Ipsarty Art Therapy

24/09/2025

Calling all SUPPORT WORKERS 📣 We’re building something for you and we need your help.

✨ Art of Support is taking shape 🤲🏻 and Craig is offering free online 1:1 sessions (limited time) to help design it with you.

Be part of shaping the space before our first group workshop in October.

Mondays + Wednesdays | Online with Craig
Comment “Support” and we’ll send you the link to book.

Studio sessions are also available at $35.

15/09/2025

FREE ONLINE ARTS THERAPY FOR SUPPORT WORKERS!!
We’re building something for support workers — but we can’t build it without you.

Ipsarty is a local expressive arts therapy studio on the Sunshine Coast. We’re creating Art of Support — a new program for support workers to professionally develop, debrief, reflect, and restore through arts therapy.

As part of his Masters placement (and his own lived experience as a support worker), our facilitator Craig is offering free 1:1 sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays online, and heavily discounted sessions of $35 in our Warana studio.

These sessions give you confidential space to unpack the realities of support work — and they give Craig the practice he needs as he prepares to launch the very first Art of Support workshop on Wednesday 22nd October.

✨ Spaces are limited. Your voice and story will help shape this program from the inside out.

https://www.ipsarty.com/book-a-session

Because this space is for support workers — and it can only be built with you.

Ipsarty Arts Therapy acknowledges that we live, work and come together on Gubbi Gubbi country. We pay our respects to all Gubbi Gubbi peoples as the traditional owners and custodians of this beautiful and abundance land, and elders past, present, and emerging and extend this acknowledgement to all A...

09/09/2025

The Duckett Review has confirmed the evidence:
🎨 Arts Therapy works.
🎶 Music Therapy works.

But alongside this recognition came something deeply disheartening — a recommendation to reduce our pay rates and align us with counsellors.

This undermines the years of training, registration, and responsibility we carry as allied health professionals. It ignores the evidence of our impact. And it risks driving skilled therapists out of the sector, leaving participants with fewer choices and less access to care.

This isn’t just about pay.
It’s about justice.
It’s about valuing the essential role arts therapists play in trauma recovery, disability support, and whole-person healing.

We will keep holding space with integrity, evidence, and heart. But we cannot stay silent while our profession is asked to carry more for less. And truthfully, I’m not sure what this means for us in the NDIS space going forward. This is something we will need to sit with.

👉 Share this post.
👉 Speak up when you can.
👉 Stand with arts therapists — for fair recognition, for participant choice, for a sector that values the fullness of this work.

Because not all stories are told in words. And every story deserves to be heard — and funded.

13/08/2025

Coming Soon: Creatively Nurtured

Those early days can feel like the whole world has narrowed to two people —
you and the tiny soul you now carry in your arms.

Creatively Nurtured is a space for that two-ness.
For the mother and baby as one tender constellation.
For slowing down enough to feel each other,
to breathe together,
to be seen together.

Through gentle arts therapy, sensory play, and moments of quiet holding,
we nurture both the mother and the baby —
because your wellbeing shapes theirs, and theirs shapes yours.

Before we officially launch, I’m inviting a small group of mothers and babies into our pilot round —
at a reduced price, in exchange for your honest reflections.

This is for you if you’re ready to:
✨ Feel supported while you support your baby
✨ Explore creativity and connection without pressure
✨ Rest in a space where both of you are held

🕊 Spots are limited for this pilot round.
Book here 🫶🏻 🎨

https://www.ipsarty.com/event-info/creatively-nurtured-pilot

13/08/2025

Coming Soon: Creatively Nurtured

Those early days can feel like the whole world has narrowed to two people —
you and the tiny soul you now carry in your arms.

Creatively Nurtured is a space for that two-ness.
For the mother and baby as one tender constellation.
For slowing down enough to feel each other,
to breathe together,
to be seen together.

Through gentle arts therapy, sensory play, and moments of quiet holding,
we nurture both the mother and the baby —
because your wellbeing shapes theirs, and theirs shapes yours.

Before we officially launch, I’m inviting a small group of mothers and babies into our pilot round —
at a reduced price, in exchange for your honest reflections.

This is for you if you’re ready to:
✨ Feel supported while you support your baby
✨ Explore creativity and connection without pressure
✨ Rest in a space where both of you are held

🕊 Spots are limited for this pilot round.
📩 DM “PILOT” to be the first to receive details.

24/07/2025

Say what now?! Experience the magic of Arts Therapy in our beautiful studio (or online) for $35? Yep, and help us enrich the learning of 3 NEARLY Registered Arts Therapists and shape the future of therapy.

We’re offering a limited number of low-cost arts therapy sessions with our final-year Masters students — compassionate, capable therapists-in-training who are almost ready to step into the world as registered professionals.

These sessions are:
🖌 For adults
📍 Held in our nurturing Warana studio or online
📅 Available Tuesday–Thursday
💰 Just $35 per session

It’s a real moment for you — to breathe, explore, and be met in your story through creative process and gentle therapeutic holding.

Your presence supports their growth.
Their presence supports your healing.
A beautiful exchange in becoming.

DM us to learn more or book your place. Spaces are limited.

08/05/2025

There have been NO CHANGES made yet! And hopefully 🤞🏻 none will be made. That means that Arts Therapist can still be paid through NDIS and our service is just as valuable as it always has been …. And yet we are experiencing a ridiculous number of invoice rejections while Plan Managers, LAC’s and Support Coordinators are telling people that Arts Therapy is only funded as a “stated support”. Incorrect.
Our client load has almost halved with all the confusion and misinformation.

FYI- our rate remains unchanged until we are told otherwise by a new price guide. We are a therapy.
We are not social and community participation, and any Plan Managers/LAC’s/ Support Coordinators saying that we can only be paid as this are incorrect.

We deserve to be paid for the professional services we have delivered, and for clients to easily access our services as they need them.

Please- stay informed and advocate where ever possible.

24/12/2024

From our Ipsarty Fam to yours- Merry Christmas! Wishing you a holiday season filled with love, laughter, joy and ease. We’ll be kicking off 2025 from January 6 🎄 and have some exciting things coming to life. Xx

26/11/2024

An NDIS UPDATE:
A big heart felt thank you from all the Art/Music Therapy community for signing the petition and sharing your stories. There's been just enough advocacy to buy us some time. These changes will still come into effect as of the 1st of February.. with a slight difference. We will no longer be considered "therapy" and have told that the YEARS of education and thousands of dollars that is required to be an Art Therapist- is only worth $68/hr. This is just over a third of what our maximum professional rate is right now. There are no businesses that can sustain this with the outgoings of materials and rent, or wages.

I am dismayed and insulted, as are the rest of our professional community. We are a heavily evidence based practice and the research is always growing. The lack of education that the NDIS has shown is embarrassing, considering the rest of the world highly regards our profession.

So, better news for now but no where near good enough.
Please continue making noise!

You can find the official statement linked here:
https://www.ndis.gov.au/news/10522-statement-ndis-funded-music-and-art-therapy?fbclid=IwY2xjawGyJBNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHcn82QNUiSLE_x95zDGVezk6xtijyvWAu50_nIJFefUr5JEe9yZKuNlr_Q_aem_W_MBB8t3CDMAP8bpFwCWRg

NDIS participants will continue to have access to music and art therapy. From 1 February 2025 how participants access music and art therapy will change. Participants and providers can continue with current arrangements until 1 February when the changes to the price guide come into effect.

26/11/2024

📢📢 Art and Music Therapy in the firing line 📢📢
PLEASE SHARE
UPDATE: https://ndis.gov.au/news/10522-statement-ndis-funded-music-and-art-therapy
While we have no official word in public from the NDIS, we know that the NDIS have told the peak professional bodies for Art and Music Therapy that from February, 1:1 art and music therapy will no longer be allowed to be claimed by any NDIS participant unless the provider is registered and in that case only at the support worker rate.

We have been told this is an “evidence based decision”.

I call on the NDIS to share both
a) the evidence considered, as well as
b) the process used to make this determination,

It is my understanding that the NDIS Evidence Advisory Committee (which was recommended by the NDIS Review) DOES NOT YET EXIST and will not be in operation until July 2025. https://www.dss.gov.au/disability-and-carers-programs-services-ndis-reforms/ndis-evidence-advisory-committee

Both professional bodies have made public statements regarding their shock and dismay at both the decision, and the original timeframe (since amended from less than a week to now starting from February) for thousands of NDIS participants to be without the service of their members’, many of whose businesses and livelihoods will effectively cease to exist in a sustainable way after February.

A EasySnap read of this post, as well as Communications from the peak bodies are in the comments below.

Please take action and contact your local MP, Minister Bill Shorten's office and feedback at NDIA.

pic desc: a sad looking person in a wheelchair looking at a drumkit, and his drumsticks out of reach on the ground.

25/11/2024

We are SHOCKED and devastated. Our community is heartbroken. Please help us. Art therapy will be removed from the NDIS approved therapy supports list as of 2nd of December. We’ve been given less than a weeks notice. ⁣
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Ipsarty has supported hundreds of NDIS families, primarily neurodivergents and people with communication differences over the last 5 years.. because it is our passion to provide our neurokin with safety and belonging, and a therapy that actually suits their needs. Arts therapy has changed these kids lives, and these families. ⁣
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The impact of this will affect thousands across our country and we need your help! ⁣
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Sign this petition please. ⁣
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https://www.change.org/p/creative-and-experiential-therapies-belong-in-the-ndis?fbclid=IwY2xjawGx0uxleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHS9zIcXz3QTo5rZshSWN6dXnPcfs612j_bg8bz7C94FMMgEgsd69zBXD_Q_aem_8V0LJrdvDGJOsZcrKV2r8g
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People with disabilities use their NDIS funding to access Creative and Experiential Therapies that they choose themselves, because it helps them to live well, stay strong, active and healthy.⁣
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Creative and Experiential Therapies include therapies that use more than verbal approaches to engage people:⁣
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• Creative Arts Therapy⁣
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• Music Therapy⁣
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• Dance/Movement Therapy⁣
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• Drama Therapy⁣
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• Art Therapy⁣
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• Play Therapy⁣
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Creative and Experiential Therapies are evidence-based approaches that:⁣
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• improve quality of life and independent living,⁣
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• keep people active in their body,⁣
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• help people regulate emotions,⁣
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• engage people in their communities,⁣
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• strengthen relationship and communication skills,⁣
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• and provide a safe place where people can be free to be themselves.⁣
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Creative and Experiential Therapists have tertiary degrees and are members of professional associations. They are recognised members of Australia’s Allied Health Work Force along with physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists.⁣
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Creative and Experiential Therapies belong in the NDIS.⁣
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25/11/2024

Arts Therapy belongs in the NDIS!!

We are devastated by the news that Art therapy will be removed from the NDIS approved therapy supports list as of 2nd of December. We’ve been given less than a weeks notice and our Ipsarty community is heartbroken.

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION AND SHARE

https://www.change.org/p/creative-and-experiential-therapies-belong-in-the-ndis

Ipsarty has supported hundreds of NDIS families, primarily neurodivergents and people with communication differences over the last 5 years.. because it is our passion to provide our neurokin with safety and belonging, and a therapy that actually suits their needs. Arts therapy has changed these kids lives, and these families.

The impact of this will affect thousands across our country and we need your help!

The petition will be sent to Bill Shorten, CEO NDIS and Chair NDIS.

You can also send it to your local member of Parliament and your local Councilors to get them on board.

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People with disabilities use their NDIS funding to access Creative and Experiential Therapies that they choose themselves, because it helps them to live well, stay strong, active and healthy.

Creative and Experiential Therapies include therapies that use more than verbal approaches to engage people:

• Creative Arts Therapy

• Music Therapy

• Dance/Movement Therapy

• Drama Therapy

• Art Therapy

• Play Therapy

Creative and Experiential Therapies are evidence-based approaches that:

• improve quality of life and independent living,

• keep people active in their body,

• help people regulate emotions,

• engage people in their communities,

• strengthen relationship and communication skills,

• and provide a safe place where people can be free to be themselves.

Creative and Experiential Therapists have tertiary degrees and are members of professional associations. They are recognised members of Australia's Allied Health Work Force along with physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists.

Creative and Experiential Therapies belong in the NDIS.

Creative and Experiential Therapies Belong in the NDIS