Creative Art Therapy with Jessie Upton
As a professional therapist, I provide multimodal Creative Arts Therapy for individuals and groups online and in person.
Working multimodally means I value all forms of expression and creation as equal. Instead of facilitating visual art therapy or music therapy specifically, I work across all ways of expressing creatively, be it visual, digital, physical, or musical.
I have experience working alongside children & young people in hospitals, delivering creative connection programs for seniors and working with adults navigating periods of transition in their lives - following a major change, a new knowing or a diagnosis.
I am an LGBTQIA+ friendly therapist and have lived experience of navigating chronic health conditions. This includes a late-in-life ADHD diagnosis, which informs my trauma-informed and neurodiversity-affirming approach.
Let’s art about it, together..
-
Individual Sessions
Meet me in the studio in Melbourne or online for 1-1 creative art therapy sessions.
-
Group Sessions
Join a creative art therapy group or come along to an upcoming therapeutic workshop.
What is Creative Art Therapy?
Creative and expressive arts therapies are a form of psychotherapy that go beyond words. They use art, media, and the creative process to facilitate the exploration of feelings, improve self-awareness, and promote well-being.
In expressive art therapy, the focus is on the process, not the product, where creative procedures and tactile engagement with art materials are used as a way to explore feelings that may be hard to put into words.
Creative and Expressive Art Therapists are mental health professionals who work across a range of allied health settings including private practice, community health, education, hospitals, mental health and rehabilitation facilities, aged care and palliative care.
Who can benefit from Creative Arts Therapy?
Creative Art Therapy can benefit anyone.
As it is all about the creative process, you do not need any prior experience with art or music-making to participate in a session!
Creative arts therapies can help people to discover patterns of experiencing, resolve conflicts, develop interpersonal skills, manage behaviour, reduce stress and increase self-esteem.
They can be particularly helpful for people who struggle to find the ‘right’ words, or who can’t form a way to describe their feelings or their experience with just words. Instead of relying completely on talk or written communication, expressive arts therapies provide a range of ways to communicate including drawing, writing, sculpting, acting, dance, sound and movement
Creative Art Therapy for individuals
Together, we engage in cycles of expression, co-creating with what emerges. We use creative procedures and tactile engagement with art materials as a way to explore feelings that may be hard to put into words.
In an individual session, we meet either in person or online and engage creatively together for 60 minutes.
I meet you as a Companion, working alongside you. This dynamic places your experience, both past and present, at the core of what we do and what unfolds.
Using various creative tools as a form of communication, we approach what emerges in our time together with curiosity. My role as Companion is to provide a safe path and space for your Inquiry to unfold.
Location:
In person in Preston, Melbourne CBD or online.
Online pricing:
$125 - 60 minutes
$185 - 90 minutes
In person pricing:
$155 - 60 minutes
$230 - 90 minutes
-
In expressive and creative arts therapy, the focus is on the immediate creative process and expression that unfolds, not the final product or 'artwork' that you create.
In our sessions, we will engage with creative materials to explore emotions and felt senses, rather than focus on the formation of an individual piece of art. -
A common misconception of Expressive and Creative Arts Therapy is that an Art Therapist will interpret and provide suggestions of meaning of your expression.
During our sessions, I will not provide any interpretation of what you create!
It is my role to accompany you during the process as Companion while you form your own meaning. -
Yes! I am able to offer individual Creative Art Therapy sessions to NDIS participants.
As a Professional Creative Arts Therapist, I can provide Art Therapy to NDIS participants who have Therapy listed within their plan. Art Therapy does not need to be listed as a stated support.
The line item is 0128 Therapeutic Supports.
I am an unregistered NDIS Provider. This means I am yet to complete the formal processes of provider registration within the NDIS system. My NDIS Provider registration status has no bearing on my professionalism, abilities or the quality of services I provide!
Please see my NDIS guide for more information on how this works!
Availability:
OPEN - currently accepting new clients.
Monday - Saturday availability.
so… wanna art about it?
Jessie currently has availability Monday - Saturday for individual creative art therapy sessions online, or in person in Preston or the Melbourne CBD.
Creative Art Therapy for groups
Meeting around the art-making table, we create alongside each other, sharing the space, materials, and insights as they emerge. We use creative procedures and tactile engagement with art materials to explore feelings that may be hard to put into words.
In a group session, we meet either in person or online and engage creatively together for 90 minutes.
I work alongside each participant and together, we build a space to gently share and support each other as a whole.
During these sessions, there are various creative tools offered as a form of communication. We approach our shared and individual experiences with curiosity, engaging with the materials and each other to explore deeper meaning.
Location:
In person in Preston or online.
Online pricing:
$65 - 60 minutes
$95 - 90 minutes
In person pricing:
$95 - 60 minutes
$130 - 90 minutes
-
There is usually a maximum capacity of 10 people for our Creative Art Therapy group.
-
A common misconception of Creative Art Therapy is that an Art Therapist will interpret and provide suggestions of meaning of your expression.
During our sessions, I will not provide any interpretation of what you create!
Together, I will guide the group through a form of inquiry that enables curiosity without interpretation. Allowing your own meaning to emerge. -
Yes! I am able to offer individual Creative Art Therapy sessions to all plan managed or self managed NDIS participants.
I am an unregistered NDIS Provider. This means I am yet to complete the formal processes of provider registration within the NDIS system. My registration status has no bearing on my professionalism, abilities or the quality of services I provide.
Availability:
Group sessions commencing in mid 2026.
Keen to create together before then?
Check out Sunday Social our casual therapeutic art group.
My Qualifications
I am a fully qualified Creative Arts Therapist - AThR, holding professional membership with ANZACATA.
-
I hold professional membership with ANZACATA - the Australian, New Zealand and Asian Creative Art Therapies Association. They are the peak professional body for creative arts therapists in the Asia/Pacific region.
As a professional member, I am listed on ANZACATA's Find a Therapist webpage, you can confirm my membership by viewing my profile on their website.
-
Arts Therapists are Allied Health practitioners. As a qualified art therapist, I am authorised to use the recognised title AThR.
Allied Health Professions Australia outlines how an Art Therapist is qualified as follows:
In order to practise and use the recognised title AThR (registered arts therapist), the following requirements must be met:Professional membership of Australian, New Zealand and Asian Creative Arts Therapies Association (ANZACATA).
Complete a minimum two years Masters degree.
Complete a minimum of 750 hours of supervised clinical placement.
Complete continuing professional development and work under a code of ethics.
-
I hold a Masters of Therapeutic Arts Practice with a specialisation in Community Arts & Health from The MIECAT Institute - the Melbourne Institute of Experiential Creative Art Therapies.
A three-year expressive art therapies program, the MIECAT approach of Emerging Inquiry values multimodality - that is, the use of multiple creative art forms within it’s processes.
In the final year of my studies, I completed my placement with the Starlight Children's Foundation, returning to the Royal Children's Hospital to work alongside the team.
-
As a practitioner, I have signed the SEEK Safely Promise in support of promoting ethical and safe personal growth.
As a professional arts therapist, I do not consider my work to align with the self-help industry directly, as my scope of practice is defined within the allied health field and regulated by my professional membership requirements.
However, I recognise that personal improvement and self-empowerment are an expansive inherent component of being and I am passionate about ethical and safe education and experience.
You can learn more at seeksafely.org
