Talk:Expressive therapies

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Link to the therapeutic modalities, not the art form
I can't find the original remarks by MatthewJS, which suggest linking this and other articles to the modalities (e.g., dance movement therapy) rather than the art form (e.g., dance). I agree with MatthewJS's recommendation on that. Anne9853 (talk) 00:11, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

Ambiguity in the term Expressive Therapy
There is ambiguity in the term "expressive therapy". It usually means "expressive arts therapies" and is an amalgam of the arts therapies as described in this article. Horticulture therapy was once part of this article but it would be highly unusual to consider horticulture therapy to be an expressive arts therapy.

However, as I understand it, "expressive therapy" is also informally used to mean "psychotherapy relying on words/ talking but that focusses on expressing emotions" or, alternatively, Gestalt therapy.

Can others cast light on this, or provide citations to disambiguate? Anne9853 (talk) 00:11, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

Importance Scale upgrade
I would suggest that Expressive Therapy (ET) and a few of the modality forms should be marked as mid rather than low importance. Increasing numbers of higher learning institutions are including studies in ET subjects in their curriculum. Additionally, I would argue that many more people in the field of psychology are becoming more aware of using art-based therapies as interventions as well as increasing numbers of research in the field. This non-trivial field should have a more concise and detailed article and should be marked as a more important subject on the wikiproject psychology scale. leontes 06:16, 28 December 2006 (UTC)


 * I agree. Anne9853 (talk) 23:56, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Certification
Missing information:

"There is..." begs the question "where ?", and "certification as..." : by whom, by what standarts, competing institutions ? etc.147.142.186.54 12:12, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

Distinction to creative arts therapies
NOAH - the National Organization of Arts in Health - published a paper in September 2017, clearly distinguishing expressive arts therapy, creative art therapy and arts in health. Given that NOAH is the leading organization in this field, I feel like this distinction needs to be addressed in this article. I had added a paragraph on this, which has gotten removed.

This links to the White Paper, published by Noah:

Maybe others can comment on this? --Constient (talk) 20:06, 16 August 2018 (UTC)


 * I agree that the differing usage of these terms—expressive therapy, the expressive therapies, expressive arts therapy, creative arts therapy, the creative arts therapies—needs to be described more extensively in this article. I reverted the edit that included the paragraph mentioned above for several reasons. One reason was that the cited sources do not clearly support the claim.


 * First, take the book that you cited: (I've expanded the page range to include a larger sample.) This book says: "Similar wide-ranging definitions come from organisations and professionals who work across disciplines: music, art, drama and dance movement therapy. In some countries, such as the USA and the Netherlands, organisations covering all art forms operate in parallel to others focusing on specific disciplines such as music or art therapy. In the early 1960s, for example, the Nederlandse Vereniging voor Kreatieve Therapie (Netherlands Society for Creative Therapy) was formed alongside the Netherlands Art Therapy Society (Jones, 1996: 93). YAHAT, the Israeli Association of Creative and Expressive Therapies, says simply that 'creative and expressive therapies is an overall name used to describe creative and expressive processes from the fields of art used in treating emotional, developmental and organic disorders' (YAHAT website). Another example of a broad approach is that taken by the US National Expressive Therapy Association (USNETA), founded in the 1970s. This Association focuses on what it calls 'expressive therapy' and 'expressive arts therapy' rather than the individual arts therapies (USNETA website). Here all the arts are brought together under one umbrella, their common quality described as 'expressive'. The NCCATA, by contrast, doesn't claim that all arts therapies can be included in this way; it, rather, notes connection and difference: 'Although unique and distinct from one another, the creative arts therapies share related processes and goals. Participation in all the creative arts therapies provides people with ... ways to express themselves that may not be possible through more traditional therapies' (NCCATA website 2). As we will see, this echoes the stance taken in many countries, where the arts therapies are divided into separate, but related, professions of art, music, drama or dance movement therapy. [...] One of the points I'm making is that a definition in the arts therapies shouldn't be something set in stone, that is immovable. The arts therapies – like any form connected to the arts – naturally need to evolve and change. As disciplines in the early years of their establishment within contemporary health services, we are still discovering much about what they can do and how and why they are effective. So any definitions must be still – they are developing maps that show where the disciplines have been, where they are now, and where the arts therapies are going. That is why the following sections answer the question: 'What are the arts therapies?' by taking definitions and asking  about different contexts, ways of working and developments, rather than simply  what they say."


 * According to the book that you cited and I just quoted, there are a number of different prominent points of view on these terms. Considering Wikipedia's policy of neutral point of view, we cannot pick one of these points of view (POV) and present it as the definitive definition. We need to do our best to present all of the major POVs as accurately as possible. Hence, to avoid POV forks—competing articles that describe different POVs on the same subject, which is forbidden on Wikipedia—all of these terms should be described in the same article.


 * Next, let's look at the piece of grey literature that you cited: This paper says: "Arts, health, and well-being in America are supported by the creative arts therapies, expressive arts therapy, and arts in health professionals across the continuum of care. Here are brief descriptions that delineate the roles of these three major groups of professionals. 1. Creative Arts Therapies (CATs) include the distinct regulated health professions of art therapy, dance/movement therapy, drama therapy, music therapy, poetry therapy, and psychodrama therapy. These board-certified professionals use their particular art form toward achieving clinical and therapeutic outcomes. Each of the professional disciplines possesses a definition of the profession, a legally defensible scope of practice, educational competencies, standards of practice, code of ethics, and evidence-based research. Creative arts therapists share the feature of encouraging creative expression through a specific art form. However, each profession stands alone as distinct. 2. Expressive Arts Therapy (EAT), by contrast, is defined as the integration or use of all the arts in therapeutic practice "at times working with the arts in sequence, at other times using the arts simultaneously, and at still other times carefully transitioning from one art form to another within the therapeutic encounter" (Estrella, 2005, p. 183). In the practice of expressive arts therapy, many factors are often considered, such as principles of play, creativity, improvisation, aesthetics, space, time, rhythm, resonance, and mind/ body connections (Kossak, 2015). The primary purpose is the promotion of expression and imagination. What distinguishes expressive arts therapy from the six distinct creative art therapies professions is that EAT practitioners are trained to combine two or more art forms in clinical practice. 3. Arts in Health. A growing number of medical centers have an arts coordinator or director who manages a variety of arts experiences such as visiting artists, artists-in-residence, arts programming developed in partnership with community arts agencies, arts collections, and rotating arts exhibits. A major focus of their work is using the arts to enhance the working environment and reduce the impact of stress on professional caregivers. is the term used to encompass these other arts programs and initiatives, both in healthcare settings (referred to as ) and in public health (referred to as )."


 * OK, the definitions that NOAH provides in the quotation above are clear-cut (from NOAH's POV). But there are problems. First problem: NOAH is the National Organization for, so we could expect that their definition of may be definitive, at least in the United States. But if these "three major groups of professionals"—CATs, EAT, and Arts in Health—are so clearly separate as described by NOAH in the passage above, then why would NOAH's definition of CATs and of EAT be definitive, since NOAH is not NOCAT (National Organization for Creative Arts Therapies) nor NOEAT (National Organization for Expressive Arts Therapy)? This would seem to be a case of one of the "three major groups of professionals" imposing its POV on the others. Next problem: Let's look at some other passages from NOAH's paper:


 * "A coordinated approach among the creative arts therapies, expressive arts therapy, and arts in healthcare is becoming increasingly important when focusing on the entire patient care continuum."


 * In the passage above, NOAH says that the "three major groups of professionals" need to coordinate closely. That is good argument for covering all of them in one Wikipedia article.


 * "This section introduces passive and participatory arts programs designed to enhance the patient experience in healthcare settings, whether they are located in public spaces or in private spaces. Such programs frequently focus on bedside activities facilitated by visual artists, performing artists, or creative/expressive arts therapists that make the rounds to patients."


 * In the passage above, NOAH uses the term "creative/expressive arts therapists", which two of their "three major groups of professionals": creative arts therapies and expressive arts therapy. That is another good argument for covering all of them in one Wikipedia article.


 * "A well-designed comprehensive healthcare arts program will seek to employ a team of certified creative arts therapists, expressive arts therapists, and artists in healthcare to offer a full spectrum of services."


 * The passage above is very close to what we saw previously, on page 10 of the NOAH paper. Not only should the "three major groups of professionals" coordinate closely, as NOAH advocated earlier; they should also . That is another argument for covering all of them in one Wikipedia article.


 * "The sanctioning body for the professional field of expressive arts therapists, the IEATA, is not part of NCCATA (see Section 3). Nonetheless, expressive arts therapy is thought of by many to be one of the creative arts or expressive therapies (terms that are often used interchangeably in the field). Professional preparation to be a Registered Expressive Arts Therapist (REAT) includes extensive coursework and clinical training, as well as certification requirements similar to those of the creative arts therapies."


 * Wait, what? In the passage above, NOAH acknowledges that the terms creative arts or expressive therapies "are often used interchangeably in the field"! The arguments for covering them all in one Wikipedia article keeps getting stronger and stronger.


 * "Another group benefiting greatly from the arts and the creative/expressive arts therapies is military personnel."


 * In the passage above, NOAH uses the term "creative/expressive arts therapies". It sounds like a good term to me; perhaps it would be a good title for this Wikipedia article since, as we have just established, this Wikipedia article should cover all of these terms.


 * Given all of the above information, it is clear that these terms are all so close in meaning that they should be, and can easily be, described in the same article. Expressive therapy is the article where they should all be described, since the related terms redirect here. However, it may be best to rename this article from "Expressive therapy" to "Creative/expressive arts therapy", combining all the terms (as the NOAH white paper does in a couple of places) so as not to imply that "Expressive therapy" is the most important term. Biogeographist (talk) 03:19, 11 August 2018 (UTC)


 * Thanks, Biogeographist, very clear. I especially want to underline your point that the citation mentioned above is American, that other nations may see this differently, and Wikipedia aims for neutrality and awareness of bias.


 * However, I would argue against changing the title to "creative/expressive arts therapies". My opinion, as I stated above, is that the title should be "expressive arts therapies" as more clear, recognizable, and unambiguous than other terms.  "Creative arts therapy", in its singular form, does not really exist as a term or a practice in North America, at least.  "Creative arts therapies" is a somewhat ambiguous term that is a synonym for "expressive arts therapies".  However, it can be considered to convey a sense of activities that may be passive or may not require the presence of a trained expressive arts therapist.


 * Reminder to the writer who began this thread but left it unsigned--please sign all your posts with 4 tilde. It's not too late to go back and amend that.  Anne9853 (talk) 17:09, 11 August 2018 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the response. doesn't need to sign the comment above because I already used Template:Unsigned to sign the comment per.


 * I would like to see some reliably sourced arguments regarding the title of the article. One shouldn't make such decisions based solely on Google search results, of course, but I notice that "creative arts therapies" actually returns more than twice as many results on Google than "expressive arts therapies", and "creative/expressive arts therapies" returns fewer results but still enough to suggest to me that it should not be ruled out as the most inclusive title. Biogeographist (talk) 19:57, 11 August 2018 (UTC)


 * Thank you all for your input! Especially for your detailed research! And thank you both for the note on signing my posts - I'm obviously new to this.


 * I agree that all these terms are very close together and a clear distinction is difficult, especially because professionals in the field themselves have been using the terms interchangeably. made a good point including Expressive Arts and also Creative Arts Therapy in one article. I do however disagree with, as to the ambiguity of the term "Creative Arts Therapy". I had already created a draft prior to this discussion that explains this field in detail.


 * I like the idea of a name change for this page, but I feel like the title "Creative/expressive arts therapies" would only add to the confusion on the distinction of these therapies. As an alternative, I would suggest the title "Arts in Health" as the arts are the one thing that all these therapies have in common. Or we could stick with the title of "Expressive therapy" as proposed by, since Lesley University deems this title to be appropriate to include both the creative arts therapies and expressive arts therapy.


 * Lesley University, one of the leading universities in this field of "Arts in Health", uses the term "Expressive Therapies" as name for the department which covers degrees in Music Therapy, Art Therapy, Drama Therapy, Dance/Movement as well as Expressive Arts Therapy. These are different educational programs and are therefore distinct.


 * Following their education, therapist get their credentialing from the responsible association. There is a national association for each of the creative arts therapy modalities (drama, dance/movement, art, music, poetry), as well as the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association. So the credentials for all of these therapies are - again - distinct.
 * --Constient (talk) 20:46, 16 August 2018 (UTC)


 * I hope I didn't overreach, but I followed the suggestion of merging the two articles. I'm curious what you guys think - should there be more information on the different modalities? --Constient (talk) 20:11, 17 August 2018 (UTC)


 * OK, it appears that two editors are against the title "Creative/expressive arts therapies". A Google search for "Expressive therapies" returns more results than either "Creative arts therapies" (2nd place) or "Expressive arts therapies" (3rd place), so that is potentially another argument in favor of the title "Expressive therapies". I have no objection to the title "Expressive therapies". Does anyone else object to renaming the article to "Expressive therapies"?


 * Remember that the title is just a formality. All significant alternative names will be included in boldface in the lead section and explained, per MOS:BOLD (and will also redirect to this article).


 * I don't object to initiating the merger now; it merely involves cutting and pasting from Draft:Creative Arts Therapies into this article and rearranging as needed. But there appears to be more material remaining to be merged. In particular, the lead of this article should be more substantial, more like Draft:Creative Arts Therapies. Biogeographist (talk) 20:27, 17 August 2018 (UTC)


 * I agree with the title being changed to Expressive Therapies for now. Maybe there'll be more significant publications in the near future distinguishing the different modalitities. For now, I'll keep working on the merger of the two articles.Constient (talk) 21:43, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

New title
I moved the article from Expressive therapy to Expressive therapies per the discussion above. Biogeographist (talk) 13:54, 19 August 2018 (UTC)

Sidebar
Should we introduce the Psychology sidebar to this article? Template:Psychology sidebar Constient (talk) 17:48, 22 August 2018 (UTC)


 * Do you have a good reason to add it? I don't. Biogeographist (talk) 13:42, 27 August 2018 (UTC)

I recently edited the Art therapy, dance/movement therapy, music therapy, and psychodrama subcategories of the article. I included new sources and valuable information that was not previously edited on the article. The information is useful to those who are intrigued to learning more about expressive therapies.Averagestudentt (talk) 12:31, 30 March 2022 (UTC)


 * This section seem really helpful in understanding the types of creative arts therapies. I am planning on expanding the part about music therapy and poetry therapy. Lemon Ginger and Honey (talk) 00:33, 29 February 2024 (UTC)
 * I have added to the part of music therapy, poetry therapy, and the benefit sections. I have also added a few images and reorganized some materials. Lemon Ginger and Honey (talk) 03:08, 17 March 2024 (UTC)

Merger proposal
I propose that sensory art therapy is merged with this article. I am no expert on psychotherapy, but as far as I can tell, these two articles are written about the same concept. Valtaisa varpunen (talk) 17:23, 5 April 2022 (UTC)
 * I've now merged the articles. Valtaisa varpunen (talk) 15:53, 13 April 2022 (UTC)

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