Dr Amanda E Woodford

29/09/2025

Thanks to my Mum for the beautiful flowers for the studio.

Nature is the best artist and my mum enacts care with her every action. No wonder care emerged as a value action within my doctoral work for supporting people living with ongoing pain.

Thanks Mum. The flowers make the studio smell amazing and add to the aesthetic of Dunedin on a spring day (with shades of sunshine and blue skies woven into rain showers and thick grey clouds).

19/09/2025

Dunedin CAT’s and others this looks like it would be a very insightful read.

Join us Monday 29th for the launch of Lucy O'Hagan's 'Everything but the Medicine'.
Wise, candid, brave and moving, this superbly written memoir by a New Zealand GP has developed deep insights into the profound but often complex relationship between patients and doctors.

11/06/2025

Hey Melbourne CAT’s! Looks like there might be some spots still available for tonight. We had the most amazing time practicing ‘Shady Lib’ with Evan when we were on our India CAT Immersion in January.

I’m a huge fan of Evan’s facilitation style and his approach to arts-based therapeutic practices, grounded in social justice. Anyone companioning folks inquiring into sensitive content or curious about how to inquire in ways that make difficult material accessible and possible (when the content and dynamics are complex) this is a wonderful workshop to attend.

UPCOMING PUBLIC PROGRAM_ Explore the Power of Shadow Liberation

Join Theatre Practitioner, Drama Therapist and creator of Shadow Liberation, Evan Hastings on Thursday June 12 for a transformative experiential workshop using embodied shadow play.

The key to Shadow Liberation lies in its ability to balance the concrete representations of interpersonal conflicts with the abstract, metaphoric language of shadows.

This integration of the rational and the emotional creates a powerful framing for audience participation, where participants are invited to step onto the stage and offer improvisational interventions, in the tradition of Augusto Boal’s Forum Theatre.

Shadow Liberation has been adapted to diverse cultural contexts, always maintaining an intersectional lens while investigating the dynamics of trauma caused by gender violence.

Together we will explore how to use shadows as a tool for navigating taboo and traumatic material while fostering critical reflection.

> Thursday June 12. Book via link in bio.

https://events.humanitix.com/shadow-liberation-an-experiential-workshop

11/05/2025

My beautiful studio neighbours. A mental health hair wash for no cost and an inspiring business model. Kua pai Aurum 💗

02/04/2025

Thank you, Well and Being, Ōtepoti Dunedin, for the opportunity to share what matters to me when asked 'how are you really'?

And, happy 2nd birthday Well and Being! Thank you for your place and spaces of care.

How art therapy can support wellbeing - Dr Amanda Woodford - Join us as we discuss the power of creativity in nurturing mental health, enhancing resilience, and strengthening community bonds with Dr Amanda Woodford, an arts-based counselling therapist, researcher, practice supervisor, mixed media ar...

21/02/2025

A gorgeous article focusing on the mahi/work of our very own (drum
roll please) Claire Rye!

5 HOPES Creative arts therapy is helping children and adults who are struggling with trauma to gently explore, express and understand their emotions. “It’s helping people go through those traumatic memories in a way that’s more gentle,” says Dunedin Creative Arts Therapist Claire Rye. Most o...

23/01/2025

ANZACATA-JoCAT Author Support Bursary
We are considering applications for the Author Support Bursary for 2025. Our Bursary program is designed to promote a variety of voices and perspectives of new, Indigenous and/or diverse authors from the ANZACATA region while acknowledging the international positioning of the journal.
If you have an idea for an article and you think you meet the criteria, please apply.
Image: RTM, ‘Finding ‘felt’ senses: A spoken word expression’ (video still), 2023, spoken word and animation (Bursary recipient in 2023).
https://www.jocat-online.org/bursary

16/01/2025

Still a bit of time to think about what a doctoral topic might be or even the qualities you would like to bring to an extended arts-based inquiry (rather than a sense of a topic for now - this can emerge in the first year).

We have an awesome group of supervisors (which are assigned - no need to bring your own 🙂 ) which I am privileged to travel along side as well as our wonderful doctoral candidates. We are a community.

A doctorate is an investment but personally I am so pleased I did one.

Wishing everyone a wonderful 2025 from a humid and vibrant Auroville, India (where we are on our Creative Arts Therapy Immersion).

Contact admin@miecat.edu.au for a doctoral information booklet or check out www.miecat.edu.au for links to the various informing documents.

Is 2025 the year you begin your Doctorate in Therapeutic Arts Practice?…

Applications are now open to join our Professional Doctorate.  
 
> Applications due 26 January 2025.  

> Studies commence 17 March 2025. 
  
Our Professional Doctorate offers candidates the opportunity to develop high-level practice and research skills in therapeutic arts practice. At the heart of this course is an arts inquiry, which values experiential, emergent, relational, and multimodal ways of coming to know.  
 
Visit our website for further details, including the application link.  
 
https://miecat.edu.au/professional-doctorate-in-therapeutic-arts-practice/ 

Image: Installation by Jessie Brooks-Dowsett.
 

06/12/2024

Well said, Dr Emma Gentle.

On 25 November 2024, the Australian Government announced that the NDIS will substantially reduce funding for participants who access CAT. Emma Gentle’s explainer aims to clarify the evidence-base for utilising CAT with people using the NDIS.

26/11/2024

Kia kaha to all my Australian colleagues and the incredible people they therapeutically companion through the National Disability Insurance scheme funding.

Being misunderstood and devalued in what we offer and varied ways of communication and understanding is gut wrenching. So often non-verbal or differently verbaled ways is the way!

Creative and Experiential Therapies Belong in the NDIS

16/11/2024

I am so excited about next week, when MIECAT will host the Arts-based Research Festival—DEPARTURES — from our new premises on George Street (online attendance is an option for those of us not on the ground in Melbourne).

There are open invitation events and some select. Pop on over to our website to see the program https://miecat.edu.au/research/departures-arts-based-research-festival-2024/ or the images below.

Hope to see folks there!