Jo Taylor, a Baby Boomer from Melbourne, began life with a pencil in her hand. She drew and drew until the call of words drew her to a different creative tool – poetry and drama. She has just picked up the pencil again and now yearns to paint, knowing it is not the product that is important but the rise and movement of the creative spirit; she does not claim to be an artist but a creative soul.
Jo is supported continually by her two daughters and granddaughter not to mention her loving husband Steve who has encouraged her learning and teaching journey in many and varied ways. Jo has learnt and studied and taught all her life – she believes learning is the key to a transformative existence – one which journeys through to self-actualisation. Her love of children, particularly adolescents, and her love of learning has marked her as a teacher with a creative bent.
After schooling in Oakleigh and Chadstone, Jo went on to graduate from Monash University with a Bachelor of Arts (hons), majoring in English and Linguistics. She then gained her Diploma of Education with the aim of working with migrant children. Her first posting was to a non-migrant school and so began her work in Learning Difficulties and Disabilities. This was the work for which she was made.
In order to add to this life work Jo studied for a Graduate Diploma in Reading and Language Arts. Wanting to combine her work with behaviour and literacy with counselling, she had a small try at working toward School Chaplaincy (but had to stop to look after aged parents). She then went on to do a Bachelor of Special Education.
For the last 18 years, Jo has worked tirelessly toward educating students with mild to moderate and severe Intellectual Disability. Her objective was to help them monitor and master their behavioural strengths and weaknesses. This, she believed, would prevent them from falling into poor mental health cycles through frustration with their disorders which they needed to own and operate with. This meant Jo had to think on her feet and work creatively and laterally. Hence she began to study Art Therapy which inspired her students to move toward stronger social connectedness through creative activities; they began to think more clearly, emote and relate to their feelings through given creative tasks.
Jo retired from teaching this year to focus on her love of Art Therapy. She is presently studying for her Masters in Art Therapy, in Canberra under Cornelia Elbrecht, with the aim of helping people with anxiety, sadness, loss, depression, anger, trauma to overcome and transcend their present state of being - through Art. She has opened a studio in the Artme Gallery in Wodonga on the Causeway for workshops and one-one therapy sessions.
Jo is supported continually by her two daughters and granddaughter not to mention her loving husband Steve who has encouraged her learning and teaching journey in many and varied ways. Jo has learnt and studied and taught all her life – she believes learning is the key to a transformative existence – one which journeys through to self-actualisation. Her love of children, particularly adolescents, and her love of learning has marked her as a teacher with a creative bent.
After schooling in Oakleigh and Chadstone, Jo went on to graduate from Monash University with a Bachelor of Arts (hons), majoring in English and Linguistics. She then gained her Diploma of Education with the aim of working with migrant children. Her first posting was to a non-migrant school and so began her work in Learning Difficulties and Disabilities. This was the work for which she was made.
In order to add to this life work Jo studied for a Graduate Diploma in Reading and Language Arts. Wanting to combine her work with behaviour and literacy with counselling, she had a small try at working toward School Chaplaincy (but had to stop to look after aged parents). She then went on to do a Bachelor of Special Education.
For the last 18 years, Jo has worked tirelessly toward educating students with mild to moderate and severe Intellectual Disability. Her objective was to help them monitor and master their behavioural strengths and weaknesses. This, she believed, would prevent them from falling into poor mental health cycles through frustration with their disorders which they needed to own and operate with. This meant Jo had to think on her feet and work creatively and laterally. Hence she began to study Art Therapy which inspired her students to move toward stronger social connectedness through creative activities; they began to think more clearly, emote and relate to their feelings through given creative tasks.
Jo retired from teaching this year to focus on her love of Art Therapy. She is presently studying for her Masters in Art Therapy, in Canberra under Cornelia Elbrecht, with the aim of helping people with anxiety, sadness, loss, depression, anger, trauma to overcome and transcend their present state of being - through Art. She has opened a studio in the Artme Gallery in Wodonga on the Causeway for workshops and one-one therapy sessions.