Our Mission

Improve social & emotional health through creativity, connection and play.

Our Story

Close-up of a window pane with the word "Caya" in red letters.

CAYA Art Space started in 2021 during the tumultuous COVID lockdowns in Naarm/Melbourne. Having recently completed our Art Therapy studies, we looked around and recognised a community need for spaces that brought people together - both socially & creatively. People were eager to try art-based workshops that could offer gentle relief from technology & isolation.

These offerings morphed into different shapes & sizes to meet community needs of subsequent lockdowns; such as weekly, online drop-in spaces and staff wellbeing programs within hospitals & schools. As we found our “new normal”, CAYA’s services have mostly moved away from public workshops, and closer to the Art Therapy practice we have learned and loved.

We now solely provide adults & young people with Art Therapy 1:1s and Art-for-Wellbeing groups. We create in-person & online therapeutic opportunities to connect with art-making, others & themselves. We work within community, educational and clinical spaces. People often ask about our name - we chose the name ‘CAYA’ as it stands for ‘Come As You Are'. This reflects our forever-ethos of our creative spaces: We welcome you as you are. 

Our Team

Person with short red hair sitting on a brown chair, wearing a black dress and brown top. There's a colorful abstract artwork on the wall and a standing lamp nearby. A plant is visible in the background.

Giulia

Giulia (she/her) is a qualified Art Therapist with Masters training and experience in Art Therapy, adult and youth mental health, disability and NDIS, pscyho-social rehabilitation, forensic psychiatry and youth work.

To create is to express, and to express means to be connected with yourself and others.

There is no one size fits all to the practice of creativity, and Giulia feels immensely privileged to be able to support people to connect with this part of themselves in the ways that are meaningful and relevant to them.

Woman sitting at a table in a cozy room, holding a colorful object and smiling.

Jordy

Jordy (she/they) is a Masters-trained, registered Art Therapist with experience in adult mental health work, youth work, visual arts, disability work, community wellbeing and trauma-informed practice.

Outside of CAYA, she works with people living with cancer, supporting the psycho-social impacts that occur from point of diagnosis, during treatment, through survival and/or facing death.

Jordy is most known for ensuring there is space for both deep seriousness & deep silliness throughout her work.