This is a 3 week creative arts group funded through The Buttery Bangalow and facilitated by Claudia Gyr/Creative Arts Therapist and first session co-facilitated with Jenni Cargill-Strong. Please note time has been changed to 12:30-15:30 pm
Intruduction to Art Therapy Day
This one day group has been running through the college for the last four years and offers an enjoyable day, connecting with each other, exploring and experiencing art therapy processes and learning about the many ways and areas it can be used in mental health and personal development.
Date of Workshop : Saturday 5th of December 10am -4pm
Place :Mullumbimby , Byron Community College
If you are interested please get in touch with the college directly on
02 66843374
Facilitated by Claudia Gyr/ MA Creative Arts Therapy
Transformational Oracle Creation
Mullumbimby Art Therapy is offering a creative exploration Group for Women who have experienced Trauma and Domestic Violence.
The images produced will be developed into a tarot card set and be part of an exhibition in November (if participants agree).
This is a strength based group focusing on our values and resources.
The group is focused on the enjoyment of being creative together amongst a support circle of women. This is an open group so women can choose how many weeks they like to participate. An initial interview with the Women’s Resource Centre in Mullumbimby is required. Contact Neroli or Michelle on 02 66844299 or 0457864253
The group runs for four weeks, Fridays from the 17th of July to the 7th of August 10am-1pm and is held in Mullumbimby.
Facilitated by Claudia Gyr/MA Creative Arts Therapy
One Day Workshop about Cultivating your Compassiate Mind
The Power of Compassion: How to Manage Stress by Cultivating your Compassionate Mind
In 2 weeks time (June 19th), the University Centre for Rural Health North Coast is bringing Professor Paul Gilbert (UK)to Lismore run a one-day low-cost workshop for the general community, assisted by a friend of mine, James Benette-Levy.
Its a rare opportunity to see on the North Coast a founder of a significant psychotherapy (Compassion Focused Therapy). It’s possible that you at his evening talk 2 years ago when he drew 326 people to the Lismore Workers Club.
Next week, Paul is on a panel with the Dalai Lama at the Happiness and its Causes conference in Sydney. The North Coast workshops (there’s a 3 day workshop in Byron for therapists June 15-17 – see www.cbttraining.com.au) are his only other Australian events.
 If you want to see Paul’s Lismore evening talk from 2013, you can find it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GKVMILwzdY
The Lismore 1 day workshop is filling fast. If you are thinking of coming, I’d strongly advise registering in the next week to secure a place. The application form is attached, or you can find this and more information at www.cbttraining.com.au
Thanks to the various sponsors (Lismore Council, North Coast Medicare Local, Northern Rivers Social Development Council, Lightn Up and ourselves), lunch is also included. Its purposely low-cost to open to the community at large as part of the Compassionate Lismore project, and  a great deal at $90, or $60 concession.
They are keen to make it so that not just health and community sector professionals, but also members of the general public are aware of the opportunity, so please do let friends and clients know, if you think its something that might be of value for them.
A Day of Art Therapy
This year I will run the popular ‘Intruduction to Art Therapy’ day again in Mullumbimby. The next workshop will happen on the Sunday the 29th of March 2015 10am-3:30pm with the wonderful support of the Byron Community College.
For enrolement please contact the College on 02 66843374
I don’t get to update my website regularly anymore but I like to refere you to my pinterest boards where I now pin interesting information in regards of art therapy and other interesting information. It is a quick and wonderful way of sharing information and ideas. So here is the link
https://www.pinterest.com/personalshrines/
And don’t hesitate to contact me, should you have any questions, through the contact form on this website.
Creative Arts Counselling with Children
Using creative means for expression is a really essential skill when working with children who often don’t find the words to express their feelings and emotions.
Below is some information about a great couple of training days up at the Sunshine coast on the 22. and 23. of November facilitated by one of my leturers when I studied Art Thearpy. If you are interested in learning more about Sandplay and the use of creative tools when counselling children, check out the link below.
2014 Creative Arts Counselling with Children
Mindful Living
Mindfulness is a word we come across almost daily now and particularly in regards of mental health.
Brain research has shown that we can change our brain with our mind and it is evident that living mindfully has a very positive impact on many areas of our lives. It isn’t something new as Buddhism and other traditions have been using mindfulness as a daily practice for a very long time, but it finally has found a wider recognition in our society in playing a vital part towards our health and well-being.
Jon Kabat-Zinn defines Mindfulness as :
“The awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, non- judgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment to moment.”
As I explore the gifts of mindfulness in my own life I notice that the joy of any experience lies within its presence or absence. For example: We all have our little morning routines. One of mine is to make myself a hot lemon drink. Obviously there are many ways I can go about it and experience this event.
I discovered that it is not so much what I do but how I do it. I can for example stumble into the kitchen grab the lemon and the cutting board whilst I run through the list of things I need to do. Whilst I am cutting the fruit I remember an incident from yesterday, a conversation I had. Then I look for the juicer, imagining how that person must feel like in their own life. As I pour the juice into the glass I remember to check my car into the mechanics. The kettle boiled and I pour the hot water in the cup together with the lemon juice. I grab my cup still thinking about the car and start worrying about the problems it may have as I wander back into my bedroom.
Now imagine the second version: I wake and have a good stretch, feeling the warmth and weight of my blanket, taking my time to connect with my body sensations.
Then I push off the blanket and feel the fresh air on my skin, roll out of my bed gently, placing my feet on the ground, feeling the smooth soft wood underneath them. As I walk into the kitchen I notice some stiffness in my joints though slowly easing off as I move. I grab a lemon feeling its nobly waxy skin in my hand. As I cut it the lemon smell evaporates into the air and little squirts of juice touch my hands. I boil the kettle. I am hearing the bubbly noise and the click to switch it off. Then as I poor the hot water I see the steam rising through the morning light. I grab my cup feeling the weight of it as I walk back into my bedroom.
I am sure you get a sense of what I am trying to say, nothing seems to bring joy if we are not doing it mindfully: aware of our senses and feeling. Most of us most of the time live in our heads. The simplicity of bringing the mind back to our senses brings us back to the present moment. This is available to us every single moment and the shift I notice is actually quite big, metaphorically speaking, from a small black and white box to an open colourful space. I feel that the whole world is opening up when I shift from the minds conceptions to an open mind of curiosity and wonder.
Now I don’t deny processes we need to think through as we inquire and investigate our lives, but we may find more joy and make change in our lives more easily with awareness and mindfulness.
Even negative thoughts and feelings, when met with an open, accepting mind dissipate more easily and quickly. The tricky thing is of course that we by default move in the opposite direction: which is to avoid, resist and distract ourselves from those unwanted thoughts and feelings. We keep busy with mental things, computers, entertainment and/or drugs so we don’t have to feel.
Unfortunately we throw out the bad feelings with the good ones and slowly become more numb, dull and disconnected. Enjoyment then becomes more and more something we believe we get through something outside ourselves. But it never satisfies us and so we become these hungry, restless ghosts looking always for more but never finding what we are looking for.
The good news is that there is a simple remedy for restlessness and unhappiness: to explore the simplicity of coming back to your senses and explore mindfulness in your life, little moments at a time. You may stumble and doubt the effectiveness at times but the more you practice the better it gets and you may even find it becomes addictive!
Blessings to you all.
Claudia M Gyr
Offering mindfulness based, body-centered Art Therapy
and sell personal shrine making kits (check out personal shrines page).
Attachment Styles and ways of Relating
The way we connected with our primary caretaker as small children has a big influence in how we relate to others later in life. To learn about our own attachment style can open new doors to understanding how we armour ourselves in relationships and how to relearn and reparent ourselves to create more fulfilling relationships with others.
Diane Poole Heller is offering some free informative videos where she shares her wealth of wisdom about attachment style and somatic experiencing used in therapy.
I hope this link works, otherwise just find her website and you will find all the information there.
https://dianepooleheller.leadpages.net/four-attachment-styles/
Arts Therapy Group for Women who experienced trauma
I am running an other Art Therapy Group for women who have experienced trauma or domestic violence with the kind support of the Women’s Resource Service. This group has had overwhelmingly positive feedback from women who have been able to feel more confident, better able to cope with their fears, anxiety and stress. The group helps making new connections and provides women with an opportunity to step out of isolation and promote healing. These groups focus on connecting participants with their outer and inner resources and strength. We all tend to focus on the problem and often overlook resources already present. The groups are experiential and educational giving women the understanding and tools to establish a sense of control and stability which are fundamental for trauma resolution.
The program includes four major components.
1. Learning simple mindfulness practices
2. Somatic body centered exercises
3. Education about the biology of trauma
5. Creative arts process to ground experiences and encourage further insights.
What people have said about the last workshop:
“I have learned so much from our excellent tutor, Claudia. It is never too late to repair the damage done in our childhood , is something I have now learned through attending this great group of women.”
“It has supported me to move forward in my life by integrating many loose ends. Trough resolving ideas, thought patterns etc that I have outgrown or come to realise tha they don’t help and support me and installing new one’s that support growth.”
“Claudia is a very gentle, caring and insightful facilitator. She is kind, aware, hugely knowledgeable and has a very loving and healing energy. I feel very fotuneate to have attended this art therapy group. Thank you.”
“I was always too fearful of revisiting my childhood. Through the Art Therapy sessions I learned how to open that tightly closed box of a very frightening childhood.”
6 Week support group, starting 26th of February – 2nd of April 2014.
Wednesdays 9:00am-12:00noon
The group is facilitated by Qualified Arts Therapist Claudia Gyr and run at the Mullumbimby Neighbourhood Centre. Please contact Michelle Walter to make a referral or women may contact the WRS directly on 6684 4299.
Art Therapy, An Introduction
This is the fourth year of running this popular one day workshop “An introduction to Art Therapy” at the Byron Community College.
Participants will gain a basic understanding of the principles of Arts Therapy and its uses in different contexts. We will engage in some simple examples of experiential, interactive processes to give you a little taste of different approaches in the field of Arts Therapy.
Course Name: ARTS THERAPY – AN INTRODUCTION
Course Code: 14WL011
Day: Sat
Date: 15/3/2014 to 15/3/2014
Time: 10 am to 3 pm
Venue: MULLUM CAMPUS ROOM 3
For any questions you can contact me through the contact form.
For bookings call Byron Community College at Phone: 02 6684 3374
or Fax: 02 6684 3115 or
Email: Â admin@byroncollege.org.au