Transarts’ Vision is:

A society that values, promotes, nurtures and protects personal and collective creativity, well-being and empowerment.


Transarts’ values:

Inclusiveness : Our approach is as inclusive and holistic as possible. We believe inclusiveness can bring greater depth and sense of meaning in our experiences.

Creativity in daily life : Creativity is within each of us. But how many of us get in touch with our own creativity in our daily lives? Our focus is to explore our creativity to feel healthier and happier.

Strengths-based: We don’t focus on “issues” and “problems”. We are interested in embracing people’s and community’s positive-ness and strength. Nurturing well-being can be a joyful experience.

Narrative/Story-telling: We would like to listen to your stories, told in your way, at your pace.

Grass-roots approach: We would like to work alongside with community with what’s really going on at grass-roots level to avoid ‘imposing’.

Trans-cultural: We would like to celebrate and be curious about all the cultures and learn from each other.

Trans-generational: We would like to create mutual learning experience across generations. We recognise community Elders have so much to give, as do the young. There is great importance in transfer of knowledge.

Trans-disciplinary:  We are open to and encourage opportunities to work with people with different skills, knowledge and experiences.

Transpersonal : We include the spiritual dimension to understand ourselves. It’s also important to seek possibility to go beyond the ego and personal self for our own and community collective growth.


Transarts’s central concepts are:

遊 – Play/playful
楽 – Joy/fun
笑 – Laughs/smiles
創 – Create/ being creative
聴 – Deep listening/ being listened to
心 – Heart/ being in touch with feelings
感 – Feel/being moved by
和 – Harmony/connection
情 – Empathy/compassion
静 – Silence/ still-ness
志 – Will-power/pathways
気 – Mindful/awareness

Tracy (Community Development) and Eriko (Art Therapy) are available to work with individuals in private sessions and on community projects.

Together, Tracy and Eriko work as Transarts, facilitating community arts/development projects.

Creative and expressive arts and support groups are a passion for me, particularly with a view to increasing opportunities for individual and community well-being through strength-based and expressive practices.

While working in a women’s and children’s refuge (2002 to 2007), I came to understand the value of each person being the expert in their own lives. I found that people could find contentment through being encouraged, nourished and recognised for their strengths in a non-judgemental atmosphere.

In 2006, I initiated ‘Life in Focus’, an art therapy and support group that developed a community development arts project. This group was co-facilitated with Eriko Kinoshita, for 6 months. The outcome of this group was a community-based and driven resource book, presenting the artwork of domestic violence survivors expressing their experiences of surviving domestic violence and moving through a refuge into independent living in the community.

This project became an inspiration to form Transarts in 2008 with Eriko - to further extend opportunities for similar community arts projects.

I strongly believe in the power of shared creative and expressive art-making, story-telling and coming together to understand our differences and lived experiences, as a journey through personal understanding and community well-being that empowers and connects mind, body, soul & spirit.


Qualifications:

Post-graduate Diploma in Psychology (Depth Psychology)
Student Massage Therapist, Om Shanti College

I have been always interested in seeking for creativity, happiness and well-being. Studying art therapy in new country after few years of training in photography and cultural arts in Japan, led me to intense journey of re-discovering myself. For four years, I immersed myself in visual exploration of my life using drawing, painting, mask making, collage, meditation, visualization, etc. To become an art therapist, I had to realize that I was a patient for the first place!

As a result, I have been able to make sense of my life with so much more trust and confidence in myself. I believe in transformational energy that creativity can bring to our lives. That is the reason why I believe in introducing art therapy to people. In our lives, we have to find a comfortable way of dealing with our relationships, grief, partnership, career-seeking, forgiveness, changes, meaning, stress, above all with our own selves! Therefore it is such a value if we could trust and respect ourselves more.

Five years of working with women and children’ from domestic violence backgrounds again reassured me a power of space for creative story-telling. Two years of working with Tracy in community groups taught me an importance of free-flowing, spontaneous & playful approach to the group work.

Emotions are often beyond words.  So are our energies, dreams, imagination and fantasies. They often can teach us lots of things about ourselves when we visualize them. Yourself, silence & art materials can take you somewhere very sacred. To assist the process is my passion.

I do home practice for the individual sessions as well as group project, workshops in a community setting. Please feel free to contact me for any inquiries.


Qualifications

Master of Art therapy at University of Western Sydney
Graduate Diploma in Expressive Therapies at University of Western Sydney


Professional association

Australian and New Zealand Art Therapy association (ANZATA) member


Please check our blog...If you are interested in people's artworks and testimonials:
www.transarts-artscommunity.blogspot.com