FAT Moon Podcast

Dr Jessica Collier (she/her) has practiced as an NHS art psychotherapist with violent offenders in prisons, secure hospitals and a modified forensic therapeutic community. She currently leads a team developing arts psychotherapies services for women and men in prison. Jessica is co-convenor of the Forensic Arts Therapies Advisory Group, and formerly a council member of the British Association of Art Therapists and the International Association for Forensic Psychotherapists. Jessica has presented her work at conferences nationally and internationally. She lectures on postgraduate arts psychotherapy and forensic psychotherapy programmes and and is a visiting fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University. She was the inaugural co-editor in chief of the International Journal of Forensic Psychotherapy and has published widely including co-editing the book Intersectionality and Art Psychotherapies. Jessica's PhD considered the interdisciplinary dialogue between feminist criminology and art psychotherapy as a means of understanding gendered identities in prison and she remains passionate about working with criminalised women. Jessica also has a private practice providing clinical supervision and reflective practice to psychological professionals and teams working with complex forensic patients across prisons, secure hospitals and community settings. In addition, Jessica has an interest in Social Dreaming and has trained with the Social Dreaming International Network.https://uk.jkp.com/products/intersectionality-in-the-arts-psychotherapies

Judith A. Rubin, PhD, ATR-BC, HLM is a licensed psychologist, child and adult psychoanalyst, and board-certified art therapist. A past President and Honorary Life Member of the American Art Therapy Association, she has written six books and created thirteen films. For three years in the sixties she was the Art Lady on the PBS children’s program, “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” Now retired from clinical practice and regular teaching, she served for forty years on the faculties of the Psychiatry Department at the University of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Center. She also presented and taught at many universities and conferences in the U.S. and abroad. President and co-founder of Expressive Media, she launched an online Training Film Library in the expressive therapies. In 2024, the film library was acquired by Psychotherapy.net, a video streaming platform serving a range of mental health professionals. Judy is currently engaged in two unfinished EMI projects: an International Film Festival on the Arts in Healing and a film provisionally entitled “The Many Faces of the Creative Arts Therapies,” in process of being created. expressivemedia.org Arts In Healing International Film Festival

Moon Mail - Monthly Newsletter Collective Calm: well-being sessions (May) Kate Dempsey is the CEO of ANZACATA. She has been in the position for just on 5 years. The work has grown from 2 days a week to 4 days a week in that time. She was chosen for the role because she has significant experience as a change management and leadership development consultant and has worked with not-for-profit associations and enterprises for over 20 years. She is also an academic, teaching in MBA and other business related post graduate programs at Deakin University. She is also a business coach. She has post graduate qualifications in organisational psychology and a PhD in leadership.

I currently hold the role of Course Coordinator for the Master and Graduate Diploma of Art Therapy. Upon completion of my PhD, I took up a tenure-track position at Florida State University where amongst other activities I had the key responsibility for coordinating clinical placements. I continued my research in the area of art therapy and mental health recovery, as well as investigations on research and professional issues in art therapy. I have been the Principal Investigator on several research projects including: Group art therapy for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, early intervention art therapy with Latinx farmworker children, as well as mindfulness-based art therapy, and technology-assisted approaches to dealing with anxiety and stress in university students. I continue to play an active role in the American Art Therapy Association including as Associate Editor of the highly regarded professional academic journal. I currently serve as a Board Member for the Australian, New Zealand and Asian Creative Arts Therapy Association (ANZACATA) and External Member for the MIECAT Academic Board. I have been the recipient of numerous awards including the American Art Therapy Association Seed Grant (2021); National Endowment for the Arts Research Award (2020); Department of Art Education Faculty Teaching Award (2019); the Rawley Silver Research Award from the American Art Therapy Association (2017); and the Transformation Through Teaching Award from Florida State University - Spiritual Life Project (2016). www.artthxresearch.com

Noula is an Australian clinical psychotherapist, artist, and author, and the founding director of the BeCause Movement. Across all her expressions, she is deeply passionate about removing the affect of developmental neglect and not belonging on human lives.    She is a Brainspotting Trainer and Consultant, and also trained in Somatic Experiencing (SE) levels 1 and 2, Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP) level 1& 2 and trained in Dialectic Behavioural Therapy (DBT), Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR, full member EMDRAA), and with Frank Corrigan in Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) and trained in trauma therapy and parts work. Noula also uses a range of mediums to open new conversations and perspectives on mental health issues. She is represented by Artereal Gallery, Australia, was the Founder and Director of MAANZ, and also hosts a variety of art & well-being focused workshops. Noula was selected as the therapist in a six-part observational documentary - called Space 22 - which explores the impact of creativity on our mental wellbeing.    https://iview.abc.net.au/show/space-22  See more about Noula here:  www.nouladiamantopoulos.com www.becausemovement.org  Or follow Noula on Instagram @nouladiamantopoulos

You can support the show via a monthly membership at ⁠patreon.com/GreeneMoonStudios Carla is an Artist and Creative Arts Therapist based in Boon Wurrung Country, Inverloch, Victoria. She brings decades of experience working with people and the arts for well-being in community, justice, health, education, and private practice contexts. Experiential ways of knowing underpin Carla’s therapeutic work, including embodied attunement and arts-based responding, informed by trauma-centered, strengths-based, existential, and narrative approaches. She loves to share creative practices as ways of knowing and being. Carla’s book Bereaved Mother’s Heart (2007) broke social taboos about maternal grief. Seeing Her Stories (2020) presents Carla’s research into making Women’s stories visible through art. Her most recent publication is “Art Therapy First Aid: Growing Capacity with Art Therapists in Communities Affected by Australian Bushfires”(in Scarce, J. (Ed.) 2022). An educator in the field of Creative Art Therapy since 2001, Carla received an Artist Fellowship at RMIT’s creative research lab, “Creative Agency” in 2018. She is a lead campaigner in the ACTivate Arts Therapy collective, and Founding Director of the Creative Mental Health Forum. Carla insists on being part of a creative revolution in which art re-embodies lived experience, brings us to our senses, makes us aware of the interconnectedness of all life, and is an agent of social change.  Carla is the Convenor of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA)’s College of Creative and Experiential Therapies, and in this role, she is dedicated to working for access to creative therapies for everyone. carlavanlaar.com

Michelle has worked as a registered art therapist across a variety of areas including General Medical, Pediatric Oncology, Palliative Care, and Bereavement Support. Over the last five years, Michelle has established the first specialized art therapy service in Qatar at Sidra Medicine, Women, and Children’s Hospital. The role involved promoting children’s mental health and included a pilot online art therapy research project with adolescents experiencing anxiety and depression. Currently, Michelle has started a new role as a museum liaison, developing programs and social content about the importance of children’s mental health.    linkedin.com/in/michelle-dixon-697234a8   @michelledadixon www.instagram.com/michelledadixon/ michelledadixon@gmail.com  You can support the show via a monthly membership at ⁠patreon.com/GreeneMoonStudios⁠

Alana Stewart is a Registered Art Therapist practicing on the land of the Wurrundjeri People of the Kulin nation (Melbourne, Australia). She deeply values art, creativity, and nature as sources of healing and integral aspects of human life that promote health. With the lived experience of neurodivergence, she primarily works with individuals who also have neurodivergence, such as autism and ADHD, as well as other disability and commonly co-occurring experiences of complex trauma. Alana has been working in the disability field since 2012, drawing inspiration from her two passionate parents who are lived experience disability advocates. Recently, she has almost completed her course in forest therapy guiding with the International Nature and Forest Therapy Alliance, and runs her private practice, Finding Wellbeing, alongside being the director of the Yellow Gum Art Therapy Studio, a studio location which now multiple arts therapists practice from.  Private practice: ⁠www.finding-wellbeing.com ⁠  ⁠@findingwellbeing⁠ Studio Location and Forest Therapy: ⁠www.yellowgum.art ⁠  Email: hello@yellowgum.art 

Lama Majaj is an Art Psychotherapist, a visual artist, and an educator with seventeen years of program development and strategic planning experiences in arts education, healthcare, and humanitarian settings. Recognized for demonstrating a natural aptitude for program optimization, project management research, and development; Lama has held positions internationally in the Middle East, Asia, and Australia where she founded the Arts in Healthcare program at The Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre (ONJCWRC).   An invited as a Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) consultant with global humanitarian organizations to implement trauma-informed care and build capacity for resilience in Kurdish-Iraq, Cambodia, and Dominica.   Lama’s art therapy practice integrates humanistic psychotherapy with bodywork, movement, and the expressive arts to support individuals. Clinical skills are based on psychotherapy and counseling practices, attachment theory, and mindful-informed approaches.    She is a certified Heartmath Mentor and coach HeartMath offering highly effective, practical solutions for increasing employee performance, reducing workplace stress, anxiety, depression, and sleeplessness, and increasing resilience, productivity, and performance.  Registered member of the Australian, New Zealand, and Asian Creative Arts Therapy Association (ANZACATA). She provides supervision for arts therapists and is a part-time lecturer at the MA Art Therapy Program at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore.   Currently, a Dynamic Embodiment™️ and BodyMind Dancing™️ candidate focused on integrating skilled touch, movement, & compassionate dialogue to help individuals relieve stress, find enhanced expressiveness, and balance all aspects of the body and psyche. In her free time, she enjoys biking along the coastline and spontaneous dips in the ocean.  Lama is available for Individual and Group supervision, please email for inquiries: lamamajaj@gmail.com linkedin.com/in/lama-majaj-ma-athr-38b910216@lamammajaj28 You can support the show via a monthly membership at ⁠patreon.com/GreeneMoonStudios⁠

Naomi is a registered Arts Therapist, clinical supervisor, and research supervisor in Auckland, Aotearoa/ New Zealand. She has ten years of experience working in mental health, and her current practice is with survivors of sexual violence. She is currently undertaking a PhD and in her doctoral work, she is interested in the position of Creative Arts Therapy as a mental health profession in New Zealand, particularly paying attention to the many entangled phenomena involved in becoming a professional here. She is drawn to the natural world for inspiration and creativity in this work and has published some of her early doctoral writing in the Journal of Creative Arts Therapy. Naomi is available for supervision, please email for inquiries: naomipearsscown@gmail.com www.naomipearsscown.com@naomipearsscown You can support the show via a monthly membership at patreon.com/GreeneMoonStudios

Sarah Tucker has extensive experience as a prison Art Therapy facilitator and aims to foster rehabilitation, healing, reconciliation, and recidivism prevention among offenders and in society.  Sarahs unique perspective stems from 25 years of involvement in the arts and tattooing, offering her profound insights into marginalised and underground communities. Sarah has consulted and advised Correctional Services, employing various creative therapeutic interventions, particularly with prisoners. Her expertise also extends to facilitating children's group therapy art workshops, individual therapy sessions, and trauma-informed creative therapy practices. Sarah also holds multiple undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in criminology, neuroscience and arts psychotherapy.sarah.tucker@unsw.edu.auhttps://www.unsw.edu.au/hdr/sarah-tucker

Sam completed his Masters in Art Psychotherapy at Goldsmiths College London in 2013 and has a 15-year working history in the creative, educational, and social care sectors.  Before training as a therapist, Sam worked with young people in Brighton and London as a manager of specialised housing projects with Looked After Children in the UK care system and is also a trained Further Education (FE) art teacher.  Since graduating with his Masters, he has continued to focus his work with children and young people in a variety of settings with different client groups including SEMH (Social, Emotional, and Mental Health) schools, specialist ASD education, forensic, and residential children’s homes in the South East of England. Sam also maintains a private practice in Brighton, and is a member of the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC) and also, the British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT).        ⁠linkedin.com/in/sam-leicester⁠⁠www.samleicester.com⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠@esseltherapy  You can support the show via a monthly membership at ⁠⁠patreon.com/GreeneMoonStudios⁠

Hello and welcome to the Fat Moon podcast. My name's Kirsty and I'm the founder of Greene Moon Studios, an art therapy and yoga studio. I thought to share a little bit about myself and the inspiration for this podcast. I'm an art therapist working with adults in an acute mental health facility here in Melbourne, Australia. Prior to completing my art therapy masters, I worked as a nurse and have been nursing for over 15 years. in areas such as acquired brain injury, palliative care, forensic community, and homelessness. I've also been interested in the yoga philosophy for over 20 years and I studied yin yoga 10 years ago. I've been leading classes, workshops, and retreats here in Melbourne, Argentina, and Spain. I currently run a peer supervision group as well as a group art therapy for Art Therapist's container. And what I notice is when therapists are together, they're always curious about each other's pathways and studies, as well as their current workplaces, client populations, and their practices and approaches. This realization birthed the Fat Moon podcast, and I wanted to create a platform for therapists to hear about each other's experiences from around the globe. I use the term creative therapists in the platform because it's open to all. It includes art therapists, music therapists, drama therapists, dance therapists, and more. It's my hope that we can inspire and educate each other through conversation. I'm very excited to engage with you all and I would appreciate any recommendations of creative therapists, or therapists that I can interview. And you can reach me at greenemoonstudios@gmail.com. I'm currently funding this project. So if you feel like you have the capacity to support me, you can subscribe via Patreon, additionally, I've set up a subscription for people to be able to view the interviews on YouTube. So if you enjoy engaging visually, it's $20 a month, and any support is really appreciated. You can also support the show by giving it a like or a review on whichever platform you engage with it. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being curious and thank you for your support. You can support the show via a monthly membership at ⁠patreon.com/GreeneMoonStudios⁠ ** I would like to thank Denny Fackney⁠ for the Podcast intro and outro music @dennyfackney and I would like to thank Carolina Ñino Buro⁠ for the Podcast artwork @carolinaninoburo --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fat-moon/message