About

Jules Booth

Registered Art Therapist (AThR-ANZACATA)
Registered Counsellor (PACFA)

I have been interested in art my whole life. I have fond early memories of working side by side with my grandfather—an amateur painter. He encouraged me to draw and paint, and we often worked on drawings and paintings together.

I trained at art school in my early 20s, eager to forge a strong relationship with art, but disappointingly, creativity remained elusive to me. It wasn't until I participated in creative therapies in my middle age that I developed a connection with creativity that was a genuine expression and therefor personally meaningful.

I didn't know it at the time, but I was beginning a creative wayfinding process. By creating sand trays (in Sandplay), drawings, sculptures, and assemblages of found objects, I began to create imagery that reflected what was happening internally for me. I began to chart my inner landscape. These artworks became my creative maps, helping me to understand myself better, orientate myself within my own life, and locate myself on my own life path.

My own positive experiences using art therapeutically motivated me to train as an art therapist and support other people to develop their own relationships with creativity and begin to find their own way in their own lives.

Since completing my Master of Art Therapy, I have also completed 80 hours of professional development in Sandplay therapy and I continue to train in this approach. I find working with both approaches is complementary. I draw on depth psychology theories in my work, in particular the analytical theory of psychiatrist, psychologist, psychotherapist and artist Carl Jung. My Sandplay approach is rooted in the work of Jungian psychologist Dora Kalff.

I love my work: accompanying people as they live the full spectrum of what life brings. For me, working with creative therapies is working with hope. I am continually witnessing people of all ages use creative processes to access the vast potential we all have inside us.