Participants’ responses to Jessica Gabrielli’s recent FOLDENMOVE workshop…
“’I loved the way Jess gently guided us towards the practice — it supported a profound experience. And the absolute delight of opening our chrysalis!”
“’I valued being immersed in a fluid, sensory, engaging series of embodied experiences. The 4 hours flowed with ease as Jess guided us through a wholistic experience, step by step, grounded in trust. I felt safe to participate, move, engage and be curious.”
“’Foldenmove is wonderfully woven together and flows so beautifully. Jess has created a perfect combination of somatic therapy and art therapy exploration in the creation of the soul map. This workshop was nurturing, inspiring and deeply spiritual. Jess co-created a safe space. I’m so grateful to have participated in Foldenmove. I feel uplifted by the experience and would love to do it again.”
MIECAT
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Australian higher education provider (TEQSA). Therapeutic Arts Practice. Creative Arts Therapy (ANZACATA). Arts-based Research. Public Programs.
The MIECAT Institute is committed to training practitioners working in a variety of contexts including health, community development, education and arts therapy, to understand and represent multi-arts and experiential ways of being in their professional and personal lives.
04/06/2026
UPCOMING TRAINING SERIES_ Trauma-Informed and Somatic Approaches with Jo Buick, founder and director of the non-profit organisation Collective Being, and the newly launched service Taking Good Care.
For the past 17 years, Jo has worked across education, mental health and social justice, as a strategist, educator, non-profit founder, and somatic practitioner.
In this training series, Jo will be drawing on her experiences in trauma-exposed settings, including schools, refugee and migration services, clinical settings, and family violence settings.
Jo is especially dedicated to practitioner care and sustainable work in trauma-exposed settings.
This series will also weave in practical facilitation techniques for facilitator energy conservation, connection, and groundedness.
In Masterclass Part 1, Jo will introduce participants to the foundational principles of trauma-informed practice, with a particular focus on body-based and somatic insights.
This session will integrate neuroscience, trauma theory, somatic practices, small group activities, and reflective practice.
This session is ideal if you’re curious about somatic approaches to trauma‑informed practice, wanting to expand your understanding, or preparing to deepen into the applied work of Part 2.
You’re welcome to attend either session on its own or both together, depending on your needs, learning edges, and interests.
Book via link in bio.
Part 1: Introduction to Trauma-Informed and Somatic Approaches
Sunday July 12th, 1–4pm
https://events.humanitix.com/introduction-to-trauma-informed-and-somatic-approaches-masterclass-part-1
Part 2: Applied Trauma-Informed Approaches to Group Facilitation
Sunday August 23rd, 1–4pm
https://events.humanitix.com/applied-trauma-informed-approaches-to-group-facilitation-masterclass-part-2
Jo Buick
https://www.instagram.com/jo.buick/
Taking Good Care
https://www.instagram.com/takinggood.care/
Collective Being
https://www.instagram.com/_collectivebeing_
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Images courtesy of Jo Buick
01/06/2026
UPCOMING WORKSHOP_ Threads in Motion
Join International MIECAT collaborator, Aleksandra Bożek‑Muszyńska for a movement and sewing improvisation experience.
This in-person workshop invites you to explore the meeting point between movement and hand‑stitching as a way of reconnecting with your body.
The practice grew out of 15 Safe Days, a project developed during the SaferSpaces residency in Warsaw, where Aleksandra spent fifteen days working with anatomical imagery, improvisation, and the calming repetition of sewing.
Together, we will:
• Work with poetic anatomical cards as prompts for embodied exploration
• Move between improvisation, stillness, and simple sewing actions
• Notice how rhythm, repetition, and touch can create a sense of internal spaciousness
• Allow movement to influence stitching, and stitching to influence movement.
This workshop is designed for anyone interested in somatic practice, creativity, or gentle experimentation.
You don’t need prior experience in dance or sewing, just openness and curiosity.
Book via link in bio.
https://events.humanitix.com/threads-in-motion-15-safe-days-workshop
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Aleksandra’s Australian residency is supported by MIECAT and Ministry of Culture and National Heritage Republic of Poland, The Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
28/05/2026
JOIN OUR TEAM! Seeking sessional academic staff to contribute to MIECAT’s teaching and supervision of postgraduate students in the Masters in Therapeutic Arts Practice.
See Seek for details.
Apply via Seek.
https://au.seek.com/job/92337842?ref=cm-ui
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Land as laboratory : Land as Mother 0016T
Found, fallen and Gathered
The Cailleach whispers, strength builds
Clarity through naked branches, fallen leaves absorbed
Knowing, unknowing, weaving, fire builds
Doctoral provisional candidate • Therapeutic Arts Practice
25/05/2026
The Creative Writing Practice Series is coming up! REGISTRATIONS CLOSE MAY 30.
In this online four‑part experimental series, you’ll:
• Write from memory: exploring personal archives, sensory recall and the fragments that shape us
• Break the rules of writing: playing with form, voice, structure and the unexpected
• Work with collage: cutting, layering and assembling text as a visual and narrative medium
• Experiment with abstraction: letting language loosen, stretch and transform
• Engage with diverse literary voices: from the experimental poetics of π.O., to the graphic storytelling of Mandy Ord, the hybrid essays of Eloise Grills, and the lyrical nature writing of Robert Macfarlane.
All under the guidance of Suzanne Hermanoczki and Lou Smith, founders of Writing Days, both published, both teachers, both committed to nurturing creative growth.
If you’re craving a writing practice that feels alive again, then come join this community as we travel across 4 sessions together.
Book via link in bio.
https://events.humanitix.com/creative-writing-practice-series
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Image by MIECAT graduate Holly Langdon.
Congratulations to MIECAT Director, Prof Lachlan MacDowall on the launch of BLOCK TOWN at MIECAT this weekend.
Through stark cinematic black and white images, Block Town traces how the alien geometry and abrasive surfaces of the blocks became part of the fabric of the city, echoing the gridded streets of the colonial era. Over time, the protective arrays became walls tor graffiti, street furniture for gatherings and memorials of crime scenes.
Part sober ethnography, part journey into a dream world, Block Town unfolds over hundreds of pages, presenting a detailed portrait of a fortified city living through a global pandemic.
Wonderfully designed by Yanni Florence to harmonise with the book’s contents and featuring an essay from Professor of Social Theory at Trento University in Italy, Andrea Mubi Brighenti, Block Town tells the story of lock downs; a hallucinatory, relentless portrait of a city in a period of transformation.
Block Town was launched by Danny Butt, Senior Lecturer in Interdisciplinary Practice at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne.
21/05/2026
Neurodivergent Experiencing & Creative Arts Practice Series by Chrissy Foreman.
PART 2 coming up on June 13th… SENSORY STREET: Inside Lived Experience
This will be an immersive, LEGO‑inspired arts experience that invites you to step inside the sensory world of late‑identified Autistic & ADHD lived experience.
Join us for a playful, creative, and affirming exploration of sensory overwhelm, sensory joy, and environmental attunement.
Bring a LEGO character, your curiosity, and your full self.
Participants from our May session had a wonderful time connecting and learning together…
“Chrissy’s multimodal presentation. Loved it!”
“Connecting with other neurodivergent people. Validation of Neurodivergent experience.”
Perfect for mental health & allied health professionals, educators, support workers, creative arts therapists & neurodivergent folks seeking deeper understanding.
A certificate of attendance will be provided.
Book via link in bio.
https://events.humanitix.com/neurodivergent-experiencing-and-creative-arts-practice-a-short-course-for-practitioners-and-lived-experience-learners
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Images courtesy of Chrissy Foreman
UPCOMING WORKSHOP_ Threads in Motion, a movement and sewing improvisation workshop with Polish artist, dancer and choreographer Aleksandra Bożek‑Muszyńska.
You’re invited into a gentle space where movement, touch, and thread meet.
Over fifteen days in 2025, during the SaferSpaces residency in Warsaw, Aleksandra immersed herself in a practice of slowing down — nearly sixty hours of searching for softness, safety, and embodied presence.
Guided by anatomical images, repetition, and the quiet rhythm of stitching, a tender record of the body emerged. It became 15 Safe Days, a project shaped by dance, visual arts, and performance, and by the simple act of listening to the body.
In this workshop, Aleksandra will share this practice with you. We will explore how movement and sewing can open pathways into intuition, sensation, and embodied imagination.
Using poetic anatomical cards as our starting point, we will improvise with gesture, thread, and fabric, allowing the body to guide the hand, and the hand to guide the body.
This is a space for curiosity, slowness, and discovery. No sewing or movement experience is required, only a willingness to follow your own rhythm.
Participants in Threads in Motion are invited into this lineage of practice, engaging with the same principles of slowness, intimacy, and embodied inquiry.
Book via link below:
https://events.humanitix.com/threads-in-motion-15-safe-days-workshop
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Aleksandra’s Australian residency is supported by MIECAT and Ministry of Culture and National Heritage Republic of Poland, The Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
Click here to claim your Sponsored Listing.
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374 George Street
Fitzroy, VIC
3065
Opening Hours
| Monday | 10am - 5:30pm |
| Tuesday | 10am - 5:30pm |
| Wednesday | 10am - 5:30pm |
| Thursday | 10am - 5:30pm |
| Friday | 10am - 5:30pm |