By Dongyun Kwon
Two free workshops are set to go in Yarra Glen and Upwey respectively this week as National Carers Week is back, taking place between 13 and 19 October.
EACH, a for-purpose organisation delivering health and support services, and Yarra Glen Living and Learning Centre are hosting a special creativity workshop for unpaid carers, inviting Christina Johns as a facilitator.
EACH assistant program coordinator Lee-Ann Cockburn said EACH organised the workshop to celebrate National Carers Week.
“EACH runs the Family Relationship Support for Carers program and as part of the program, we arrange workshops and trainings for carers to improve their wellbeing and support family relationships,” she said.
“I heard about Christina and the work she does through one of the carers network groups, and I reached out to her to ask if she would be interested in running a workshop for us because she sounds like an extremely inspirational lady.
“She is a carer herself and has over 30 years of lived experience as a carer.”
Christina Johns is an Upwey-based therapeutic artist and life coach who has spent the last 30 years caring for a son who has had a mental illness.
In the workshop, Ms Johns will focus on teaching the carers how to take care of themselves first while creating a blended oil.
The workshop facilitator said she tries to have the participants take something home with all of her therapeutic art classes, which will remind them of the lessons that they learn in the class.
“We will make a blended oil and we’ll be going through the process of ‘how do they want to feel? what do they want to evoke?’ because different smells evoke different feelings, so they will get to choose how they want to feel with the smell that they create, and then they’ll get to blend it together,” Ms Johns said.
“After the workshop, they will have a bottle of oil that they can put onto their skin. When they put it onto their skin and smell the fragrance, they will remember the workshop, some of the lessons and things that we talked about.
“They’ll remember to take time for themselves, even if it’s just a moment to pause and take a breath, that’s enough time for a carer to gather together enough strength to carry on for the next couple of hours.”
The Empowered Creativity Workshop will be held at McCoomb Room in Yarra Glen Memorial Hall from 10am to 12pm on Wednesday 16 October.
To attend the workshop, please visit the following website to save a spot, stickytickets.com.au/zgkvh/carers_week__empowered_creativity_workshop.aspx
Ms Johns will lead another free two-hour workshop at the Upwey Baptist Community Church from 1.30pm on Tuesday 15 October.
The event is sponsored by Carers Victoria.
“We’re also doing blended oils there, but we’re taking it one step further, and we’re making some bath soaps,” Ms Johns said.
“We’ll be combining both of those activities together in a pampering day to teach them how to take time out.
“The lesson is exactly the same [from the Empowered Creativity Workshop in Yarra Glen] ‘take time out for yourself, and then you’ll be able to be a better carer’.”
The Upwey workshop has been completely sold out.
