April & May Newsletter
Hello hello,
Welcome to the April & May edition of the ITT Newsletter!
Autumn invites us to slow down, reflect, and deepen our connection with ourselves. This month, I'm keen to share insights into therapeutic processes, upcoming workshops, and creative opportunities that can hopefully nurture your personal and professional growth.
In this NL, we'll explore the integration of Somatic Experiencing and Art Therapy, discover therapeutic benefits of mandalas, and celebrate new opportunities to support and enrich our community.
Happy reading, Tania
What's Happening at ITT
Group Supervision – April & May Dates
Keep an eye on the ITT website for group supervision dates throughout 2025! The next online supervision sessions are scheduled for:
Wednesday 23rd @ 4:30
Friday, 30th May @ 4:30pm
Participants of the online supervision groups have shared the unique value they’ve gained from these sessions. The group dynamic fosters connection, learning, and creative exploration, which are invaluable for professional growth.
The power of art-making as a way of knowing and understanding continues to amaze practitioners. It’s easy to lose touch with its transformative potential when we’re focused on offering it to others in our work. Remember to make time for your own creative practices—they’re essential for your wellbeing and nourishment.
While there are no in-person supervision groups scheduled for 2025, in-person sessions can be arranged at The Creative Continuum in Warrandyte if you’re able to gather a group of at least four practitioners. If this is something you’re interested in, please email me at info@integratedtraumatherapy.com.au.
Professional Development Opportunities
I’m excited to share this year’s professional development workshops, designed to deepen your understanding of complex trauma and strengthen your therapeutic practice.
Online Professional Development: Understanding Complex Trauma
Applying Art Therapy, Somatic Nervous System principles, and practitioner support to work effectively with complex trauma presentations.Online Professional Development: Using Art Therapy to Explore Shame
This workshop will help you understand how shame presents in the nervous system, its role, and how to support repair. Shame and CPTSD can be incredibly challenging to work with and deeply impactful for clients. By incorporating the Somatic Experiencing and Polyvagal frameworks, we’ll explore how to work safely and effectively with these presentations.
Understanding Complex Trauma
Applying Art therapy, Somatic Nervous System Principles and Support for you as the practitioner
Dates:
Thursday, 21st August
Using Art Therapy to Explore Shame
Understand how Shame presents in the nervous system, its function and how to support repair
Dates:
Saturday, 31st May at 12:00pm
Thursday, 4th December at 12:00pm
These workshops combine theoretical insights with practical tools, using Art Therapy to support both you as the practitioner and your clients in achieving meaningful therapeutic outcomes. I’d love to have you join me for these transformative sessions.
If you have any questions or would like to know more, feel free to reach out. Let’s make 2025 a year of growth, learning, and connection!
New ITT Offerings for 2025
1. Accelerated Trauma Recovery Mandala
Created by Lindy Bearup, the Accelerated Trauma Recovery Mandala is a therapeutic in-person group hosted at The Creative Continuum (CC). This intensive programme is for individuals currently working through their trauma, offering a supportive and focused space for deeper healing. Referrals are now open—if you have clients who may benefit, please let them know.
Contact: info@integratedtraumatherapy.com.au
2. SE Skills for Life Online Course
I'm happy to share that the recent SE Skills for Life Online Course was a wonderful success, with participants deeply engaging and finding the experience both meaningful and transformative. It was rewarding to witness their growth and due to positive feedback, I will be offering this valuable 6-week course again in June 2025 for those on my waiting list. If you believe your clients would benefit, please share this upcoming opportunity with them. Stay tuned—new dates will be announced soon!
This course is designed to provide participants with practical tools and foundational skills from the Somatic Experiencing framework to help regulate the nervous system, build resilience, and improve overall well-being.
3.Art Therapy Offerings at The Creative C
Explore a diverse range of creative workshops available at The Creative C. These sessions provide opportunities for art-making, creative expression, and skill development, alongside therapeutic art workshops designed to foster personal insight and self-reflection. Whether you're seeking a creative outlet, deeper self-understanding, or looking for resources to support your clients, there's something inspiring for everyone. Upcoming workshops are scheduled throughout April and May 2025, with more offerings planned for the remainder of the year. Find details and registration at Creative C Workshops.
4. Upcoming Workshops in 2025: Art and Soul Creative Sessions
Join the popular "Art and Soul" creative sessions at The Creative C. These sessions offer a welcoming space to engage creatively, explore self-expression, and connect with others in a supportive environment. Sessions will run on:
5th and 19th April
3rd and 17th May
To secure your spot or learn more about these inspiring sessions, please visit Creative C Workshops.
5. Art Therapy Studio Hire
Looking for a space to host your own workshops or events? The Creative C offers studio hire for Thursdays, weeknights, and evenings, with options for full or half-day rentals.
The space includes:
A waiting room, kitchenette, and toilets
Extensive art equipment
Capacity for up to 20 participants
Whether you’re planning a one-off workshop or ongoing sessions, this versatile and well-equipped space is ideal. For more information, visit Creative C Studio Hire.
If you’d like to learn more about these exciting new offerings, feel free to reach out. Let’s make 2025 a year filled with creativity, connection, and healing!
Resources & Readings: Mandalas and Circles as Therapeutic Tools
I’ve recently been exploring mandalas and circles as powerful therapeutic tools. "Mandala," Sanskrit for "magic circle," has long symbolised sacredness and wholeness across many cultures. Personally, engaging with sacred geometry and creating my own mandalas has provided profound experiences—realigning me with something deeply authentic within.
Offering mandala meditations, I’m often moved by participants’ responses; they describe the process as transformative, grounding, enlightening, and affirming. For me, witnessing a mandala form is akin to watching a flower unfold or colours shift gently across the sky at sunrise—each mandala unique, unfolding slowly in its own expression.
We are all constellated in a unique way, just like a mandala, our lives unfold in a pattern or an order that is particular to us. Sometime those patterns work for us and are helpful and other times, like trauma those patterns are limiting and restricting. But here in a mandala we can make choices about those patterns and change them as we begin to witness them. What pattern is your life currently showing and undertaking?
Stephanie Ellis from "The Art of Process" teaches that different patterns and shapes carry distinct meanings: circles representing consciousness, triangles signifying fire, and squares grounding us with earth-energy. Recently, after drawing a pattern inspired by Borobudur, a Buddhist temple in Indonesia, guided by Stephanie Ellis, founder of the Art of Process , I felt incredibly grounded and present. So many squares.
Borobudur temple
Carl Jung viewed mandalas as symbolic expressions of the self, central to our journey toward individuation. He observed spontaneous mandalas in dreams and artworks, noticing their calming effect on his clients. Joan Kellogg, inspired by Jung, extensively studied thousands of mandalas, identifying archetypal patterns reflective of various life stages, transitions, and states of consciousness. She noted how individuals cycle repeatedly through these mandala patterns, each offering insight into developmental tasks we encounter throughout our lives.
JOAN KELLOGG: 1922-2004, was an art therapist who was fascinated by Jung’s works. She used mandala in her art therapy practice in the 1960 with psychiatric patients. She studied 1000s of mandala paintings where she identified archetypal themes in the use of colour and design within a circle during various life situations. Joan discovered archetypal themes that mirrored different states of consciousness in processing change (Examples: beginning and ending, fighting and accepting). 12 basic mandala patterns were identified where they were arranged in a sequential circular format around a 13th center point. Individuals traverse the Great Round several times in their lifespan to accomplish different developmental tasks
J. Kellogs
Cornelia Elbrecht’s Initiatic Art Therapy course has expanded my understanding of mandalas further. Here, the mandala begins from a central point, expanding freely without restriction to circular forms. This flexible approach allows the mandala to organically represent our inner world without predetermined boundaries. Certificate in Initiatic Art Therapy
In my role as senior art therapist within mental health settings, I've adapted mandala processes to explore specific therapeutic themes—working from the circle’s edge inward or from the centre outward. This helps individuals understand their personal boundaries and explore what's held within or kept outside.
Another valuable adaptation is Lindy Bearup’s ATR Mandala, specifically designed for trauma integration and recovery. This process helps individuals meaningfully place trauma in context—allowing integration of the pre-trauma self, adapted parts, trauma experiences, and supportive resources. Participants often report reclaiming hidden parts of themselves, moving towards a greater sense of wholeness.
I'm particularly excited to facilitate this meaningful process in my upcoming 6-week workshop, starting Thursday, 1st May. For more details or to join, please visit Integrated Trauma Therapy.
Interesting the mandala form is used to represent the automatic nervous system responses in the Restorative practice alliance https://restorativepractices.com/product-catalog/
Check it out.
Check out the ITT Resource Page
There is a selection of resources on the ITT resource page that maybe useful to you or your clients:
https://www.integratedtraumatherapy.com.au/resources
Have a look at the Creative C too:
https://www.creativec.com.au
The CC has studio hire for events on the weekends or evenings during the week.
Thank you for reading.
Take care,
Tania
