Art Journal Joy
Creative self care - learn how to use art journalling to support stress & anxiety, find some ease in uncertain times and receive a big permission slip for play.
$350 - payment plans available for no extra cost
Everyone is welcome, and no experience is needed.
6 weeks | 90 minute Zoom call each week
Monday July 18 - Monday August 23, 10 - 11:30am AEST
(Sundays for you if you’re in a US time zone)
Come join us as we explore art journalling as creative self care.
$350 - payment plans available for no extra cost
Each week we’ll be exploring a different way to fill our journal pages and tend to our human selves - bring the things you’re stressed about, angry about, sad about, bring your uncertainty, bring the things you love and the things that are delighting you. Your art journal is the perfect place to come to with all the stuff that makes up our messy human lives.
What’s an art journal and how will we be using it?
Your art journal can be anything! Which might feel a bit overwhelming if you haven’t already found your way of art journalling. If it can be anything, how do you know what to do?
In Art Journal Joy, we’ll be using our art journals as a place for creative self care.
An art journal is like a written journal, but it also incorporates art in some way - images, collage, patterns, drawings, squiggles, things cut out, things stuck in - the options are endless. You might like to write in your art journal too, or have it just be images.
Your art journal is unique and personal to you, so you get to write the rules and have your journal be whatever you need for this stage in your life. It can be a place to vent, a place to play, a place to make a mess, a place to figure things out.
So how do you figure out what you need yours to be?
By trying things!
We’ll be trying new things together each week, building and adding to our personal tool kit of ideas and techniques, finding the things we love doing that feel most useful for us.
Including…
Art Journal Joy
Everyone is welcome, and no experience is needed.
6 weeks | 90 minute Zoom call each week
Monday July 18 - Monday August 23, 10 - 11:30am AEST
(Sundays for you if you’re in a US time zone)
Come join us as we explore art journalling as creative self care.
$350 - payment plans available for no extra cost
How to use your art journal as a container.
What does that mean? If you think about what a container is, it’s a place to put things, so that they’re contained. We might put pencils in a box, or leftovers in a container in the fridge.
When it comes to life experiences and emotions, most often WE are the container. Our bodies and our minds hold our experiences and emotions and thoughts and sometimes it’s a LOT.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have somewhere outside of ourselves to put some of these things?
TA-DA! Art journal!
It can be a relief to put some of our thoughts and feelings and questions on a page, so we can see them there outside of us. Often, seeing things outside of ourselves like this can help us find new perspectives (because it literally IS a new perspective to see it on a page instead of racketing around in our minds), get unstuck, find direction or clarity, or just feel better than we did.
And because we’re using it as a container in this way, there’s no requirement that your art journal be pretty or for you to make beautiful art in it. You might make something beautiful, but you also might make a mess, and it’s all welcome. Sometimes we feel a bit messy so it makes sense that might be reflected in our journal.
It might not be pretty, but it probably will feel really meaningful.
If we’re using our art journal to support us as humans living a human life, and we put the truth of who we are and how we’re feeling in it, it’s likely that it’s going to start feeling pretty special :)
Art Journal Joy
Everyone is welcome, and no experience is needed.
6 weeks | 90 minute Zoom call each week
Monday July 18 - Monday August 23, 10 - 11:30am AEST
(Sundays for you if you’re in a US time zone)
Come join us as we explore art journalling as creative self care.
$350 - payment plans available for no extra cost
What will you need?
You’ll need an art journal!
If you have one that you’ve been saving for a special occasion, perhaps this is the occasion you’ve been waiting for. Use the nice journal, get out the good paper. What are you saving it for? If it’s for ‘someday’, please know that ‘someday’ is not a real day, but today is a real day and a good day to use the nice journal.
If you have an art journal you’re already using, feel free to keep going in the same journal.
If you need to go buy one, it doesn’t have to be expensive (though it can be if you’d like it to be!). Some of my favourites are $5 blank visual diaries - if it’s cheap, it can feel easier to let go of perfectionism and experiment, because we’re not so concerned with making it look extra nice.
You’ll also need some things to create with in your journal. I’ll send out a list each week, but to give you an idea - pens, markers, glue, old magazines and scissors, paint, paint markers, needle and coloured thread, leaves, coloured pencils, pastels… you definitely don’t have to have ALL of these things - just a few to get started with is perfect.
Art Journal Joy
Everyone is welcome, and no experience is needed.
6 weeks | 90 minute Zoom call each week
Monday July 18 - Monday August 23, 10 - 11:30am AEST
(Sundays for you if you’re in a US time zone)
Come join us as we explore art journalling as creative self care.
$350 - payment plans available for no extra cost
Got questions?
Something I’ve missed here that you’d like to know?
If you have questions, please get in touch and I’ll find you some answers.
Extra support
Sometimes this kind of art journalling can bring up thoughts or fears or past hurts that might want some extra tending to. If you’re finding you’d like some extra 1:1 support during our time together, I’m offering a special price on 1:1 sessions with me. You’ll receive a link to book those if and when you’d like to once you sign up.
Art Journal Joy
Everyone is welcome, and no experience is needed.
6 weeks | 90 minute Zoom call each week
Monday July 18 - Monday August 23, 10 - 11:30am AEST
(Sundays for you if you’re in a US time zone)
Come join us as we explore art journalling as creative self care.
$350 - payment plans available for no extra cost
Who am I?
I’m Ellen, and my pronouns are she/ her. My approach is curious, creative, gentle and kind, and I bring this philosophy to all of the work I do. I love this kind of creative work and how art journaling allows us to explore ourselves, our lives and our experiences in the world in new and different ways - creating a journal we can hold in our hands and look back through in the process.
My background is as an art therapist, a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (if you’re not familiar, Somatic Experiencing is a gentle way of working with the nervous system to support trauma healing), and I have a coaching certification where I majored in Life Transitions with a focus on the seasons of human life and emotion. I’ve also done a short training in End of Life Doula work, looking at the ways we support (or don’t support) our journey towards the end of life, and Eco Psychotherapy - getting outside and finding a new relationship with the natural world.
I’m pretty sure my purpose in life is to create, in whatever way feels best at the time - and to gently encourage others to do the same :)
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to know how to draw, or see myself as creative?
Nope! Not at all. I’ll guide you each step of the way. An art journal is a great place to experiment, let yourself make a creative mess, try things out and give your inner perfectionist a break :) There are no rules, so you can’t mess it up. There’s no requirement to show anyone anything you create.
Will I need to buy anything special to participate?
Maybe!
Depending on what you have at home, you might like to buy a few bits and pieces, but you’re also very welcome to use what you have.
You will need an art journal or some paper to work on (if you have a journal that feels ‘too nice’ that you’ve been saving, my encouragement is to use the nice journal! If you’re intending to buy one, it’s fine to buy a cheap visual diary or sketchbook. Some of my favourite journals are cheap ones I’ve bought and made a huge mess in. Others are ‘the nice journal’ that I’d been saving forever until I realised that forever never really gets here, so why not use it now!
Each week I’ll email you a list of things you might like to think about having with you, and there shouldn’t be anything on there that’s hard to find. You also have full permission to make do with what you have and not buy anything new. I’ve had people show up to art therapy workshops with post it notes and a black biro and it was great.
Will there be homework?
There might be the occasional thing to think about during the week, or if you want to keep going with what we were exploring in our call, you’re very welcome to. There won’t be any homework required - it’s up to you if you’d like to spend more time in between our calls or not.
What if I can’t make all the calls?
Not to worry - if you can’t make a particular call, I’ll record it for you and the recording will be available for 7 days so you can catch up if you’d like to :)
Is there a payment plan?
Yes - absolutely. You can choose to pay up front, or split it into 4 payments of $87.50 every other week for no extra cost.
I’m sitting on the fence.
If you need help figuring out if this is right for you, and you’d like to chat to me about any questions you have, please get in touch here.
Art Journal Joy
Everyone is welcome, and no experience is needed.
6 weeks | 90 minute Zoom call each week
Monday July 18 - Monday August 23, 10 - 11:30am AEST
(Sundays for you if you’re in a US time zone)
Come join us as we explore art journalling as creative self care.
$350 - payment plans available for no extra cost
Testimonials
Working with Ellen feels like a softening of tension held in my shoulders and chest that I didn't even realise was there. She has been so genuinely okay and accepting of everything I've brought to her, including the parts of myself that even I don't really like. It's truly a sigh of relief to be met in this way.
She somehow alchemically makes the healing path easeful, deep, and wondrous. And with her own creative bones and eccentricities, helps you to find delight and access different layers of being in the world along the way.
Carol
I really enjoyed this workshop, especially the way it combines various elements together. This is the first time I used art to assist in self discovery in this way and I found it to be rather helpful in gaining further insight into shadow self.
Ellen is a great facilitator, I felt that I was in great hands, guided by her knowledge, experience and skills. She easily created a space in which I felt completely safe and comfortable, allowing myself to journey within.
I have and do highly recommend this workshop if you are interested in going deeper and getting to know yourself better.
Betty, photographer
Art Journal Joy
Everyone is welcome, and no experience is needed.
6 weeks | 90 minute Zoom call each week
Monday July 18 - Monday August 23, 10 - 11:30am AEST
(Sundays for you if you’re in a US time zone)
Come join us as we explore art journalling as creative self care.
$350 - payment plans available for no extra cost