Arts and Self-Expression for Health and Wellbeing Certificate

Return to: Academic Programs

Certificate Lead: Ruth Richards, M.D., Ph.D.

Sponsored by: Creativity Studies Specialization (CS)

Description

This Certificate will be of interest to a variety of individuals (e.g., artists, educators, consultants, therapists, coaches, etc.) and will help individuals access arts and the creative process to increase psychological and physical healing, to advance growth, and to enhance personal and group development. These methods have been used singly and together in multiple contexts, including conflict resolution, organizational development, clinical interventions, educational enhancement, and by those on a spiritual path.

Using the languages of the arts, with focus on process, learning, and growth-and not on specifics of a fixed creative product-participants will discover new depth, perspectives, ways of knowing, solutions, and a vast richness of experience. Such advances are well supported both by practice and psychological research; academic and research grounding in creativity studies and the arts will also be an important part of this program. This Certificate will also serve students who continue on for a graduate degree and who want to do arts-based research. This is not a Certificate for clinical training, but can be used by trained clinicians, as well as other professionals, and by those wishing personal growth, challenge, enchantment, and fun. The expressive arts component provides a foundation for pursuing credentialing as a Registered Expressive Arts Consultant/Educator through the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (http://www.IEATA.org). Completion of this Certificate is a start, but is not sufficient in itself, for certification with the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association as a consultant/educator. Our offerings may, however, count toward such certification. We are happy to talk with students about the requirements and next steps for individuals interested in completing the Certificate program.

Learning Objectives: Upon completion of the Certificate, students will be able to…

1. Discuss the nature of creativity and ways it may be modeled and also studied further.
2. Explain the features and advantages of arts for healing, discovery, and growth, and of expressive arts as a multimodal process.
3. Use a range of arts modalities in more than one setting, including facilitation, education, and consultation.
4. Be able to cite relevant literature on the efficacy of specific methods for certain client populations.
5. Be able to personally use and be freely able to work with a variety of modalities.
6. Be able to explain how each modality can build on the others, including movement, visual arts, writing, song, and other expressions.
7. Develop skills in accessing one’s own thoughts, emotions, intentions, and in solving personal problems-be familiar with blocks and obstacles to this deep work. Be able to help facilitate the process of others.
8. Develop group skills for sharing of personal work and related thoughts and feelings, to increase trust and empathy, and help individuals through tough places.
9. Compare these group settings to our usual social contexts, and articulate social issues for deeper mutual understanding and the ability to co-create.
10. Articulate theoretical underpinnings and future challenges for arts in the world.
11. Be able to propose a research project in arts and self-expression (whether the project will be attempted or not), showing an ability to approach this work and its potential through disciplined inquiry.
12. Be able to articulate one’s own code of ethics for process work with arts in social and institutional settings. For expressive arts, this may relate to guidelines for IEATA, which will be studied and compared.

Learning and Practice Objectives: After completing this Certificate program, the student will be able to:

• Discuss the nature of creativity and ways it may be modeled and also studied further.
• Explain the features and advantages of arts for healing, discovery, and growth, and of expressive arts as a multimodal process.
• Use a range of arts modalities in more than one setting, including facilitation, education, and consultation.
• Be able to cite relevant literature on the efficacy of specific methods for certain client populations.
• Be able to personally use and be freely able to work with a variety of modalities.
• Be able to explain how each modality can build on the others, including movement, visual arts, writing, song, and other expressions.
• Develop skills in accessing one’s own thoughts, emotions, intentions, and in solving personal problems-be familiar with blocks and obstacles to this deep work. Be able to help facilitate the process of others.
• Develop group skills for sharing of personal work and related thoughts and feelings, to increase trust and empathy, and help individuals through tough places.
• Compare these group settings to our usual social contexts, and articulate social issues for deeper mutual understanding and the ability to co-create.
• Articulate theoretical underpinnings and future challenges for arts in the world.
• Be able to propose a research project in arts and self-expression (whether the project will be attempted or not), showing an ability to approach this work and its potential through disciplined inquiry.
• Be able to articulate one’s own code of ethics for process work with arts in social and institutional settings. For expressive arts, this may relate to guidelines for IEATA, which will be studied and compared.

Note on Certification and Future Options: Completion of this Certificate is a start, but is not sufficient in itself, for certification with the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association as a consultant/educator. Our offerings may, however, count toward such certification.

We are happy to talk with you about the requirements and next steps for individuals interested in completing the Certificate program. Our faculty includes multimodal expressive artists; licensed clinicians; members of the Writers’ Guild and the American Society of Journalists and Authors; a visual artist credentialed for public school teaching; workshop facilitators; coaches; widely published writers of academic, poetic, and creative books and papers; and other arts experts and teachers across disciplines, as well as three enthusiastic IEATA members.

In addition, please note: We are neither providing clinical training, nor coursework for the IEATA clinician certification. Our focus is for educators and consultants. Saybrook offers specific clinical programs for people wishing such training. However, established clinicians who are already licensed may well wish to add our options to their practice and résumé. Hence, we offer, through this Certificate program, some engaging first steps in several directions, and are equipped and pleased to help those interested in going further.