Bachelor of
Arts Therapy

This subject is the first in a sequenced program of study that develops foundational knowledge, skills, and professional capabilities in integrative psychotherapeutic practice. Students are introduced to experiential and humanistic approaches and examine their contribution to integrative ways of working therapeutically, the development of professional identity, and ethical, responsible engagement with emerging tools, including artificial intelligence, within clearly articulated professional boundaries.

Across the subject, students engage with key humanistic, existential and psychodynamic theorists and practitioners, including Mick Cooper, Viktor Frankl, Sigmund Freud, Eugene Gendlin, Les Greenberg, Carl Jung, Margaret Naumburg, Carl Rogers, Natalie Rogers, Donald Winnicott, and Irvin Yalom. These figures are introduced as historically and culturally situated contributors to the psychotherapeutic field. Students are supported to engage with these foundations with curiosity and critical awareness, recognising both their value and their limitations, and considering how context, culture, worldview, and power shape theory and practice. This approach encourages flexibility, reflexivity, and cultural humility as core professional capabilities and provides a basis for progressive learning across the program. 

Students are supported to develop core capacities in deep listening, therapeutic presence and reflective practice, informed by diverse cultural frameworks. Attention is given to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges, alongside other cultural perspectives on healing, relationship, and presence. Within this context, students are invited to engage respectfully with the practice of “Dadirri” often described as deep, inner, quiet listening and still awareness as one example of First Nations knowledge relating to listening, connection to Country, and relational responsibility. Engagement with this practice is framed to promote cultural respect, critical awareness, and the avoidance of appropriation or generalisation.

Subject Code: SOC101
Credit Points: 6
Co-Requisite: ART102 Integrative Arts Therapy in Practice

This subject is the second in a programmed sequence of study underpinning knowledge and core skills in integrative arts therapy practice. The central activity of this subject is the students’ experiential practice of therapeutic skills in one-to-one therapeutic interaction with peers where students will share and work with their own lived experience within structured dyad and triad sessions. Students are provided opportunities to apply foundational and intermediate therapeutic skills, including the basic listening sequence, attunement, mirroring, therapeutic presence, and the creation of a holding environment.

Through practice interactions, students learn to build and strengthen the therapeutic relationship, explore client difficulties, and support access to inner experience. Students observe, reflect on and review counselling sessions as demonstrated within arts therapy practice, with attention to transitions, role clarity and collaborative engagement. Through this subject, students are guided to critically reflect on their developing practice application of micro-skills within integrative arts therapy. 

Subject Code: ART102
Credit Points: 6
Co-Requisite: SOC101 Integrative Psychotherapy in Theory

This experiential subject offers students theoretical grounding, presence practices and arts-making to deepen student’s understanding of art therapy methodologies. Students are introduced to the foundations, language and principles of phenomenological arts therapy, a way of working that that uses art making as a pathway to self-awareness, healing, change and transformation. Students begin by exploring mindful presence as core attitudes that underpin arts therapy practice, developing an embodied understanding of the practitioner’s way of way of being. 

Foundational knowledge and skills for self-development are emphasised throughout, with a particular focus on emotional preparedness for therapeutic work, including the capacity to identify and regulate one’s own emotional states. Students will deepen their reflexive practice, and therapeutic use-of the self as they cultivate emotional intelligence, emotional regulation and deep listening. Students will also learn to identify biased or unhelpful patterns of mental processing (cognitive distortions), and explore how symbolism, imagery and narrative support insight and pattern recognition. 

Throughout the subject students will learn to use art making as a form of communication and as an avenue to the subconscious or non-conscious, developing familiarity with a range of materials and processes. By the end of the subject, students will have a grounded understanding of the therapeutic benefits of creatively exploring pre-verbal, embodied and non-verbal awareness in arts therapy practice.

Subject Code: ART103
Credit Points: 6

This subject introduces students to the lived, embodied experience of artmaking through engagement with a variety of art-based processes, materials and experimental forms. Through interactive presentations and studio-based experiential learning, students will explore a range of art materials with an emphasis on experiencing their different qualities, and on attuning to the physical and emotional responses they may elicit in the artmaker. Students will work with a broad range of traditional and non-traditional materials and processes, including 2D and 3D media, ready-made imagery, found objects, natural objects, installation practices and the human body as a site of creative expression. 

Art making activities are undertaking in response to both external sensory stimuli and internal experience, supporting students to develop awareness of how meaning emerges through embodied engagement with materials.  The subject introduces the Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC) as a foundational framework for understanding creative processes and material interaction, supporting students to begin developing a shared professional language for reflecting on art-making experiences within arts therapy practice. Through reflective documentation and collaborative project – including public art and installation – students begin to articulate how arts materials, processes and experiential forms contribute to personal meaning-making and emerging arts therapy practice.

Subject Code: ART114
Credit Points: 6

This subject will provide an overview of current mental health practices and define the role of arts therapists in promoting mental health and well-being in clinical and community mental health settings. Students will explore how conceptions of mental health have developed and changed over time. The DSM 5 will be introduced, and students will learn to identify important terms and major categories of this manual and consider the utility and limitations of the text. The DSM 5 will be used as a tool to develop students’ understanding of mental health diagnosis and symptomology alongside auto-biographical accounts that detail mental health difficulties in real terms.

This will provide students with an understanding of the lived experience of DSM 5 diagnosis and support students to identify some of the limitations of the classification system in the real world. Phenomenological arts-based inquiries extend students’ understanding of media and modality choices with such presentations. Case studies will be used in class for discussion and group activities. Students will be introduced to the dynamic role of arts therapists when working with clinically diagnosed presentations and within a recovery model framework. Consideration will be given to arts therapy practice inside mental health facilities, and in community settings.

Subject Code: ART105
Credit Points: 6

As psychotherapists there are ethical underpinnings to individual world views which can create prejudices and biases which are socialised and are on the whole, unconscious.  This subject equips students with the knowledge, skills and awareness to engage in ethical and culturally responsive therapeutic practices grounded in respect, human rights, social justice and inclusion.  Engaging in a pedagogy centred on culture and diversity, independence, autonomy and philosophy, students will examine the versatility of embedded identities and their influence on beliefs, values and biases, both positive and negative, including how social structures, dominant norms and discourses may privilege some groups over others, particularly at the intersections of identity

Awareness of stereotyping, privilege, poverty, racism, and other forms of discrimination and structural disadvantage that impact identity, wellbeing and access to care prepares students for working within the worldviews and challenges of specific client groups and for understanding how experiences of marginalisation can shape wellbeing, help-seeking and engagement with services.

Students will explore how minority stress can contribute to trauma, shame, interpersonal difficulties, self-criticism, lack of personal agency, anxiety and depression and how this may influence the therapeutic alliance and broader therapeutic processes.

Recognising that values, biases and professional positioning are shaped by dominant cultural norms, students are supported to reflect on their own positioning in relation to diversity, difference, privilege and disadvantage.

Students will develop cross-cultural skills important to working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals, families and communities, and how to flexibly approach their therapeutic needs and healing in culturally safe, responsive and respectful ways. Through this subject, students will come to understand how ethical behaviour and cultural competence goes beyond having an awareness of individual and cultural differences and embrace a commitment to eliminate unconscious bias and discrimination as an ongoing professional responsibility within counselling, psychotherapy and arts therapy contexts.

Subject Code: SOC106
Credit Points: 6

This subject is designed to develop the student’s awareness and understanding of ethical and legal issues critical to arts therapy practice. Students will learn about ethical principles and frameworks that can inform behaviour and decision-making, including relevant legislation, professional practice standards and codes of ethics within the Australian professional landscape.

Students will examine scenarios to identify ethical and legal issues and propose solutions to dilemmas common in therapeutic practice, including those relating to professional responsibilities, professional boundaries, dual relationships, artworks, and e-art therapy. Students will also explore how their personal values may influence their behaviour, decision-making and developing professional identity. This subject is a practical triangulation of personal art practice, philosophy, and arts therapy.

Subject Code: ART107
Credit Points: 6

Arts Therapy in Group Practice is an experiential and clinically grounded subject that invites students to engage with both theory and participation in group work to develop a comprehensive understanding of group art therapy practice. Students explore the historical and philosophical foundations of group work with particular emphasis on art therapy group practice, alongside the professional competencies required to safely and ethically facilitate groups  Students learn the fundamentals of group planning and facilitation, including ethical set up, beginnings and endings, creative methods, managing group dynamics, identifying key themes and patterns of behaviour, and attending to cultural considerations in group contexts.

Throughout the subject, students develop an understanding of the role of the arts therapist in group work, with a focus on relational, holding, therapeutic presence and clinical decision making. As a cornerstone of professional identity development, this subject is experiential.

Each student is provided with the opportunity to facilitate a one-hour art therapy group within a safe and supervised learning environment with their peers. This facilitation forms enables students to demonstrate developing competence in group art therapy practice. Each week, students participate in group art therapy processes, allowing them to integrate theoretical concepts with lived experience of group work. Through shared art making and reflection, students deepen their understanding of how group art therapy can support therapeutic change and growth. Students also gain experience working with a range of art materials, learning how to introduce, guide, and manage art-making processes therapeutically within group settings.

Subject Code: ART108
Credit Points: 6
Pre-Requisites: Integrative Psychotherapy in Theory, Integrative Arts Psychotherapy in Practice

This subject explores key theories, concepts and methods in the study of development across the lifespan. Taking an interdisciplinary perspective, the subject examines development, evolutionary, biological, psychological, social and cultural viewpoints. Students explore core developmental themes including, evolution, embryology, attachment, brain development and the influence of family, culture and context. The subject provides an overview of typical and atypical developmental pathways across major life stages supporting an understanding of how nature, nurture and lived experience shape human growth, wellbeing and functioning. Emphasis is placed on reflective engagement with developmental theory to support emerging professional identity and practice in diverse therapeutic contexts.

Subject Code: SOC201
Credit Points: 6

This subject builds on students’ foundational learning in art-based materials, forms and processes by introducing a range of therapeutic arts modalities, including storytelling, movement, dance, voice, music, drama, psychodrama and sandplay. These modalities are experienced as distinct yet related forms, with attention to how play, story, metaphor, and embodiment support non-verbal expression and the exploration of inner experience. Drawing on Jones ‘(2005) eight core processes common to the arts therapies, alongside a ‘state of play’, the subject provides students with an organising framework for understanding how implicit and explicit psychological content may be processed through the arts. Across the subject, students are supported to develop experiential and reflexive awareness of how core therapeutic processes are engaged through play, story, embodiment, and arts-based expression, laying a foundation for integrative arts therapy practice.

Subject Code: ART202
Credit Points: 6

This subject introduces the the foundational theory and practice of an Intermodal Arts Therapy approach. It explores the concept of humans are intermodal beings and considers how children’s play demonstrates that intermodal artistic expression is inherent in human self-expression. Students examine how intersubjectivity, play, empathy, affective attunement, mimicry, spacial metaphor and clinical intuition are all interconnected d through movement. 

Students also examine how these embodied functions can be understood through Stern’s (2010) theory of ‘forms of vitality’, which describes how the self and its meanings are communicated non-verbally through personal styles of movement as well as through verbalised spatial metaphor.  The role of playand a playful attitude within the therapeutic -space is explored as a central element of intermodal transfer, alongside opportunities to engage in intermodal arts therapy practice.

Subject Code: ART203
Credit Points: 6

This subject explores the integration of dance/movement and embodied inquiry into multimodal arts therapy practice. Students will explore philosophical, historical and sociocultural influences on the body and how it is perceived and engaged with as medium of expression in past and contemporary society and across diverse cultures. Fundamental concepts of body-psychotherapy and movement-based therapies will be explored and experienced. Students will practice and develop skills in facilitating movement-based therapeutic techniques and consider integration of these skills alongside others creative approaches to therapy for different clients and contexts.

Ethical considerations for movement-based interventions will be discussed, reflected upon and applied. In exploring the phenomenological, neurobiological, and developmental aspects of movement and the developing body, students will be invited to engage in an experiential exploration of their own embodied phenomenology with special interest applied to focuses such as embodied memory, embodied communication, intersubjectivity, aesthetics, and self- agency. As training therapists, students will explore embodied affectivity and inter-bodily resonance shapes and affects the embodied therapeutic relationship.

Subject Code: ART204
Credit Points: 6

Creative expression has long been recognised as a powerful medium for healing, meaning making and transformation across cultures and historical contexts. In this subject, students explore historical and cultural understandings of creativity alongside contemporary neuroscience and arts therapy research, examining the role of creative processes in navigating experiences of loss, trauma, transition and growth.

Rather than a single narrative of model, this subject engages with diverse healing frameworks through experiential artmaking, reflective writing and collaborative dialogue. These processes support the development of both intellectual understanding and embodied awareness of creativity as a therapeutic resource. The Healing Journey framework provides a guiding structure for exploration, while recognising that healing occurs within cultural, relational and community contexts. 

The subject supports students to reflect on personal and collective experiences of adversity and meaning making, and prepares them for culturally responsive, ethical and creatively grounded arts therapy practice.

Subject Code: ART205
Credit Points: 6

This subject supports students to develop understanding and skills in evidence informed arts therapy approaches to working with grief and loss grounded in reflective practice and professional awareness. Through exploration of the nature of loss and grief, together with major grief theories and complicating factors and diverse cultural meanings of loss, students deepen their capacity to engage these themes with sensitivity and ethical awareness.

Students are invited to engage reflectively with their own experiences of loss as part of practitioner development, with attention to appropriate professional boundaries and self-care. Reflective learning is used to strength awareness of how loss shapes personal and relational meaning making and how grief can disrupt assumed narratives, while also opening processes for reconstruction and integration. 

The subject’s emphasis on cultural, relational and ethical dimensions of grief work and introduces practitioner responsibilities when working with complex grief presentations and in multidisciplinary care teams. This includes recognizing indicators of elevated distress, understanding scope of practice, and applying safety-orientated and referral responses where required. Artistic and symbolic processes are explored as central arts therapy pathways for expressing, witnessing and integrating grief and loss into renewed life meaning.

Subject Code: ART206
Credit Points: 6
Pre-Requisites: None

See the ‘Electives’ tab for current elective options available.

This subject introduces students to contemporary theories and models of case conceptualisation, art therapy assessment and therapeutic planning within a case management framework.  Students develop skills in case conceptualisation, narrative meaning making, and clinical reasoning, learning how to understand clients’ presenting concerns within the context of lived experience, relational dynamics, and current life circumstances. Students apply structured case conceptualisation frameworks to hypothesise on and identify a client’s concerns, explore contributing factors and recognise strengths, resources and protective factors. Students are introduced to art therapy assessment tools to support information gathering and clinical insight.  Assessment findings are used to inform therapeutic planning, arts-based intervention choices, and the ongoing review of client progress and responsiveness. This subject also builds students understanding of multidisciplinary and allied health practice language and documentation, while remaining grounded in art therapy philosophies, phenomenological inquiry, and relational practice.

Subject Code: ART208
Credit Points: 6
Pre-Requisites: SOC201 Life Span Development, ART203 Intermodal Philosophy and Theory

This subject deepens the content that students have engaged with in previous subjects, bringing together integrative understandings of trauma and its effects, and provides theoretical and practical knowledge of trauma-informed approaches in arts therapy.  Students will gain an understanding of the historical background of the arts as a means of symbolising and integrating traumatic experience and will gain a deeper understanding of integrative processes. Polyvagal understanding of autonomic nervous system functioning and co-regulation as a means of creating therapeutic safety will be studied.  Students will consider Constructivist and Sensorimotor approaches in art therapy practice. Working with children will be addressed as well as working with trauma-induced shame and self-loathing.  Finally, students will explore ways in which therapist safety in working with trauma can be maintained.

Subject Code: ART301
Credit Points: 6

This subject supports students to develop ethical, reflexive, and culturally responsive practices when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients. Through experiential learning, critical self-inquiry, narrative and creative processes, students will engage with Australia’s colonial history, Indigenous worldviews and key cultural protocols. Grounded in the values of respect, safety, communication, reflection, advocacy and cultural responsiveness, this subject aims to challenge unconscious bias and equip students with the tools to navigate ethical dilemmas in the provision of trauma-informed care in cross-cultural therapeutic contexts. Through critical discussion and case studies, students will develop a deeper understanding of relationality, Country, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing, the principles and practices for decolonising therapy aligned with their professional context, and the responsibility of the helping professions in supporting healing and justice.

Subject Code: SOC312
Credit Points: 6

See the ‘Electives’ tab for current elective options available.

This subject introduces students to arts therapy practice with children and adolescents through a relational and developmentally attuned, attachment-informed, and trauma-responsive lens. Building on Life Span Development, students explore developmental stages from infancy to late adolescence, including preverbal, sensory, and embodied forms of experience and communication, and examine how attachment, trauma, neurodivergence, culture, and context shape therapeutic needs.

Students integrate developmental and relational theory with arts therapy practice across childhood and adolescence. The subject considers presentations such as adversity, trauma, grief, social, emotional, behavioural, and mental health challenges within diverse family, kinship, and community contexts, supporting students to facilitate developmentally appropriate, ethically grounded, and culturally safe arts therapy interventions. Through experiential learning, students develop practical skills in therapeutic engagement and rapport building, and in the intentional use of creative modalities — including visual arts, play, drama, sand tray, music, and movement — to support expression and meaning-making.

Throughout the subject, students cultivate professional competence alongside reflective self-awareness, learning to design trauma-informed, culturally responsive interventions while maintaining reflexive and relational practice. The subject also introduces collaborative practice considerations when working with caregivers, families, schools, and other supports, alongside applied ethical and legal responsibilities relevant to therapeutic work with minors, including confidentiality, duty of care, and mandatory reporting. The subject prepares students for arts therapy practice with children and adolescents and supports readiness for professional placement.

Subject Code: ART304
Credit Points: 6
Pre-requisite: SOC201 Life Span Development

This experiential subject integrates key learnings developed across the course, with the practical facilitation of an arts therapy session as its the central focus.  Emphasis is placed on developing the skills, attributes and competencies required of art-based therapeutic practice, including ethical sensibility, clinical framing and safe professional practice, as introduced and developed in earlier subjects.

This subject provides students with structured opportunities for demonstration, observation, and supervised practice, supporting the development of therapeutic presence, reflective self-awareness, and readiness for supervised clinical placement. Practice skills are further developed through experiential learning and assessed through a clinical skills presentation focused on students’ capacity to facilitate an arts therapy session in a fluent, coherent, and safe manner.

Building on prior learning in expressive arts practice, simulated facilitation and integrative therapeutic approaches, students are supported to work with improvisation and spontaneity, particularly within intermodal and multimodal practice. Clinical effectiveness is examined through responsiveness to implicit cues and non-verbal communication, and the capacity to work with metaphor and imagery. Reflection on practice, informed by arts therapy research, arts-based inquiry, interpersonal neurobiology, professional ethical frameworks, and culturally responsive practice is emphasised throughout the subject.

Subject Code: ART305
Credit Points: 6
Co-Requisite: ART306 Supervised Arts Therapy Practice A

This subject is the first of two professional experience subjects and provides a structured transition from theoretical learning to clinical application with a trauma-informed and evidence-based approach to arts therapy practice. It is designed to draw together theory, knowledge and clinical skills within a safe, supported and supervised work-based setting. 

Students undertake 120 placement hours at an approved host organisation, where they apply theoretical and reflective learning to develop foundational clinical competencies.  Students facilitate therapeutic arts interventions with an entry-level arts therapy case load with a focus on building therapeutic relationships, ethical and culturally responsive practice, working collaboratively as part of a multidisciplinary team and developing foundational clinical reasoning skills. 

Students will participate in group and individual clinical supervision and engage in reflective practice and arts-based inquiry to examine clinical processes, client responses, and the development of professional identity as emerging art therapists.  Ikon clinical supervision is provided by qualified and registered art therapists, counsellors and/or health practitioners with a minimum of five years industry experience with appropriate supervisory expertise, ensuring students practise safely. Formal arrangements with placement organisations ensure workplace supervisors hold current and relevant registration or line managers have a minimum of five years’ experience in the mental health field.

Student are expected to develop a placement learning plan that identifies relevant learning outcomes and demonstrates application of ethical and professional responsibilities in line with relevant codes of ethics and professional conduct. The learning plan supports the development of clinical skills and contributes to the consolidation of an emerging professional identity.

Subject Code: ART306
Credit Points: 6
Hours: 120
Co-Requisite: ART305 Integrating the Arts and Practice
Pre-Requisites: All Year 1 and Year 2 core subjects

This subject is the second of two placement subjects and serves as the capstone experience for the Bachelor of Arts Therapy. It is designed to support the sophisticated integration of theoretical knowledge, clinical skills and professional identity within a safe, supported and supervised work-based setting. 

Students undertake a 240-hour placement experience, during which they design and implement ethical and culturally responsive advanced therapeutic arts-based sessions and programs with individuals and groups to facilitate positive change, in consideration of client needs and goals. In doing so, students exercise high level clinical reasoning, advanced ethical thinking and decision making and further develop their clinical skills with an increasing shift toward therapeutic autonomy. 

There is an increased focus on navigating complex and multidisciplinary systems to integrate arts-based methods, frameworks and processes across diverse practice contexts, while maintaining rigorous clinical documentation, critical reflection and collaborative practice. Students will share and examine case material through 20 hours of clinical supervision facilitated by Ikon (6 hours group supervision and 4 hours individual supervision) and reflective practice. The process supports deeper their understanding of evidence-based arts therapy practice, clinical reasoning, client experiences and therapeutic engagement, and informs students’ articulation of a philosophy of practice as a graduate arts therapist.

Student are expected to develop a placement learning plan that identifies relevant learning outcomes and demonstrates application of ethical and professional conduct This plan provides a framework for the development of advanced clinical skills, advanced ethical decision-making and the consolidation of a robust professional identity.

Subject Code: ART307
Credit Points: 12
Hours: 240
Pre-Requisites: All Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3 core subjects

This subject explores the historical development of using various sand and miniatures for expressive purposes, providing insight into symbolic thinking and meaning making, mythology, archetypes and complexes, and the therapeutic progression of Jungian psychology. In preparation for working with children in a Jungian way, you will become familiar with Erich Neumann’s child developmental stages and examine case material of child sandplay to observe and analyse Neumann’s stages in the sand. You will learn how to facilitate an adult sand and symbol process by experientially engaging with the sand, water, and figurines, examining the case material of adult sandplay, and exploring the archetypal meaning of symbols. Creating four sand trays in a ‘safe and protected space,’ you will have the opportunity to connect with emotional experiences and life narratives through the sand pictures. You will also learn to engage with six levels of reflection from empathic to transcendent (Carroll & Gilbert, 2011, p.115) as a structure for evaluating your clinical work.

Subject Code: SOCE202
Credit Points: 6

This elective subject prepares students to thoughtfully incorporate ecopsychotherapy into their developing therapeutic practice. Ecopsychology understands human psychological wellness as intrinsically connected to the ecological system, while ecopsychotherapy integrates this theoretical framework with practices that engage with the restorative and relational healing qualities of the natural world. 

Under the guidance of experienced facilitators, this subject is delivered as an immersive retreat in an appropriately natural setting, providing students with experiential learning in the principles, practices and ethical considerations of ecopsychotherapy. The theoretical framework draws on ecopsychology, depth psychology, phenomenological approaches, and contemplative practices, with learning grounded in critical reflection rather than prescriptive technique.

Ecopsychotherapy is explored both outdoors and within therapeutic contexts, recognising the ways modern disconnection from nature contributes to experiences of distress, isolation, and fragmentation. Students examine the growing evidence base for nature-connected therapeutic practices while also attending to core professional responsibilities, including safety, boundaries, confidentiality, and ethical decision-making. Cultural humility and ethical engagement are embedded throughout the subject. Students are guided to respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which retreats are held, deepen their understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ ongoing relationships with Country, and critically reflect on their own positioning and responsibilities in land-based practice. Indigenous knowledges are approached with respect for cultural authority and are not treated as practices to be appropriated or replicated within therapeutic work.

Please note: Due to the delivery style for this subject, extra costs may be incurred to cover travel, accommodation and food.

Subject Code: SOCE203
Credit Points: 6

This subject focuses on the knowledge and skills required to apply therapeutic skills to work with young people (12-24 years).

Students will build on their understanding of key theories and models of child and adolescent development, attending to common issues facing young people in contemporary society. Students explore evidence-based strategies for engaging and working with young people in diverse therapeutic contexts. A systems perspective is applied to the assessment of young people’s circumstances and to the adaptation of approaches in response to the developmental, familial, organisational, community, and socio-cultural contexts shaping young people’s lives.  

Students will practice, develop, and critically reflect on skills in relationship and rapport building and culturally responsive therapeutic approaches with young people. This includes examination of how resources and physical environment can be employed to enhance engagement and practice. Emphasis is also placed on the personal and professional competencies required to work effectively in response to relevant legislation; confidentiality; informed assent/consent; and duty of care with young people under the age of 18. Students also learn about strategies to engage families, parents, caregivers, schools, and other service providers in the therapeutic process. 

Subject Code: COUE301
Credit Points: 6
Pre-Requisites: None

This subject is concerned with developing an understanding of the research and science of dreamwork and dream producing resources of the human psyche, as well as the application of these theories in therapeutic practice. In particular, the subject focuses on the capacity of the dreaming function to access and mobilise internal resource systems to support problem solving, stress reduction, insight, change processes and psychological development. 

The subject explores experiences arising in dreaming, liminal, conscious imaging, and metaphor-based states of consciousness. It does so with a collaborative and culturally responsive focus on the context of both practitioner and client populations, while taken into consideration trauma-informed practice considerations, risk assessment, and the possibility of crisis intervention, trauma stabilisation, and ruptures in the therapeutic alliance. Skill development is directed towards using various methods to access this domain, including archetypal processes, in both individual and group settings. These methods are developed as part of an integrative symbol and dreamwork skillset designed to develop student capacity to contribute to evidence-informed case conceptualisation processes and therapeutic planning.

Subject Code: SOCE302
Credit Points: 6

This subject explores the themes of personal growth and awakening. It follows an intensive format with a structured program involving personal reflection, practice and lectures, exploring themes related to the organisation of the mind. You will begin learning about early developmental factors in mind formation, and progress towards transpersonal psychology and Eastern philosophies and practices.

Subject Code: SOCE303
Credit Points: 6

This subject provides students with an introduction to addiction and recovery within arts therapy, and counselling and psychotherapy contexts. Students examine key models of addiction, including substance-related and behavioural addictions, and explore how addictive patterns develop, are maintained, and may change over time across a range of common presenting concerns. 

Students learn to recognise addiction-related presentations, participate in structured, trauma-informed assessment processes, and apply evidence-informed, early-stage responses appropriate to beginning therapeutic practice. The emphasis is on engagement, harm reduction, safety, and appropriate referral, rather than specialist or advanced treatment. 

A developmental and culturally responsive lens is embedded throughout the topic, recognising that addiction presents differently across the lifespan and within diverse social and cultural contexts. Narrative-informed ideas are introduced to support engagement and reduce shame, including perspectives consistent with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander understandings of wellbeing, healing, and recovery.

Subject Code: HSS201
Credit Points: 6

This subject introduces students to the therapeutic use of the theatre arts in psychotherapy. Drawing on Performance Theory, students explore the development of the drama therapies from archaic ritual and modern theatre through to contemporary dramatherapy and psychodrama practices. Through examination of their own dramatic histories in relation to Role Theory and Embodiment Projection Role (EPR) theory, students will develop an understanding of how psychodramatic and social roles shape the self as it is presented and performed in everyday life. 

Students build foundational therapeutic skills in the use of a range of dramatic techniques spanning imaginal and distanced approaches of dramatherapy through to the more direct action -based methods drawn from psychodrama. An integrative drama therapy process is explored as a framework for practice that supports inclusive participation and observable therapeutic change. 

Students are invited to engage in reflective practice, attending to their own lived connections with dramatic experience and conceptualise how theatre-based approaches can be ethically and effectively applied to achieve therapeutic goals across diverse client groups and contexts.

Subject Code: ARTE207
Credit Points: 6

This subject provides a foundational introduction to narrative therapy as a collaborative, non-pathologising, and culturally responsive approach to psychotherapy, counselling, and creative therapeutic practice. Students explore the philosophical foundations of narrative therapy, including social constructionism, meaning-making, identity, power, discourse, and the role of language in shaping lived experience. 

The topic introduces core narrative practices such as externalising conversations, re-authoring, and working with preferred identities, with emphasis on ethical engagement, reflexivity, and professional scope. Narrative practices are presented as privileging relationship, agency, and lived knowledge over deficit-based or diagnostic frameworks. 

Students engage with the evidence base for narrative therapy across diverse cohorts and contexts, including its strong application in work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, communities, and organisations. Aboriginal-led narrative practices and scholarship are foregrounded, recognising Indigenous contributions that centre story, collective identity, and resistance to colonising practices. Ethical and cultural considerations for working across cultures, including practitioner positioning, cultural safety, and respect for Indigenous sovereignty and knowledges, are embedded throughout. 

Students are supported to translate narrative therapy principles into discipline-appropriate conversational, reflective, and creative practices, while maintaining ethical integrity, cultural responsiveness, and a clearly defined undergraduate scope of practice.

Subject Code: HSS202
Credit Points: 6