Creative Arts Therapy in Clinical Social Work

Catalog description

This course will cover the application of creative arts therapy theory and practice within a social work framework. The class will focus primarily on the field of art therapy, but will also include some exposure, through guest lecturers, to other non-verbal creative arts modalities such as: music therapy, drama therapy, and movement/dance therapy. The class is designed to include a substantial amount of hands-on artmaking and role-play to provide students with practical tools for incorporating the arts into practice with a variety of populations. The course will utilize case material from students’ field work when appropriate to illustrate how to design effective art therapy interventions. The following populations and topics will be covered as they relate to art and therapy interventions: client engagement; treatment planning; developmental stages of drawing, work with children, adolescents, adults and families; trauma; relational abuse; cultural sensitivity, and the unique counter-transference issues of non-verbal therapies.