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Add Creative Exploration To Your Practice
Explore a variety of expressive arts modalities while developing your unique professional identity as a mental health professional who uses the creative arts as a therapeutic tool for growth and healing.
Promote Change and Growth Through Creative Exploration
Harness the healing power of creative expression and exploration with the Expressive Arts Therapy (EXAT) Specialty. As part of our CACREP-accredited MA in Counseling, this unique, 12-credit online specialty integrates the practical application of the expressive arts with Adlerian theory. You will learn to apply a multimodal approach, addressing client issues and needs through various expressive modalities that connect the mind, body, and spirit, including:
- Visual arts
- Movement-based creative expression
- Sound/music
- Creative writing
- Nature-based practices
Discover You’re Inner Source of Creativity
You’ll discover your inner source of creativity, using your personal artistic experience as a tool for self-discovery and self-expression as you learn to identify appropriate expressive arts modalities when working with diverse individuals, families, and groups.
The specialty consists of:
- 100% online courses in our time-tested virtual format
- Supervised internship
- Final portfolio project
Registration as an Expressive Arts Therapist
Our EXAT specialty program is designed to meet the educational requirements to become a Registered Expressive Arts Therapist (REAT) with the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (IEATA). Please see the post graduate requirements at www.ieata.org. Program graduates must independently apply for registration through the IEATA.
Chart Your Course
The online Expressive Arts Therapy specialty seamlessly integrates into each CACREP-accredited Master of Arts in Counseling concentration, both online and in person.
| Emphasis | Clinical Mental Health Counseling 60 Credit Hours | Marriage, Couples, and Family Counseling 60 credit hours | Co-Occurring Disorders and Addictions Counseling 64 credit hours |
| Specialty | Expressive Arts Therapy 12 credit hours | Expressive Arts Therapy 12 credit hours | Expressive Arts Therapy 12 credit hours |
| Internship | 700 hours (200 of which integrate expressive arts) | 700 hours (200 of which integrate expressive arts) | 880 hours (200 of which integrate expressive arts) |
| Total | 72 credits | 72 credits | 76 credits |
Spotlight
Learn more about our Expressive Arts Therapy faculty, students, and alumni.
Required Courses
Please refer to our course catalog for the most up-to-date course requirements.
Upon completion of the program, students will have mastery over the following:
- Theory and Technique: Describe the theories, techniques, and functions of multimodal expressive arts therapy, emphasizing cross-cultural contexts of creative expression.
- History and Context: Describe the historical uses of the expressive arts in different cultures and the evolution of contemporary expressive arts practices.
- Foundational Principles: Demonstrate understanding of the basic principles of different expressive arts modalities, such as art therapy, dance therapy, psychodrama, and music therapy, and how these principles can be applied through a multimodal approach.
- Professional Perspective: Apply the expressive arts through a systemic lens to address diverse clinical, social, and cultural issues that present in clinical and community-based practice.
- Adlerian Psychology: Demonstrate how Adlerian theory can inform the application of the expressive arts through conceptualization and technique.
- Artistic Expression and Mental Health: Conceptualize the relationship between artistic expression and individual mental health, including assessment, treatment planning, and techniques, as applied to selected client disorders within a cross-cultural context.
- Multimodal Approach: Apply a multimodal approach of the expressive arts, including visual arts, movement, music, creative writing, and nature-based practices to foster the mind-body-spirit integration.
- Ethical Consideration: Identify possible professional and ethical issues when using the expressive arts.
- Inclusive Understanding and Ability: Identify and apply appropriate expressive arts modalities when working with special populations and diverse individuals, families, groups, and systems to help foster healthy self-expression and movement toward mental health wellness.
- Personal Growth: Demonstrate personal and professional growth through the expressive arts.
