART), Marita

21.01.2022 Here it is: the deeply moving Birds Eye View Podcast...As one reviewer wrote "Heartbreaking, Heartwarming". Yes indeed... An important note from the Producers: "Please note that this podcast contains material that may be disturbing, especially for survivors of trauma. Aboriginal and Torres Strait people are advised that the story may contain the names and voices of people who may have passed away. "

20.01.2022 Hello fellow Beings, Feeling some big feelings? Me too. Thankfully, the Big Feels Club, is there for us all to to join, with the uplifting, whimsical, honest, real, lighthearted - as well as serious, Graham Panther & Honor Eastly ('sensitive cats' they call themselves and others with big feelings). They offer a peer support model in their 'Big Feels Club' for people experiencing mental health challenges of the existential kind. They have also created an award winning ABC pod...cast "No feeling is final", that I listened to the entire series of: Highly recommended! And below here in their latest blog post, Graham shares his experiences of isolation (plus some of his articles written for the ABC), plus his new podcast co created with Honor: "Should I be reading the news?", plus a free gift for mental health workers. Prolific generous creators aren't they!! With all very enriching resources for buoyancy and support, in this turbulent time we're in and beyond... Here's their website: https://bigfeels.club ~ to see for yourself. Well worth a check out, if you're navigating some really big feelings, maybe now more intensified by a virus, turning your entire life upside down... With a tender heart across the lands, Marita.

19.01.2022 water colour pencil on water colour paper...

19.01.2022 Smiling Mind has been highly recommended to me by Mum's of kids I support and good old friends. It is a free Australian meditation App, with loads of options for the whole family. Here's a little feeling vibe check that creatively invites us to check in: How am I feeling? Great to use with kids. Also, sending extra special hearty encouragement to all parents of Year 12 students, as final exams loom. Keep calm support for you and yours is available on this excellent App....... Aaaaah deep slow out breath....calms our nervous system.... Nice! Om!.... Marita See more

19.01.2022 A poem of mine, raw & freshly penned: Grief ...in the mist... hidden outlines sketchy forms silhouettes of trees not yet seen not yet known layered beneath a trillion droplets of infinitesimal despair... could these be from all the tears in all the world for all the loss that is hidden, not yet seen not yet known? yet for now imaginably held honoured nurtured by nature, with birdsong lullabies of soothing in the mist... Poem by Marita Jacobsson, Inspired by a walk in nature yesterday, where 5 wild goats (including 2 kidlets) roamed nearby, bleating to me

18.01.2022 Creative Holding Spaces for healing...wellbeing...enlivening...with Therapeutic Arts...

17.01.2022 Oooops, you didn't have much time to access Tara Brach's freebie, however it is now only $15. My brother told me about this free option instead: THIS WAY UP ~ an online initiative of the Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety & Depression, UNSW @ St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, are offering FREE access to all their mental health/wellbeing online courses until the end of April. Generous eh! Here's their website: https://thiswayup.org.au/ With hearty hopes, Marita

16.01.2022 Ooooh, Exciting news: Art Therapy is miles ahead in the UK... It is actually funded in schools for children & young people! Yet this holds promise for us here in Australia... as I am welcome to supporting students at schools, so the only way is up! With hope, Marita

16.01.2022 FREE weekly meeting for Women to explore their problematic relationship with alcohol: In the new SMART recovery group that Cobaw will be running in Kyneton, VIC from 16th January 2020...

16.01.2022 Feel like dancing? With others, but without anyone watching you? Well now you can in your lounge room. Check this out: The Beautiful Innovative beings from Moving Essence David & Meredith, will be right there with you... guiding you.... With gratitude for 'the dance' & 'Moving Essence', Marita

15.01.2022 Science and Art love each other very much! And here you can join this Live Science class for primary school aged kids, today at 12md, with the Awesome Mr Sam Harrison from Labcoat Learning! With more Lives to come and past Lives available too! Exciting! mARiTa...

15.01.2022 Hey, need some fresh beautiful music and an uplift/something to dance to at the same time? Thank you to Andy Lacy from Hilltop Counselling, Castlemaine ~ for sharing this gem of a track!

14.01.2022 Oh Mary Oliver, you are my favourite poet and inspire me to write little and long poems, even in mid-air... Are you inspired to write a poem or more, this month? An easy starting place is Haiku, containing just 3 lines, one easy rule is 5, 7, 5 syllables for each line of your poems... With deep gratitude for Mary and Warren Lett, my MIECAT Teacher, who inspired a love of Haiku poems in me, Marita...

13.01.2022 Feel like trying some expressive art at home? Well here is a guided practice for you. This is a simple yet profound practice of creating calm with art making and no skills are required (as goes for anyone seeking Art Therapy). Be guided by the Blue Knot Foundation's Art Therapist & Psychotherapist Jane Daisley Snow: "When we consciously and deliberately engage in practices that produce physical calmness, we signal the limbic brain that we are safe at a physiological level.... The use of expressive arts has been used throughout history as a way to non-verbally express ourselves. It engages the right brain and taps into the creative parts of ourselves that are key to healing. Join Jane Daisley Snow as she takes us through two easy art exercises to use at home to relax and engage the body to release tension." With heART, Marita

13.01.2022 Ahoy Creative Children & Young People, far and wide and you are all creative ~ in my eyes: the Awesome Squishy Minnie Bookstore in Kyneton, are hosting ONLINE creative workshops for you... WooHoo!! My heart smiles in happy memories, when I reflect on my "Art Journalling" workshops for kids last year, nourished at Squishy Minnie by Kristen & Lucky. They are Suburb incubators of community-connection-through-creativity! So share this around folks & Thank you Squishy Minnie!... With excitement, Marita See more

13.01.2022 Ah, feelings...always ebbing and flowing....seemingly waxing and waning in intensity, over the days, the weeks, the months and years of our lives.... Generously giving them some sensitive space and attention, like we would an old friend...seems like the wiser way to go....

13.01.2022 Ah Caroline Sarah, truly living and working in the edgy spaces of creative explorations, expressions and embodiment and now this your inaugural EXHIBITION of "...stories about mental health recovery and acceptance are woven into the fibres of each creation, slowly hand-stitched..." in Kyneton (Kind Town!). WooHoo! Go You!! With celebration, gratitude and awe, Marita

12.01.2022 Exciting news! I now have keys to my new Thresholds Art Therapy Studio in Castlemaine, at Workspace. With some paint & plants it will come up beautifully and be open for groups and 1:1 folks in late January, 2020! This room/whole building was a former hospital and patient room... Wonderful to come full circle after my former Nursing days in such spaces, now offering the Arts as Medicine! Woohoo!

12.01.2022 Whoa! What wild waves we are all riding, how on earth do we do this? Here's my trusty Dr Pooky Knightsmith with some encouraging and clear support. Thank you Pooky! Daily meditation/dancing outside and lots of family laughter/sillyness: to release tension & have fun, embracing uncertainty, plus connecting conversations ~ have been some of my nourishing practices...Oh and music! Essential!! With buoyancy and hearty encouragement for your wellbeing-whilst-wild-wave-riding, Marita

12.01.2022 Hey One and all... do you have a person in your family or community with special needs? Well this summit is free and online commencing today: NOV 5-10. There is a paid upgrade option if you can't make it this w/e. "Discover key ways to help with issues such as cerebral palsy, stroke, autism, learning disabilities, oxygen deprivation, Down syndrome, and poor vision." Look out for Art Psychotherapist Lama Majaj, talking about her work with a young boy with Autism and a wide ar...ray of experts in the field, register here: https://feldenkraissummit.com Might see you there! With hearty encouragement, Marita

12.01.2022 Hey You out there, what day are we up to in our iso-lands? I've lost count... but I am counting on great podcasts, to get me through washing the dishes, hanging out washing etc. etc. and balancing out the endless C news. And this one by Birds Eye View Podcast is putting things into great perspective for me, listening to women's stories whilst in a prison in Darwin, Australia. Using a Narrative Therapy approach, these women have been empowered to rewrite their stories. This article shares Rocket's story of transformation and gives a great overview of Narrative Therapy, (which I'm loving weaving into my work). I've just started listening to Bird Eye View, I'll keep you posted. It is sounding deeply moving so far. With hope for You on the journey, Marita ...

11.01.2022 Oh and Self-Compassion, very timely to consider... More gifts via Tara Brach below for you all and your communities...

09.01.2022 Spring blossoming greetings to you all... A little note on A N X I E T Y... On a recent hunt for an old poem (calling loudly to me, to be attended to), I found this old sketch of 'anxiety'.... With it's gnarly tendrils, many ruminating voices, coarse burrs and sharp bits, as well as it's relentlessness and persistence...... Thankfully 'anxiety' does not visit so often any more and having chats and cups of tea with her: a younger part of myself, that I've named "Little Miss Worry" ... is most helpful and reassuring...aaaaaaaaaah! Have you ever wondered what your anxious parts of you, would look like in a simple sketch? With soothing & softness & compassion, for all the anxious energies waxing and waning, in the world... Marita

09.01.2022 The sun sets on the week, illuminating Thresholds Studio ~ a space for healing... wellbeing... enlivening... with Creative Arts Therapy. A former birthing suite of the old Castlemaine Hospital, now birthing light in the intersubjective/co-creative/emergent spaces ~ of therapeutic relationships...

08.01.2022 Kids!! Tough times eh, parenting them in this iso-land-space we have never known before... My 12 yo kid is active in many ways thankfully. And he could also try Art classes online with the wonderful Isabelle Dupre, registered arts therapist, life drawing teacher and visual artist! Starting Term 2 - check it out below/share it around if you like. 2 age groups on offer... Thank you Isabelle, for activating this, when I am only dreaming about it... With encouraging energies for creatively parenting the Kids!... Marita

07.01.2022 Hello! Did you know, we will soon be in the midst of the Global 16 days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence Campaign!? If you live near Castlemaine, Victoria, check this out and if you're too far away, it will be live streamed: event link in the flyer below... Co created by Creative Arts Therapist, Isabelle Dupre from http://www.figureitlifedrawing.com Respect: See it Through... with hope and peace, ... Marita https://:facebook.com/events/1027943457671246

06.01.2022 EASE - Expressive Arts for Social Evolution Saturday: January 25: 3 - 5pm Kyneton Community Park, Clowes Street, Kyneton 3444 (next to the Botanical Gardens) Come together for a free, inclusive social gathering to acknowledge our individual and collective feelings about the climate and ecological crisis, devastating fires and loss of life through creativity and connection.... An opportunity to: Acknowledge & express our individual & collective feelings in a healthy, creative way Feel supported by your local community Share a picnic meal with your neighbors Engage in a healing ritual for self, the collective and the earth Envision the kind of future we want to create together This safe facilitated space will be held by a group of dedicated and compassionate artists, therapists, healers and counsellors. ALL INCLUSIVE. All ages welcome. Art materials supplied. No prior art making experience necessary. PLEASE BRING ALONG PICNIC BLANKETS, CAMPING CHAIRS AND A PLATE OF FOOD TO SHARE IN COMMUNITY. This is an outdoor event so please ensure you are prepared for all weather conditions. EASE acknowledges the traditional custodians and caretakers of the land on which it operates, the Wurundjeri, the Dja Dja Wurrung (Jarra) and the Watha Wurrung people, and pays respect to the elders past, present and emerging. EASE is committed to providing a safe, inclusive & creative space for all people, regardless of their ethnicity, faith, ability, sexuality, or gender identity. Artwork by Jeta and Makinti. EASE is a wholeheART initiative. www.wholeheart.com.au For more information, please contact Rebecca Knaggs at [email protected] or call 0432 027 092 PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SHARE WITH YOUR PEEPS X

06.01.2022 Hello fellow Travellers... My neglected artist has been tended to, much more carefully of late... reawakening her has given unimaginable gifts... and a poem and drawing to play with... With bouyancy for the journey, mARiTa ... Gifts contour lines noticed in dead wood alive to me, enlivening me capture my curiosity delightful lines on delightful maps topographical tracings offer gentle joy sensorially finger prints exquisite such patterns testimony to our precious incomparability rain drops in water repeating such patterns my heart implores such symmetry more and more my eyes are drawn pencil in hand playing such patterns innocently drops me into presence emergent line tendrils mapping such patterns unveils calm in uncertainty by Marita Jacobsson, August 2020

05.01.2022 A community arts collective response to the devastating January fires in Australia - Initiated by Rebecca Knaggs, from WholeART as EASE: Expressive Arts for Social Evolution. We offered this creative space in the Kynteton Botanical Gardens in January... Our communities' co creations continue here in the Kyneton Library for you Lovely local ones to get down & create...and dream...

05.01.2022 Hello fellow Beings, here's some light amidst all the darkness ~ I had my first ever video call today, with the elderly lady (mentioned in a previous post), with dementia whom I support: usually in-person... We drew together and shared our drawings on the camera and we wrote a poem together using key words that I had pre-cut out of magazines. Our poem was very much about connecting and being together (in the here-and-now as artists) and sharing a totally new experience. Ve...ry precious. I will also write her letters and send creative responses to her via snail mail, add in some phone calls and keep creatively connected. Here is my reflective haiku poem on our unprecedented times: riding waves of change each day: deconstructed life inviting presence With buoyant energies and hearty encouragement, Marita

04.01.2022 Hola! A little note on THRESHOLDS... and some inspiration for my practice name... I first discovered the other meaning of this word during my studies at MIECAT... hearing that in-between spaces, or liminal spaces or stages are the pathways we bravely venture on, when using an arts based inquiry with Creative Arts Therapy. That means: we learn to sit with "not knowing"... "uncertainty" and "being curious" in accessing the arts as pathways into many other ways of knowing and m...aking sense of things, beyond the rational cognitive thinking brain. Liminal spaces or liminality felt very important to me and my new way-of-being. 'Limin' is the latin word for Threshold. So more than just the step between inside/outside our homes or a peak point reached, Thresholds are also crossings or frontiers in our life spaces... Gratefully, I companion people navigating their own life thresholds, using the arts as a form of creative inquiry. Irish Poet & Philosopher John O'Donohue explains Thresholds quite eloquently below... Are you navigating 'in-between spaces' or 'thresholds' on your life journey? And who or what is 'holding you' along the way? I hope you feel deeply-energetically-held. With Kindness, Marita

04.01.2022 A guided meditation practice for you....I experienced this as exquisitely beautiful today... tears bubbled up from a place of overwhelm I have been nursing for a bit too long... Living from a hearty connected place seems to be the ideal life navigation portal. Sarah Blondin, with her angelic voice gently guides you there... A deep bow of gratitude to the free guided meditations, music and talks App: Insight Timer and of course Sarah from LIVE AWAKE.... ... Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Marita

03.01.2022 Hello Fellow Beings, (said in a whispery voice in case you're tired and stressed) has insomnia been visiting you too ~ of late? Sooooo un-welcome eh! Well here is a lil' something gorgeous for you: bedtime stories - with an artful-inspiring-simplicity. L O V E L Y.... Tried & tested by moi and they truly work! Zzzzzzz! Thank you sooooo much Kathryn, from Nothing Much Happens; bedtime stories for grownups. Mmmmm.....mmmmmm! Marita

03.01.2022 How are you getting your daily endorphin (feel good hormones) release whilst being cooped up? and how are you lowering stress hormones? exercise is the key for me! Here is a 47 minute play list for a 5 Rhythm dance at home, a beautiful gift created by the brilliant David Juriansz from Moving Essence - as their weekly 5 Rythms dance gatherings are on pause... Thank you David!! I was out dancing this morning with myself and nature.... I mark trees with handstands against them, like dogs mark trees with wees: haha! Plus cartwheels, spinning like Whirling Dervishes, high kicks and tree hugging all feature in my daily repertoire. My body knows what it needs and I have grown to surrender and trust my bod more and more! Yaay for the dance (with music and in silence)... at this time especially. With hearty warmth, Marita See more

02.01.2022 Mmmmmmmmm 'Body Mapping' ~ How I love this process and offer this experience to people I support: Kids, Young People and Adults ~ customising my approach to their specific needs and preferences... This beautiful film by Body Movement Psychotherapist, Annette Schwalbe ~ gives rich expression to what is possible.... I am envisioning winter group gatherings for us Women to dive into 'Somatic Body Mapping'... Interested? Stay tuned for more... I'm composting summer ~ into wint...er wellbeing wonders, Marita See more