Therapeutic Art Making in Clinical Practice for Non-Art Therapists

What may be difficult for our clients to express in words can become more accessible when they are given the opportunity to express themselves through a creative art form. Art making can serve as a bottom-up, somatic process that can help our clients communicate in a way that may feel safer for them. Although you will not become an Art Therapist after this training, you will be able to incorporate art making activities with your clients in individual or group settings that will help you build rapport and deepen the therapeutic process and relationship. In this training you will learn the history of art therapy and some of the psychology behind the art making process, be presented with case examples, and get the hands-on experience of learning a few therapeutic art-making directives and actually get to create the artworks yourself!

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify and describe the role of art-making as a theoretically grounded clinical intervention.

2. State the difference between “art therapy” and “therapeutic art making”.

3. Identify when certain art materials are appropriate for clients based on presenting issues.

4. Identify arts-based treatment goals for clients based on the Expressive Therapies Continuum.

5. Learn and experience 4 art activities appropriate for use with varied clinical populations.

Facilitated by Tonia Herrero, MPS, ATR-BC, LCAT, ATCS (she/her)

DISCLAIMER: After this training, you cannot say you provide “art therapy” or are an “art therapist”, but you will learn some ways to integrate art making into your clinical practice.