Promoting health and well-being through creative arts therapies

MHI hosts regular visits by creative arts therapists who promote health and wellbeing by sharing their skills with other professionals and community members. Activities to date are documented below.

2019: Creative Arts Therapist Jan Jean spent several months in Lautem to share skills and training in creative therapy with the MHI team and broader community, as well as establish a creative playgroup at the Centre for parents and their young children. 

2015: Creative arts therapy workshops for health and wellbeing for women and young people were led by creative arts therapist Karma Barnes.

2014: Workshops for womens' wellbeing were led by Australian creative arts therapist Marita Jacobsson, supported by dance movement therapist Kim Dunphy.

2012: The relevance and application of dance movement therapy and dance for health and wellbeing in Timor-Leste was explored in a series of workshops led by MHI Director Kim Dunphy and dance movement therapist colleagues, Alex Jordan (Darwin, NT), Meredith Elton (Gold Coast, Qld) and dancer Erika Goldsmith (Brisbane, Qld.). Skills training was provided to professionals interested in learning more about the potential of dance to contribute to health and well-being in Timorese communities.  This work was documented in the journal of the Dance Movement Therapy Association of Australia here and in the American Journal of Dance Therapy here.