let’s art about it, together. 

 A fortnightly group focused on reflection and social connection. 

Sunday Social is an intentional pause - an invitation to slow down, turn inward and connect through creative exploration. 
No art skills required, each session provides a structured yet flexible space to: 

  • Practice mindful creativity

  • Gently grow your curiosity 

  • Build meaningful connections 

Each session is a warm welcome to step out of your routine and into a supportive community to get curious together. This isn't an art class. Here, creativity becomes the guide that connects us, as we explore, express and connect in ways words sometimes cannot.

Facilitated by Creative Art Therapist Jessie Upton - AThR, Sunday Social offers a gentle, judgement-free zone where social connection and personal reflection intertwine.

  • First, we meet around our art-making table. There is herbal tea and percolator coffee provided. Seated together, we individually reflect on the week that has been. Each session then follows a light structure, with two invitations offered for reflective and creative response:

    1. We meet.
    2. We pause.
    3. We reflect.
    4. We create. 

    Please note, this is not an art class, and does not focus on artistic skill-building. Instead, there are various art-making tools available, with the warm encouragement to use whatever draws your curiosity in the moment. 

    Build connections, engage creatively and get curious together in this supportive social group. Your heart and brain (and Monday morning self) will thank you! 

  • Sundays, 10.30am - 12.30pm

    @ Art Club
    11 Railway Place West, Preston

    Maximum 15 participants. Booking in advance is required.

    Please note: Sunday Social is a therapeutic art group for adults; you must be 18+ to attend.

  • Standard $35

    Standard + a little more $35+ (set your own price from $35)
    Have a steady income and able to pay a little more? Select this price type and choose your price!
    Doing so supports our ability to provide discounted tickets for people with a low income and helps to make Wanna Art About It a sustainable small business. 

    Concession $30
    Select this price if you have a pension card, carers card, seniors card, veteran card or healthcare card.

    Access in Action $10
    Access in Action tickets are heavily discounted to support people on low/no income to attend our events.
    There are a limited number of tickets available at this price - we wish we could provide more! Please only select this option if you aren't able to afford attending otherwise.

    Pay it Forward $0 
    Tickets donated via our Pay It Forward initiative. If you are unable to afford a ticket or all Access in Action tickets are sold out, join the waitlist and we will let you know if someone donates a ticket via our Pay It Forward initiative.

    Four Pack $119
    Book four sessions and receive a discount of over 15%! This ticket is for x4 sessions in February/March 2025.
    The dates you are booking for are: Sunday 2 February, Sunday 16 February, Sunday 16 March and Sunday 30 March.

Bookings

Sunday 2 February, 10:30am-12.30pm

Sunday 16 February, 10:30am-12.30pm

Sunday 16 March, 10:30am-12.30pm

Sunday 30 March, 10:30am-12.30pm

Creative Art Therapy with Jessie Upton

As a professional therapist, I provide multimodal Creative Arts Therapy for individuals and groups online and in person.

Working multimodally means I value all forms of expression and creation as equal. Instead of facilitating visual art therapy or music therapy specifically, I work across all ways of expressing creatively, be it visual, digital, physical, or musical.

I have experience working alongside children & young people in hospitals, delivering creative connection programs for seniors and working with adults navigating periods of transition in their lives - following a major change, a new knowing or a diagnosis.

I am an LGBTQIA+ friendly therapist and have lived experience of navigating chronic health conditions. This includes a late-in-life ADHD diagnosis, which informs my trauma-informed and neurodiversity-affirming approach.

About Creative Art Therapy

What is Creative Art Therapy?

Creative and expressive arts therapies are a form of psychotherapy that go beyond words. They use art, media, and the creative process to facilitate the exploration of feelings, improve self-awareness, and promote well-being.

In expressive art therapy, the focus is on the process, not the product, where creative procedures and tactile engagement with art materials are used as a way to explore feelings that may be hard to put into words.

Creative and Expressive Art Therapists are mental health professionals who work across a range of allied health settings including private practice, community health, education, hospitals, mental health and rehabilitation facilities, aged care and palliative care.

Who can benefit from Creative Arts Therapy?

Creative Art Therapy can benefit anyone.
As it is all about the creative process, you do not need any prior experience with art or music-making to participate in a session!

Creative arts therapies can help people to discover patterns of experiencing, resolve conflicts, develop interpersonal skills, manage behaviour, reduce stress and increase self-esteem.

They can be particularly helpful for people who struggle to find the ‘right’ words, or who can’t form a way to describe their feelings or their experience with just words. Instead of relying completely on talk or written communication, expressive arts therapies provide a range of ways to communicate including drawing, writing, sculpting, acting, dance, sound and movement.

My Qualifications

I am a fully qualified Creative Arts Therapist - AThR, holding professional membership with ANZACATA.

  • I hold professional membership with ANZACATA - the Australian, New Zealand and Asian Creative Art Therapies Association. They are the peak professional body for creative arts therapists in the Asia/Pacific region.

    As a professional member, I am listed on ANZACATA's Find a Therapist webpage, you can confirm my membership by viewing my profile on their website.

  • Arts Therapists are Allied Health practitioners. As a qualified art therapist, I am authorised to use the recognised title AThR.

    Allied Health Professions Australia outlines how an Art Therapist is qualified as follows:

    In order to practise and use the recognised title AThR (registered arts therapist), the following requirements must be met:

    • Professional membership of Australian, New Zealand and Asian Creative  Arts Therapies Association (ANZACATA).

    • Complete a minimum two years Masters degree.

    • Complete a minimum of 750 hours of supervised clinical placement.

    • Complete continuing professional development and work under a code of ethics.

  • I hold a Masters of Therapeutic Arts Practice with a specialisation in Community Arts & Health from The MIECAT Institute - the Melbourne Institute of Experiential Creative Art Therapies.

    A three-year expressive art therapies program, the MIECAT approach of Emerging Inquiry values multimodality - that is, the use of multiple creative art forms within it’s processes.

    In the final year of my studies, I completed my placement with the Starlight Children's Foundation, returning to the Royal Children's Hospital to work alongside the team.

  • As a practitioner, I have signed the SEEK Safely Promise in support of promoting ethical and safe personal growth.

    As a professional arts therapist, I do not consider my work to align with the self-help industry directly, as my scope of practice is defined within the allied health field and regulated by my professional membership requirements.

    However, I recognise that personal improvement and self-empowerment are an expansive inherent component of being and I am passionate about ethical and safe education and experience.

    You can learn more at seeksafely.org