Hi, I’m Ellen, an Art Therapist offering sessions across Hobart and online.

My approach is grounded in Expressive Arts Therapy and draws on creative processes to support reflection, connection, and change.

I offer a gentle, collaborative space to slow down, listen deeply, and explore what might be emerging beneath the surface. Together, we might work with images, movement, sound, metaphor, and conversation to connect with the parts of you that can be difficult to reach through words alone. My practice is also informed by Internal Family Systems (IFS), mindfulness-based approaches, and trauma-aware practice.

There’s a home video of me as a two-year-old: I’m waiting patiently for my aunt to hand me a toy while music plays in the background. Suddenly, I lift my hands to my face and throw my head backwards — completely taken by the song.

Music has always affected me in this way; bypassing my thinking mind and moving straight into the body.

Training as an Expressive Arts Therapist helped me understand why that’s important. Our bodies hold memory, emotion, wisdom, and ways of communicating that can lead us towards deeper self-understanding.

After a life in the arts as a dance teacher, actor, filmmaker, and singer-songwriter — and years of my own therapy — discovering Expressive Arts Therapy felt like coming home. It gave me a framework for something I had long sensed as an artist: that by listening deeply, in co-creation with others and the world around us, we can shift what feels stuck and create opportunities for growth.

Nothing feels more meaningful to me than being present with another and supporting them to hear what their own inner world wants to say. Because when we connect with important parts of ourselves through the arts, new ways of being in the world become possible. Healing becomes possible.