You're invited to ANZACATA's Annual General Meeting (AGM) for 2026.

This year's AGM includes an important item of business: members will be asked to vote on a Special Resolution to update the ANZACATA Constitution, alongside our usual annual reporting and Board Director elections.

Guest presentation to start the AGM

Advancing Growth and Recognition of Art Therapy: Lessons from Singapore
Dr. Christine Phang

How does art therapy grow in a country? And what can the individual art therapist do to contribute to this growth? This guest presentation addresses these questions through a doctoral study on art therapy in Singapore, which revealed how art therapy functions through multiple levels of systems, from the microsystem surrounding the individual to the chronosystem of time. Christine will outline a culturally responsive ecological systems framework that art therapists everywhere can use to understand how the profession functions in their own country, and to identify practical ways to advance its growth and recognition.

Dr. Christine Phang (she/her) is a Singaporean artist and art therapist. She is a Registered Art Therapist with the Art Therapy Credentials Board in the US. Dr. Phang completed her Doctor of Philosophy in Art Therapy and her Master's in Marriage and Family Therapy with a focus in Art Therapy at the Dominican University of California. She serves as an editor with the International Journal of Art Therapy and a peer reviewer for the Journal of the American Art Therapy Association. Christine recently co-authored a guide for AATA, Idea to Article: A Practical Guide to Publishing Art Therapy Research, which aims to demystify the process of publishing art therapy research.

Meeting papers
We'll hear about ANZACATA's activities over the past year, review the financial reports, vote on the proposed Constitution changes and announce the election results of our incoming Board Directors.

• Agenda
• Minutes of the 2025 AGM
• Annual Report, incl. financial details
• Proposed Constitution amendments and Explanatory Memorandum
• All papers combined

Proposed changes to the Constitution
This year, members will vote on a Special Resolution to update the ANZACATA Constitution. The proposed changes align ANZACATA with the National Alliance of Self-Regulating Health Professions (NASRHP) and the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) requirements.

Ahead of the AGM, we're running a separate member webinar to walk through these changes. We'd encourage members to attend the webinar before the AGM so you're well informed when it comes time to vote.

Proxy voting
If you're a Professional Member and can't attend, you can vote by proxy on all relevant agenda items. Complete the Proxy Form and email it to accounts@anzacata.org by 5pm (AEDT) Friday 9 October 2026.

If you're unsure who to appoint, you can nominate the Board Chair to vote on your behalf.

All those who register will be emailed details on how to join – you must register to receive the meeting link. If you're unable to attend, you can submit your apology.

When: Friday 16 October 2026
Time: 4pm–5.30pm (AEDT)
3.30pm–5pm (ACDT)
2.30pm-4pm (ACST)
1pm–2.30pm (AWST / SGT / HKT)
6pm–7.30pm (NZDT)
Duration/CPD: 1.5 hours
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free of charge
Open to: All members welcome to attend.
Only current 2026/27 Professional Members may vote.
Recorded session: Yes

A Professional Development Workshop for Arts Therapists facilitated by Miriam Saines, Registered Professional Arts Therapist (AThR) and Autistic Self-Advocate.

This professional development workshop is designed for arts therapists seeking to deepen their understanding of autism and develop neurodiversity affirming therapeutic practices. Led by an Autistic arts therapist with lived experience and professional expertise, this workshop offers a unique opportunity to gain insights into creating more effective, respectful, and empowering therapeutic relationships with Autistic clients.

The workshop challenges traditional deficit-based approaches and introduces participants to neurodiversity-affirming practices that honour Autistic ways of being, communicating, and experiencing the world. Practical strategies, artmaking examples, and experiential activities will provide participants with actionable tools to enhance their clinical practice.

This event is appropriate for ALL ANZACATA members. However, it is aimed particularly to new graduates and members who have little understanding, knowledge and experience of neurodiversity affirming practice and autistic identity.

Please note this workshop is delivered in 2 parts on consecutive days.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Describe autism from a neurodiversity-affirming perspective, using affirming language, and identify how this differs from pathologizing approaches.
• Address the intersectionality of autism and create sensory-informed and trauma-informed arts therapy spaces for therapeutic engagement.
• Expand their understanding of 'art' to encompass diverse sensory and social expressions relevant to Autistic clients.
• Support authentic emotion regulation without imposing neurotypical expectations.
• Incorporate special interests as therapeutic strengths rather than viewing them as distractions.
• Foster self-advocacy skills in Autistic clients of all ages

PRESENTER BIO

Miriam (she/her/they/them) is a late-identified AuDHD (autistic and ADHD) arts therapist, professionally registered with ANZACATA. She graduated with her Master of Arts Therapy from Western Sydney University in 2013 and practises on Awabakal Country at Newcastle Music and Arts Therapy. Miriam's lived experience, as an AuDHD person and parent, has significantly shaped her arts therapy practice, which is grounded in neurodiversity-affirming principles, and has led to her strong interest in Autistic culture and advocacy.

Miriam works predominantly with neurodivergent clients who identify as Autistic, ADHD, AuDHD, PDA, as well as those with diverse disabilities, and mental health issues across all ages and backgrounds. Her arts therapy practice combines professional expertise with authentic understanding, offering creative strategies that honour rather than change neurodivergent ways of being. newcastlemusictherapy.com.au.

When: Friday 30 October (Part 1) and Saturday 31 October 2026 (Part 2)
Time: 10am–1.30pm AEDT
(12pm NZT, 7am AWDT/HKT/SGT)
including a 30-minute break
Duration/CPD: 6 hrs
Where: Zoom
Cost: $90 (+GST for Aust. members)
Open to: All members
Max: 20 participants
Recorded session: No (Privacy Reasons)

Cancellation Policy
When you register and pay to attend one of our events, you are holding a space on our calendar that is no longer available to other members. In order to be respectful of your fellow members and the presenter, please email us as soon as you know you will not be able to attend the event. We keep our events as affordable as possible and need to pay presenters the fee they request. While we understand sometimes urgent matters come up, if registrants cancel at the last minute, we struggle to pay presenters. A full refund will be given if the cancellation occurs more than 24 hours before the event. If the cancellation occurs less than 24 hours before the event, 50% of your registration fee will be refunded only to defray our costs.

This training will contain theory, experiential learning, and opportunities for supervision practice, and can be used as either an arts-therapy based PD opportunity, or towards registration as an approved supervisor with ANZACATA.

It is best suited to experienced professional members, as it assumes a working clinical knowledge and experience in arts therapy.

The training will cover:

1. Definitions of supervision
2. A variety of models and approaches to supervision
3. Arts-based integration
4. Clinical practice
5. Ethics and Contracts

The course will be 40 hours over 5 sessions (including 15 hours of experiential practice) in keeping with ANZACATA policy requirements of Approved Supervisors. Participants will be expected to engage in supervision practice with other participants between the online sessions in order to complete the required number of hours to register as an ANZACATA supervisor.

Please note only Professional Members can be on the ANZACATA Approved Supervisor listing and completion of this training course does not constitute an application to become an ANZACATA Approved Supervisor.

PRESENTER BIO

Tilly Dawson (she/her) is a professional member, practicing art therapist, and ANZACATA-approved supervisor. Tilly specialises in clinical art therapy within healthcare and oncology settings. She is a passionate clinician with experience in providing individual and group sessions for patients and their families across the lifespan. Throughout her career, Tilly has supervised numerous students and has work as a casual Academic at La Trobe University within the Master of Art Therapy program. Her areas of interest and application in art therapy include medical art therapy, palliative care, trauma-informed practices, and supervision.

When: 30, 31 October and 1, 14, 15 November 2026
Time: 12–5 pm AEDT (11am – 4 pm QLD, 2–7 pm NZDT, 9 am–2 pm AWST/HKT/SGT)
Duration/CPD: 40 hours
Where: Zoom
Cost: $500 (+GST for Aust. members)
Open to: Experienced Professional Members
Min/Max: 8/16 participants
Recorded session: No (Privacy Reasons)

Cancellation Policy:
When you register and pay to attend one of our events, you are holding a space on our calendar that is no longer available to other members. In order to be respectful of your fellow members and the presenter, please email us as soon as you know you will not be able to attend the event. We keep our events as affordable as possible and need to pay presenters the fee they request. While we understand sometimes urgent matters come up, if registrants cancel at the last minute, we struggle to pay presenters. A full refund will be given if the cancellation occurs more than 24 hours before the event. If the cancellation occurs less than 24 hours before the event, 50% of your registration fee will be refunded only to defray our costs.

Aged care, hospitals, schools, victim services and more – creative arts therapy has a home well beyond the NDIS, and this forum draws on the experience of members already working across these areas.

ANZACATA is bringing together practitioners who've built practice beyond the NDIS to share what that actually looks like, and what it takes to get there.

We will cover:

• The landscape – the funding pathways and service settings members are already working in beyond the NDIS, including Victims Support Schemes, WorkSafe and workers compensation, Schools, Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA)-funded supports, Primary Health Networks (PHNs), aged care and private fee-for-service practice.
• What it takes in practice – how panellists found their way into these settings, the referral pathways involved, and what changes in compliance, insurance, reporting and pricing compared to NDIS work.

Diversifying looks different for every practice, but there's a lot to learn from how others have found their way beyond the NDIS.

Panellists

• Helen Killmier – Board Chair, ANZACATA
• Katishe Grudnoff (AThR) – Manager, Newcastle Music & Art Therapy
• Additional speakers TBC

When: Friday 6 November 2026 (Part 2)
Time: 12.30pm – 1.30pm (AEDT)
12.00pm – 1.00pm (ACDT)
9.30am – 10.30am (AWST)
Duration/CPD: 1 hr
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Relevant to: All Australian members
Recorded session: Yes