Dr. Alisoun Neville

Her life has been changed by the art-making of others, including in particular extraordinary fiction and life writing by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers. She was born on Wurundjeri land, with her deepest connections to Mt Toolebewong outside Healesville, and has recently moved to the beautiful Milowl / Phillip Island, and works on Boon Wurrung / Bunurong country here and across the Bass Coast.

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Alisoun is based in the Cowes studio, from which she can see both adults and children, and is also available to offer sessions online to any location in Australia. She works regularly with Bass Coast College in San Remo and with Doveton College.

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Following significant academic study (details below), Alisoun worked for almost 20 years in health and community services. This includes substantive work with, and a commitment to, Aboriginal community-controlled organisations, and the overlapping contexts of mental health, disability, women’s safety, and services for people impacted by imprisonment. 

In 2016, Alisoun returned to study to complete her Masters of Therapeutic Arts Practice, with her placement and early practice working with women caught up in the criminal justice system.

Alisoun holds professional registration as a clinical member of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Association of Australia (PACFA) and is Deputy Convenor of PACFA's new College of Creative and Experiential Therapies. She is in her second year of supervised study with Somatic Experiencing Australia and incorporates this into her practice as a creative and experiential therapist.

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Alisoun first launched Crayons and Stuff as her unique consulting practice, integrating her experience and training in the expressive arts with her traditional consulting and training skills. She has now re-launched Crayons and Stuff as the overarching business, enabling an expansion of arts therapy services through the employment and/or support of other practitioners, and further development of her personal model and vision for mental health and disability services and the creative arts therapies sector.

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In particular, Crayons and Stuff aims to support and strengthen mental health practices that can respond more effectively to the impacts of our society and its systems. Work to date includes Alisoun's development of an NDIS training program to support increased access to arts and music therapists in the NDIS scheme. She has also been involved Activate Arts Therapy, a successful local campaign to raise awareness and secure funding for professional arts therapists in Victorian schools, and co-authored the campaign's submission into the Royal Commission into Mental Health. 

This work is part of a bigger commitment to more creative opportunities and safer spaces for the neurodiverse and others with lived experiences who think there is something we can learn from what we have experienced and where more change is needed to be heard on our own terms.