With Drama Therapist Diana Feldman, LCAT, and Expressive Arts Therapist Cathy Malchiodi, PhD, REAT, LPCC
Creative approaches to traumatic stress provide innovative and effect ways to treat distressful sensations, feelings, and memories. But in some cases, individuals may still be "stuck in the trauma." What expressive arts therapy and creative arts therapies do best is help individuals find "islands of comfort" (Malchiodi, 2025) amidst experiences of anxiety, depression, numbness, withdrawal, fear, and even terror. Arts-based and sensory-oriented strategies are essential to eventual repair, recovery, and restoration of the self, post-trauma.
This one-day workshop introduces a variety of evidence-informed expressive arts approaches that focus on how individuals can build capacity for sensations and feelings that mediate reactions that result from traumatic stress. This includes not just "increasing a window of tolerance," but also enhancing a "circle of capacity." This is the process of reclaiming joy, playfulness, curiosity, empowerment, self-agency, self-compassion, and resilience. These are sensory-based moments that can restore health and well-being beyond simply reducing trauma reactions. It is the core of what expressive arts therapy and creative arts therapies do that is beyond talk-only approaches to communication and transformation.
Come Dressed to Participate in a Variety of Creative Approaches to Expand and Reclaim Your Capacity for Curiosity, Joy, Self-Agency, Resilience, and More
The core practices introduced in this one-day workshop are grounded in evidence-informed information on how expressive arts therapy and creative arts therapies support and enhance capicity, communication, and restorative change. Didactic and experiential learning comes from two sources of programming and research. First, the ENACT drama therapy method that has been used with teens to help them get "unstuck" from counterproductive responses and behaviors through action-oriented methods. And a variety of arts-based strategies from a five-year US Department of Education grant for trauma-informed expressive arts therapy in classrooms is introduced. These methods are not only applicable to children and teens, but also adults throughout the life span.
Participants will learn:
1) to define expressive arts therapy as an integrative strategy for traumatic stress;
2) to define the ENACT drama therapy method as a strategy with adolescents with traumatic stress;
3) to define the "Circle of Capacity Model" as a framework for supporting reclamation of joy, resilience, and other reparative experiences, post-trauma;
4) to describe the four components of the MSSS Model of Expressive Arts Therapy;
5) to describe and apply at least two creatives arts "warm-ups" with individuals and groups;
6) to identify at least three evidenced-based expressive arts therapy experiences that support restoration in traumatized individuals;
7) to define trauma-informed expressive arts therapy as an application in classrooms and with teachers;
8) to identify at least three reasons for playing roles in supporting the capacity for joy and resilience;
9) to identify at least three ways to support attunement and synchrony through creative approaches;
10) to identify at least three ways to resolve conflict through the ENACT Method;
11) to define why "fun" and creative "flow" are part of the autonomic nervous system as much as flght-flight-freeze responses;
12) to apply at least three evidence-based expressive principles related to movement and gesture in work with traumatic stress;
13) to identify the terms sensory integration and sensory processing in trauma treatment;
14) to define interoception and exteroception within the fields of expressive arts therapy and creative arts therapies;
15) to define the terms embodiment and restorative embodiment within the fields of expressive arts therapy and drama therapy.
Stuck in a Role: Releasing Trauma in Teens Through the ENACT Drama Therapy Method, by Diana Feldman, describes how teens take on and get stuck in personas as defense mechanisms against vulnerabilities like shame and self-blame, and offers anyone that lives or works with teens ways to help them get unstuck. Soon to be published by Routledge Books.
Trauma and Expressive Arts Therapy: Brain, Body, and Imagination in the Healing Process by Cathy Malchiodi, PhD, has been endorsed by trauma experts Bessel van der Kolk, Peter Levine, Janina Fisher, and more and is a bestseller throughout the world. It explains how expressive arts therapy-- the combined use of movement, sound and music, image making, enactment, and other implicit forms of communication are transformative and restorative when it comes to traumatic stress. Available through Guilford Publications, along with the Handbook of Expressive Arts Therapy, the seminal text on the psychotherapeutic applications of arts-based methods.
Here is some information, we will be updating it regularly so please check back often.
Workshop Venue: Church of the Village at 201 West 13th Street, New York, NY.
Time: June 13, 2025; check-in begins a 9:00 am. Morning Session, 9:30 am to 12:30 pm, lunch on your own. Afternoon Session, 1:30 pm to 5:00 pm (with a mid afternoon break).
Registration Online Only: Please use the registration link to complete your registration; you can complete it by using one of the payment options. No registrations at the workshop site!
Refund Policy. Before May 15th, 2025, 75% refund with a small service charge, or you can apply the entire amount to any other institute course (in-person, live webinar, or home study) for two years after this event. No refunds after May 16th, 2025 but you can apply the full amount as a credit toward any other Institute course (in-person, live webinar, or home study) for two years after this event. If the event is cancelled for any reason, you will receive a full refund within 30 days after the scheduled event.
Continuing Education. Please read the Continuing Education section on this page for details on counseling, art therapy, and creative arts therapies continuing education hours..
We will send you additional information about the course several weeks before the event. This may include some simple supplies to supplement your experience and access to readings on the course site to prepare you for the day.
Counselors/National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC). Trauma-Informed Practices and Expressive Arts Therapy Institute has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6557. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC are clearly identified. Trauma-Informed Practices and Expressive Arts Therapy Institute is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
New York Licensed Creative Arts Therapists (LCAT). This program has been submitted for LCAT continuing education and is under review. Diana Feldman, LCAT, is the responsible entity for the LCAT continuing education hours; please use her email contact at [email protected] if you have any questions.
Art Therapy Credentials Board [ATCB]. The ATCB recognizes a variety of CEC activities, including those in the areas of professional and mental health counseling. These activities are clearly outlined in their recertification standards provided to all ATR-BCs in their recertification year and on their website. If you are licensed as an art therapist in your state, please check with your state board to verify what types of CEC activities are acceptable for license renewal.
California Marriage and Family Therapists, Social Workers and Professional Counselors. As of July 1, 2015, the State of California /Board of Behavioral Sciences [BBS] amended its regulations for continuing education providers to include National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) as a "board-recognized approval agency." If you are licensed as a marriage and family therapist, social worker, educational psychologist or professional clinical counselor in California, NBCC Approved Continuing Education Providers are recognized by the BBS to fulfill continuing education requirements. As of July 1, 2015, required CE hours can be accumulated through self-study and distance learning.
International Expressive Arts Therapy Association [IEATA]. Many participants go on to apply for the REAT or REACE credential with IEATA and use our expressive arts therapy coursework to do so. Please check with IEATA to make sure you are meeting their current requirements for registration and let us know if you need additional information to help you qualify.
Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association [CCPA]. Many of our Canadian participants indicate that these hours are accepted by CCPA for certain professional development requirements. Please check with CCPA to verify this and let us know if you require any additional information for this organization to qualify your professional development hours.
Credentialing boards in Canada, Europe, and Australia accept our courses for professional development. Please check with them to verify that this course applies to your goals for credentialing or renewal of registration, certification, or licensing.
And learn and network with other creative practitioners through informative, interactive, and capacity-enhancing experiences.
