About Xpress Yourself!
Our story
Where we started
Xpress Yourself! was founded in 2019 through Evolution Creative Arts Therapies, beginning with a single art therapist working with one local school in Melbourne's west. What started as a grassroots exploration of how creative arts therapy could support student wellbeing has grown into a structured, evidence-informed program now operating across more than ten Victorian primary and secondary schools. Since 2022 we have seen a sevenfold increase in school commissions, with multiple schools recommissioning the program year after year.
How we work
Every Xpress Yourself! program is strength-based and trauma-informed, designed to meet students where they are. Sessions are structured around the six domains of the Victorian Government's Disability Inclusion Profile, ensuring students with a wide range of learning and additional needs can access and benefit equally. Our facilitators are ANZACATA-certified art therapists with a minimum two-year postgraduate masters degree, 750 hours of supervised placement, a current Working With Children Check, and completion of our formal training program. We work closely with each school's wellbeing team before, during and after the program.
What the data shows
We have been measuring student outcomes since 2022 using validated tools including the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale.
Students have shown statistically significant improvements in self-esteem following participation across all program runs — a result confirmed by one-way ANOVA testing. At three-month follow-up, those gains were sustained, suggesting the program's impact extends well beyond the final session.
Our session-by-session Emotion Thermometer data shows consistent positive shifts across all emotions tracked. Following sessions, students report feeling more confident, happier and calmer, and less angry, sad, bored and frustrated.
In our 2019 pilot at Altona North Primary School, school staff recorded:
62% decrease in student absenteeism
75% increase in engagement level
50% reduction in negative incidents at school
50% increase in positive attitude to school
Multiple schools have recommissioned the program year after year — the strongest indicator that it is making a real difference for students.
Contact us
No commitment required to have a conversation. Get in touch and we'll talk through what the program could look like for your students.