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Expressive Arts Therapy and Trauma: Creative Brain-Wise and Body-Based Approaches to Treatment
Monday, August 24, 2020, 8:00 AM to Friday, August 28, 2020, 5:00 PM EDT
Category: CE Events: Adult Individuals

Expressive arts therapy integrates the arts—movement, music/sound, drawing, storytelling, improvisation, dramatic enactment, play, and creative writing – within the practice of psychotherapy and counseling. It is a multi-modal approach to trauma treatment that goes beyond what language and traditional talk therapy can capture to access implicit, sensory-based experiences of trauma. Although expressive arts can tap actual implicit and explicit memories of trauma, recall through the arts also call forth and release pleasant and enlivening memories. Ultimately, it is this reparative nature found in expressive arts that helps individuals “resensitize” their minds and bodies to positive sensations. It also helps clients to begin to live in the present, rather than remaining stuck in the distressful sensations of past events. Expressive arts therapy is part of the current forefront of emerging methods that incorporate both neuroscience (brain-wise) research and somatosensory (body-wise) findings within the contemporary treatment of traumatic stress. Material presented in this course draws not only from the healing components of the arts themselves, but also from polyvagal theory, social engagement system, sensorimotor art therapy, bilateral work and sensory integration, mindfulness practice and narrative approaches. Participants will learn a four-part expressive arts model and a brain-wise framework that explain how to develop, initiate, and apply arts-based, creative interventions when working with traumatized clients. The emphasis is on establishing internal safety, supporting self-regulatory and co-regulatory skills, and communicating the implicit and interoceptive experiences of trauma in the body through simple expressive arts experiences. Through a combination of lecture, brief case examples, short films, and experiential exercises, this course demonstrates why expressive arts should be a key part of clinical practice when it comes to trauma. Based on the book Trauma and Expressive Arts Therapy, participants will learn numerous methods and approaches that can immediately be applied in their work with children, adults, families, groups, and communities experiencing traumatic stress. No previous arts experiences are required; just come prepared to engage your capacity for creativity, play, and imagination. Special Note: This course qualifies master’s and doctoral level participants for a certificate of completion in Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy Level One from the Trauma-Informed Practices and Expressive Arts Therapy Institute. Continuing education hours can also be applied toward Registration as an Expressive Arts Therapist (REAT) with the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (IEATA).

Hosted by Cape Cod Institute, Cape Cod Learning Network, LLC in Eastham, MA for 15 CEs. For more info, visit: www.cape.org/register.