Press Play is a 4-week program to build a mentally healthy culture, practice, and life.

Today's world poses a unique set of challenges to maintaining our mental wellbeing; more than ever when we experience isolation, restriction and loss of community life in lockdown, and with uncertainties in our current times.

In this 4-part series, we will explore the challenges we face, tools that can be used to support us through them, and how to foster our mental wellbeing on a day-to-day basis, as well as get playful with a different creative practice, led by an artist facilitator as part of each session.

Each workshop is 90 minutes and delivered online. Each participant receives a materials pack before the program.

"This program was so fantastic. I felt really safe and it was pretty amazing to play and get creative for fun, not for work"

"I loved this course and it has given me so many tools and skills to get out of the rut I have been stuck in for nearly 20 years."

"...fantastic facilitator! Interesting, playful exercises that I now have in my tool kit. Group sharing was brilliant and normalised what we often all feel."

Workshops are hosted Wednesdays 6.30pm-8pm:

Wed 17 August Session 1: Helena Fox, Creative Writing / Micro Practices for Wellbeing
Wed 24 August Session 2: Marcelo Baez, Drawing + Character Illustration/ The Inner Critic
Wed 31 August Session 3: Angie Cass / Learning to Trust Your Gut and Creative Safety
Wed 7 September Session 4: Mel Young, Creative Journaling / Radical Self Care

Your materials kit getting sent to your door will include:

A notebook
Artline pen
HB pencil
Coloured pencils
Posca pen

If you have an NDIS plan, please click here to enrol.

Workshop 1: Micro Practices for Mental Wellbeing

We explore a tool that can help us to notice when we’re moving outside of our normal state of wellbeing and develop a plan for noticing and looking after ourselves when we’re not feeling as mentally-well as usual that can help to facilitate us back to feeling our regular selves. We’ll also explore playful, creative writing techniques that we can use as a way to ground us each day with the Australian gem and award-winning author Helena Fox.

Workshop 2: The Inner Critic

Accepting that we need to look after our mind as well as body can be immensely challenging as we grapple with expectations and the Inner Critic. We can learn to quieten that inner critic through curiosity. In this session, we get curious and get to know our Inner Critic, giving it - literally- a face and name with MARVEL-published comic illustrator Marcelo Baez. We will also explore how to foster a daily composition practice that gives space for failure and innovation

Workshop 3: Learning to Trust Your Gut

Building on the tools explored in the first two weeks, we dive into the importance to tuning into your gut instinct. This powerful inbuilt system of intuition is something we all have, and helps us to make decisions about what we do, who we do it with, how, when and whether we feel safe in the process! We explore the concept of psychological safety and how to recognise it, and how to tell the difference between an overactive fear response, and when our gut is just honing in on 'something that isn't quite right.' We play with a low-stakes process of collaboration and creative expression around the Gut Instinct idea, with an artist educator using paper, collage and drawing.

Workshop 4: Radical Self Care in Action

Just like brushing our teeth, looking after our mental wellbeing is something that needs to happen each day for us to feel at our best. In this session we learn why self care is definitely NOT bubble baths, and why it IS vital to have non-negotiable moments of each and every day, essential for all humans. Radical, huh? We will also break out an inspiring journal, writing and drawing tools, to try out creative journaling with artist and jeweller Mel Young.

The program has a limited capacity. Please book a ticket to secure your place.

*open to participants 16 years +

MakeShift is an education and support agency committed to creativity and mental health. In the past 7 years, over 10,000 people have taken part in over 300 workshops. MakeShift has worked with organisations like AAM, AMP, Hub Australia, Employsure, Support Act, Atlassian, Quickbooks and now Australian Design Centre.

Please note: Press Play is a high quality program so the associated fees are normally $400. We invest significantly in each participant. We pay for high quality creative facilitators who are experts in their own right, and provide a high ratio of staff to participants (e.g. usually 1 staff to 6 participants). We acknowledge that members of the community that participate in this program may be unemployed and not have the means to pay for this course. We offer this program to community members who are not able to access other funding (e.g. NDIS plans) at a heavily discounted rate.

Got a question? Give MakeShift a shout on hello@makeshift.org.au