Virgil: A name for the mythic wise companion that walks beside us through the unknown.
In this spirit, Virgil Therapy honours the inner knowing that lives within each of us. The creative intelligence that knows how to move toward meaningfulness and change. Experiential and creative arts therapy simply makes the space to hear to that intelligence. And follow its quiet light home.
Alongside you on the path of becoming.
I’m Jerico Mandybur (AThR), an ANZACATA-registered experiential and creative arts psychotherapist and the founder of Virgil Therapy. My work integrates creative expression, embodied inquiry, and contemplative practices to support clients through complex emotional experiences, identity exploration, and meaning-making. I combine evidence-based rigour with a sensitivity to the imaginal, symbolic, somatic, and spiritual dimensions of healing.
My therapeutic approach emphasises presence, deep listening, and the creative process as pathways to personal insight and knowing. With an attuned and non-hierarchical style, I offer a compassionate container for clients—from adults, teens, and children above 8 years—to engage with inner complexity and emerge with greater clarity and resilience.
I have worked in settings across disability and aged care (including dementia and palliative care) and have held therapeutic workshops for organisations like the Sydney Opera House, The Galeries, and more. In addition to my work as an arts therapist, I’m an award-winning author of five books and tarot/oracle decks, a qualified creative coach, and a writer.
Read on to learn more about my lived experience, therapeutic frameworks, formal qualifications, psychological approach to the tarot, and professional ethics.
Lived experience
I value offering a therapeutic relationship that deeply affirms my client’s own experiences, identities, and potentialities. For clients who may appreciate a therapist who holds similar identities to them, my own experience includes being:
꩜ A first generation Australian with CALD immigrant parents.
꩜ A woman (she/her) and member of the LGBTQIA+ community.
꩜ An NDIS participant with a lived experience of AuDHD and CPTSD.
My experiences have confirmed that healing and meaning-making are a relational, decolonial, and creative process. This is what has sustained me through trauma and disconnection: art-making, imagination, embodiment, and reverence for the animate world. All of these, I’ve found, can lead to generative new ways of being.
My practice now is to walk alongside others, no matter their experiences or labels, supporting them to experience a deeper sense of meaning, belonging, and wholeness.
Training
As a creative arts therapist professionally registered with ANZACATA and the Meditation Association of Australia, I am engaged in ongoing clinical supervision and professional development.
Qualifications:
Master of Therapeutic Arts Practice (2025)
Diploma of Meditation Teaching & Earth-Based Mindfulness (2021)
Arterie Intern Clinical Training 2026 - Royal Prince Alfred Hospital
Complex Trauma Training Certificate - CCTP1 (currently)
Jungian Core Concepts Training (currently)
Certificate in Autistic Wellbeing (2022)
Dementia Training Australia: Meaningful Engagement (2025)
Qualified Somatic Coach and Creative Coach (2019, 2021)
B.A (1st Hons) Art History & Theory, Gender Studies (2009)
Post-Grad Diploma of Advanced Journalism (2011)
National Police Check, Working With Children Check
NDIS Training: Orientation, Supporting Effective Communication, Supporting People to Stay Infection Free
Frameworks
My approach is informed by phenomenology, mindfulness, depth psychology, and the MIECAT form of inquiry; a postmodern arts-based therapeutic framework that values relational presence, emergence, lived experience, and multimodal forms of expression as profound sources of knowledge.
The now moment
I approach each session meeting the present moment as it is. This means letting go of “fixing” or “outcomes” and instead, cultivating curiosity about what is happening between us—sensations, images, emotions, gestures—as pathways to greater understanding.
The somatic
The body is a vital part of our creative and emotional life. Art-making and creative expression can act as a bridge to embodied awareness. Grounding and sensory awareness practices support nervous-system regulation and deepen connection to the here-and-now.
The more-than-human
Ecological and archetypal paradigms tell us that healing happens in relationship—with self, others, the natural environment, and the spiritual. Art allows us to connect to both our materials, our inner knowing, as well to our sense of belonging to the human and more-than-human world.
"The wound is the place where the light enters you." — Rumi
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"The wound is the place where the light enters you." — Rumi •
Tarot: A therapeutic & creative approach
Alongside being a creative arts therapist, I’m also a tarot author and scholar. As such, some clients may be curious to incorporate the tarot into sessions as a therapeutic modality.
I view tarot cards as an imaginal, symbolic language that can offer powerful metaphors for our experience. When it resonates with a client, I’m happy to incorporate the tarot (or an assortment of other creative card decks) into creative arts therapy sessions. From an archetypal framework, the images within the tarot may offer a wider, higher perspective on a current tension; a creative thought experiment and a potential new way of seeing, or being with, an issue.
Used with therapeutic intention and a mindful embrace of the present moment, the cards become another form of creativity. A dialogue between different parts of yourself, in service of insight and wholeness. Curious clients are welcome to express interest at their own leisure.
Ethics
As a professional member of ANZACATA (the Australian, New Zealand and Asian Creative Arts Therapies Association) I abide by their Code of Ethics and Professional Practice, which upholds principles of integrity, confidentiality, and respect for the dignity and autonomy of all individuals.
This includes:
Maintaining professional boundaries and confidentiality
Practising within my scope and qualifications
Respecting cultural, spiritual, and individual diversity
Prioritising informed consent and client safety
Commitment to ongoing professional development and supervision
Read the full ANZACATA Code of Ethics.
Thresholds
A newsletter by Virgil Therapy
A companion for your journey inward, Thresholds is the Substack of Jerico Mandybur. A place where she offers regular essays, personal reflections, and creative practices exploring the art of inner life. Subscribe now for your FREE 20-min somatic centering practice.
