About me

Firstly, thank you for arriving here with me. My name is Kirthana Selvaraj, I am a Queer, South Asian Art Therapist and Counsellor (ANZACATA/ACA Accredited). I have a Masters of Art Therapy at Western Sydney University, where I developed a deep passion and dedication to areas of research based on the intersections of LGBTQIA+ identity and migrant cultures, and the need for progressive and institutional shifts to better hold and support these marginalised populations.

One of my greatest loves is Art, I completed my Bachelor of Fine Art at UNSW Art & Design, here I learned to cultivate a critical social justice lens as I navigated systems of oppression and otherness, while using art as both a methodology and tool for healing and resistance.

My Approach

As an Art Therapist and Counsellor, I am warm, genuine and open. I also believe that having a sense of humour is a wonderful way to build connection, trust and ease tension. I value a strengths-based, person centred, trauma-informed, intersectional feminist approach to my Art Therapy and Counselling practice. Here, I utilise the symbolism and potential of materiality to create an affirming and supportive container for powerful emotions that can often emerge from the body.

I also realise that building a comfortable space requires not only an acknowledgment of, but a dismantling of the power dynamics that may emerge in a session together, and so I actively and intentionally work from this framing.

I am diverse body positive, and believe in inclusivity that is deeply embedded in an anti-racist, anti-fatphobic, anti-misogynist, anti-ableist, anti-heteronormative and anti-transphobic philosophy, that I strongly uphold. I value transparency in trying to cultivate a therapeutic alliance, and offer art-making as a triangulation in this alliance building. I am here to sit with you.

Ultimately, I seek to make space for you, without judgment and with utmost respect. As you navigate, reflect, endure and overcome on your journey, you will not be carrying it on your own. I work to foster an environment of support and affirmation that validates and acknowledges your experience.

No pathologising here, I see you, hear you and will meet you where you are.