Taraka Hart

Taraka Hart * Arts based workshops
* Supporting Allied Health Professionals and Educators working with young people

18/12/2025

Evidence based art therapy supervision practices you can do at home for Self Supervision

Have a look at the explanation for yesterday!!

I have a huge team and sometimes I can feel lost. My worries seem@to explode and the work is really complex and sometimes hard to ground myself. This task really helped me let go of some real, yet probably over ruminated matter.
The drawing let me see how big it had become in my thoughts and I was able to feel the weight of it and let some of it go! Luckily I had supervision the next day and could share the fun and happy thing I did with my supervisor, and the big red thing didn't seem to matter much anymore.

17/12/2025

A long time ago I learned this the hard way when I was extremely close to burn out under a supervisor who had difficulty relating to our clients with compassion, and did not offer debriefs on the cases. Here's what research shows.

3 Art-Based Supervision Practices That Help Prevent Burnout
1️⃣ Draw What You’re Carrying
Step 1: Draw what work feels like right now.
Step 2: Notice what stands out (shape, colour, weight).
Step 3: Ask: What can I put down or get support with this week?

2️⃣ Be Seen, Not Fixed
Step 1: Share one word for how you’re arriving today.
Step 2: Make a simple mark or image about what needs attention.
Step 3: Let it be witnessed. No fixing. Name what felt supportive.

3️⃣ Meet Yourself with Kindness
Step 1: Draw the tired or overwhelmed part of you.
Step 2: Draw what that part needs.
Step 3: Choose one kind, realistic action for the week.

Why This Helps
✔ Gets stress out of your head
✔ Reduces emotional overload
✔ Builds support, clarity, and care

12/12/2025

Not only was I fatigued but I missed my friends made 'in hard times'. I used to live in Hong Kong, ten years ago I cam@back to Australia, but the friends I made there were very special because it was probably the hardest part of my life. Everything fell apart, relationship, work was incredibly hard and living in a city that was incredibly built up with little nature where I lived. I was lonely a lot too.

But one friend pulled me in and included me in music and events. .nella and we remained in communication - both now arts therapists! This dear woman was running a retreat in Hong Kong so I went and was totally rejuvenated by the day in the gentle autumn sun, making art and communing with my peers.

Nature helps! Friends help! Art helps!

Your nervous system can start regulating in nature within minutes, with significant benefits like lower stress hormones (cortisol) and increased calm appearing in as little as 5 to 20 minutes, though consistent, longer exposures (around 2 hours weekly) are linked to better overall well-being and resilience, say Psychology Today and Yale E360. Even brief moments, like gazing at greenery for 40 seconds or listening to birdsong for 6 minutes, can provide quick relief and restore attention, showing nature's immediate impact on our autonomic function.

10/12/2025

Ever wondered what an expressive or creative arts therapist does? Here is a quick peek into a practice I did last weekend during a retreat in Hong Kong facilitated by the lovely therapists at

I work in it is not easy. It is fraught with systemic complexity and challenges that sometimes break my heart.

I needed some nurture to ensure I stay balanced and don't slip into the dark side of the work (vicarious impact and trauma). That can happen after working with people who have faced lots of very challenging things in their lives, and may have experienced things you NEVER want your kids to experience.

So I went on retreat for a day in this lovely space on the outskirts of Hong Long called and we did some movement to get grounded. Janella and Zaha our facilitators helped us go into our physical bodies and relax and feel the earth under our feet. This is a big part of arts therapies, to help people ground and be in the moment. Our wild minds can be out the world or on our phones, thinking about worries or tragedies, failures and relationship concerns, but doing a bit of movement can bring us into a state of 'now'. Then we collected little things from the garden space that seemed attractive and made art on the surprising format: reflective cardboard! Thanks ladies! This was so novel and contrasting with the natural elements it took me places of exploration I probably wouldn't have gone without it! And I played with all the small items I'd collected! Play is so important for our brains at any age. It allows us to relax! It helps our brains stay young and curious. It helps us be less controlling or feeling the need to control things or be perfectionistic. We were making a temporary art work, and that transient nature made me less precious about the outcome and enjoy the movement of placing items and changing them until something arose. Arts therapy is a very gentle process of playing with materials and allowing them and the body to create change gently, inside.

09/12/2025

Try something new! Facial brushes are a great new material for painting. When you are doing your self-supervision or or any other art your do for self care and self regulation.

Try the make-up brush. -upbrush

07/12/2025

is the place! Hong Kong is a little retreat space at the edge of a super city of 7 million. It provides repose and life affirming aesthetics in a world gone mad. provided expert guidance and scaffolding through mindful movement and visual art making, for a ramble through the inner workings of my heart. I was able to forage art materials from the space to create a process allowing access to a part of myself that had been locked down tight due to painful experiences of betrayal and confusion. The simple act of exploring simple natural things like leaves, flowers, a cumquat, sticks of bamboo and water, reignited a past that had brought me so much joy, and I felt a quiet transformation. I even danced a little spontaneously!! The mirror-like reflective surface we worked on was a surprising element!! Great idea !! Can't wait to see other offerings by with their great organisation, purpose and tranquility! Maybe they will visit us in Australia?

05/12/2025

I'm trying to find out the favourite prompts, rituals and nurturing tasks, activities, 'being' the therapists use.

I am a great believer and regularly use the practice of bilateral drawing. This helps me regulate by movement and colour. It takes a few strokes and then I'm off into a down regulating action that lets my nervous system relax. The colours satisfy my mind and there is no expectation for beauty or perfection.

I'd love to hear your go to acts for yourself or for your supervisees!

04/12/2025

My first visit to Hong Kong for seven years. Here to meet my PhD mentor, to visit a peer from my course and to attend an amazing retreat for carers run by

I lived here 10 years ago, and the many stories of hope and loss, tragedy and love, poverty and fortune I witnessed and heard for clients and new friends started washing up on the beach of my memory as I flew in last night.

Today I've had a chance to catch up on readings for my European Graduate School classes and prepare for my last supervision training session on Sunday. I'm learning so much and trying to retain it by drawing and writing.

Attending to the process, the cycle of inquiries through art and reflexivity, attending to the meanings and insights that arise, is essential to continue as an arts therapy practitioner.

Sometimes it's difficult, but how can I offer strength to others if I don't continue to develop strength myself?

How do you continue developing inner and outer strength? Please share!!

04/12/2025

If you are a supervisor, did you learn about the seven-eyed model? Here is a bit of a refresh:

Sometimes the client is the total focus in supervision, but at other times it's systemic failure, too many cases, challenges in the staffroom, practical challenges; lack of resources etc.

Sometimes I've had supervisees bring client questions to supervision. I wish I'd had these questions to ask:
1. How does the client breathe?
2. How do they speak, their language, metaphors, images and stories they tell of their life?
3. How does the client gesture?

This information slows down the person and gets them to think deeply about their client. Possibly focusing on clues they've never been still enough to notice. This observation can boost empathy and understanding, help you get a clearer idea of what they are saying and how, and give hints on how to work with them. Lots of metaphors or symbols means you could get the client to draw that. Or a@gestural client, more in their body, maybe some movement would be comfy for them. To let the client lead one needs to observe!

02/12/2025

I can't believe my good fortune. I'm attending a retreat this weekend with who have created a retreat for those who are carers or helping professionals.

If you get a chance to find a retreat like this I strongly urge you to attend it. I can't wait because I've been working hard this year with lots of extra curricular stuff and am totally ready for some creative down time. I'm sure I am great hands!!! Some of the facilitators are from

Let's see what happens!

Hello The Algorithm
30/11/2025

Hello The Algorithm

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Brisbane, QLD

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
5pm - 8pm
Friday 10am - 5pm
5pm - 8pm
Saturday 9am - 5pm

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+61468820516

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