Nature's Symbol Beads (C) Empowered Art Therapy Program Outline Introduction
Welcome to Nature's Symbol Beads ( C ) - Empowered Art Therapy Course
Harness Nature’s Wisdom Through Creative Expression: From Anxiety to Resilience
The Empowered Art Therapy Nature’s Symbol Beads Program: Creative Reflection for Professional Self-Care and Your Practice Toolkit
From Anxiety to Resilience through Creative, Expressive Process
Developed by Kerryn Knight, Registered Art Therapist, Clinical Counsellor, Supervisor, Lecturer and Founder of Empowered Art Therapy, the Nature’s Symbol Beads Program offers a mindful and creative pathway from anxiety towards resilience — supporting both your professional self-care and therapeutic practice.
This experiential online program invites counsellors and allied health professionals to explore a reflective process that bridges art-making, mindfulness and neuroscience. Through the symbolic creation of your own set of Nature’s Symbol Beads, you’ll engage in creative expression and meaning-making that reconnects you with your inner resources, clarity and grounded presence.
A Journey from Anxiety to Resilience
Grounded in contemporary approaches to creative arts therapy, mindfulness and neuroscience, this program helps participants recognise, express and transform states of anxiety into resilience through creative, embodied awareness.
Recognition & Expression – Identify and express internal states through symbol and image, using natural materials to externalise and safely contain emotional energy.
Reflection & Integration – Engage a left–right–left brain neural loop, integrating emotional, cognitive and embodied awareness for improved self-regulation and perspective.
Resilience & Renewal – Translate insights into professional self-care practices and therapeutic tools that can be shared with clients or supervisees.
How the Program works
Through guided exploration of natural forms, symbols, and personal metaphors, participants create a set of “symbol beads” — each representing values, strengths, and insights that sustain their professional growth.
This hands-on process provides a meaningful framework for exploring connection, resilience, and purpose — qualities essential to reflective and ethical practice.
Participants engage with creative inquiry methods that encourage a balanced integration of cognitive and intuitive ways of knowing, supporting insight and renewal within their professional journey.
Who This Course is For
This program is ideal for:
Counsellors, educators, social workers, and creative practitioners seeking to expand their reflective practice.
Professionals interested in creative self-care and experiential learning.
Those wishing to integrate arts-based and nature-informed approaches into their professional toolkit.
Professional Benefits for ACA Members
This program aligns with the Australian Counselling Association’s commitment to ongoing professional development and can support your OPD requirements (Certificate of Completion provided).
Professional Self-Care:
Reconnect with your authentic self through creative reflection and mindfulness, replenishing emotional reserves and cultivating compassion, clarity and balance in your professional role.
Client Application:
Gain a flexible, symbol-based process adaptable for individual or group settings, supporting clients’ self-expression, insight and personal growth through metaphor and creative exploration.
Holistic Integration:
Deepen your appreciation of the connections between neuroscience, art-making and mindfulness, enhancing your therapeutic confidence and practice toolkit.
Theoretical Framework and References
This program draws upon evidence-informed and contemporary models in creative arts therapy, counselling and neuroscience:
R.A.I.N. Process (Tara Brach): A mindfulness-based model for Recognising, Allowing, Investigating and Nurturing emotional experience — integrated throughout the creative and reflective phases of the program.
Moon, B. (2007). The Role of Metaphor in Art Therapy: Highlights the significance of metaphor and symbolism in facilitating insight, transformation and meaning-making within the art therapy process.
Neuroscience and Brain Integration: The creative sequence intentionally engages both left and right hemispheres of the brain, establishing a neural loop that enhances cognitive integration, emotional balance and creative problem-solving.
Learning Outcomes
· By completing the Nature’s Symbol Beads Program, ACA members will:
· Experience a restorative, mindful and creative process for professional self-care and resilience.
· Understand the therapeutic value of metaphor and symbolism in creative expression.
· Gain practical tools for facilitating similar reflective processes with clients or groups.
· Deepen awareness of how neuroscience supports expressive and embodied therapeutic practice.
· Receive a Certificate of Completion suitable for Ongoing Professional Development (OPD) recognition.
Program Access and Certification
Access includes:
· 90 days of online self-paced learning.
· Three guided video lessons plus an introductory module.
· Downloadable reflective workbooks and creative process guides.
· A short quiz to unlock your Certificate of Completion for OPD documentation.
This course is designed for ACA members and allied health professionals who wish to enhance their resilience, creative confidence, and therapeutic repertoire through experiential learning.
Join Kerryn Knight in this nature-inspired, evidence-informed creative journey — and discover how engaging with symbol, mindfulness and expressive process can transform anxiety into resilience, and renew your professional and personal wellbeing.
→ Enrol now in the Nature’s Symbol Beads Online Program
→ Claim your OPD points and nurture your professional self-care
Program Format
Delivered online in a flexible, self-paced format, Nature’s Symbol Beads combines guided video instruction, reflective journaling, and creative exercises. Participants are invited to engage with natural materials available in their environment, fostering personal connection and professional renewal through hands-on exploration.
You’ll complete the program with renewed clarity, creative strategies for reflection, and a set of adaptable processes to enrich your own practice or facilitation with others.
In this course you will find:
Course instructions - video
About Art Therapy - digital download
Guided Meditation - video. This mindfulness meditation can be used at any time and features in this course to help you relax and get creative.
Nature's Symbol Beads ( C ) directions - video. This video guides you through the experiential creative process of gathering natural items in response to carefully crafted questions designed to invoke self-awareness for personal and professional development
Quiz - once you successfully complete the quiz following the program you will receive a certificate of attendance to claim OPD points for your relevant industry membership body.
Accredited by the Australian Counselling Association, this Art Therapy course provides you with OPD points
More about your facilitator:
Kerryn Knight is a registered supervisor and member of the ACA College of Supervisors, a registered Clinical Counsellor with the Australian Counselling Association (ACA), Clinical registrant with the Psychotherapist and Counsellors Federation of Australia (PACFA), Professional member of ANZACATA, Lecturer and Sandtray Therapy Trainer.
Kerryn’s formal qualifications include Masters of Arts in Therapeutic Practice; Diploma of Transpersonal Art Therapy, Grad. Dip. Arts in Therapeutic Practice; Adv. Diploma of Business (Accounting), Certificate of Supervision and Certificate IV Workplace Training and Assessment.
Before commencing her Counselling & Art Therapy private practice in 2008, Kerryn became an accidental counsellor in her retail jewellery business some 20 years prior where her passion for the therapeutic relationship began. She has also held management positions in the marketing industry and project management and staff training in the not-for-profit sector. In 2016 Kerryn founded Kindred Art Space. This nurturing, welcoming creative warehouse conversion is a gallery and workshop space encircled by beautifully furnished consulting rooms, complete with a unique meditation garden and atrium rooftop garden. Kerryn’s busy schedule of seeing clients and attending to the Practice Management of her Centre has led her to create a series of self-care processes essential for her to run her successful practice.
Kerryn’s unique background enables her to provide you with an introduction to art therapy techniques for your professional development; techniques to use for your self-care and techniques to use with your clients of all ages.