Creative Being Therapy

Expressive arts therapy may not be a term you’ve heard before…

Or maybe you’ve heard of other therapies that use the creative arts, like art therapy or music therapy, and wonder if this is the same thing or something different. Perhaps you envision an expressive arts therapist as someone who analyzes a drawing you made to tell you what’s “wrong” with you. Or, you might completely dismiss the idea of psychotherapies that incorporate the arts because you don’t see yourself as an artist.

As an expressive arts therapist and licensed mental health counselor, I am passionate about sharing information about expressive arts therapy (which I will abbreviate as “EXA” going forward). EXA changed my life, and I have seen its profound impact on many other people’s lives, too. Read on to learn more about this unique, accessible, and powerful therapy.

What is Expressive Arts Therapy, and What Makes it Different?

EXA is an evidence-based approach to psychotherapy that draws upon each person’s innate creative and imaginative abilities, weaving together multiple sensory-based modes of expression to deepen healing. In intermodal EXA, two or more arts modalities are sequenced or layered ¹. These various modalities may include:

• Visual art, digital art, and photography
• Craft, weaving, and woodwork
• Movement and dance
• Somatics
• Voice, rhythm, sound, and music
• Drama and reenactment
• Storytelling
• Writing, poetry, and spoken word
• Guided meditation and the use of imagination
• Nature-based practices

Other arts-based therapies exist, including art therapy, music therapy, drama therapy, dance-movement therapy, and poetry therapy. These are therapeutic professions that are separate from EXA. They focus their work on one arts modality (such as visual art in art therapy), whereas EXA embraces the ability to move between multiple modes of artistic expression.

A Brief History of Expressive Arts Therapy

Removing limitations on our creativity and integrating all forms of our expressiveness can create a more accessible and inclusive practice. In fact, this belief is tied to EXA’s origins. While the arts have been used in Western medical healthcare since the 19th century, professions in the creative arts therapies did not develop until the mid-20th century. These single-modality art therapies (such as drama therapy, art therapy, and dance-movement therapy) developed fairly siloed from each other. The social change movements of the 1960s and 1970s ushered in new techniques in mental healthcare, including the emergence of more holistic, integrative perspectives. Creative arts therapists from several professions came together during this time, observing among their clientele a desire for an intermodal approach. They developed training programs to prepare professionals to offer a new intermodal therapy: expressive arts therapy.

Can Expressive Arts Therapy Help Me?

Expressive arts therapy has been studied for numerous issues across many populations, ages, and cultures. It has been used in individual, couples/relationship, and group therapy, as well as in community mental health projects. You’ll find it in private practice therapy offices, community mental health agencies, addiction rehabilitation sites, schools and universities, cancer care units, psychiatric hospitals, and in many other environments. EXA can be supportive for people experiencing many kinds of issues, from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in military veterans ² and refugee issues ³, to grief ⁴, learning disabilities ⁵, and dementia care ⁶.

EXA is overseen by the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (IEATA), and the development of the profession is driven by a diverse, global community that strives to be far removed from the Western, colonized idea of “fine” art, “classical” music, or dance accessible only to certain body types. Creativity doesn’t belong to those privileged enough to attend a fancy art school or make money off their creations. EXA embraces the innate creativity that lives in you, that’s been passed down through generations of ancestors and culture, and that is your birthright as a human being.

Why Does It Work?

The core philosophy underpining EXA is called poeisis, or the ability to live in reciprocity with life, both changing and being changed by it. Life is naturally creative, and we, as humans, are a part of life – and therefore also creative. I like to think of myself as being both a creation and a creator: a collaborator, crafting my life in communion with others. Therefore, one of the main therapeutic mechanisms people experience through EXA is this feeling of being an empowered creator: making your mark on the world, authoring your story, harmonizing with yourself, others, and nature.

In other words, feeling truly alive and well.

But why does EXA work? First of all, we were built for it. For hundreds of thousands of years, imagination, play, and creative expression have been central to the human experience and the survival and growth of our species. The earliest known engravings date back 500,000 or more years ⁷, while ochre painting appears around 100,000 years ago ⁸. It is likely that other forms of art that don’t leave a physical trace – such as song, dance, and storytelling – have been around for a far longer time than visual art.

The arts, or what anthropologist Ellen Dissanayake calls “special-making,” did not evolve as forms of individual self-expression, as they are commonly thought of today, but as tools for the literal survival of entire communities ⁹. Artistic rituals were enacted that increased intimacy and a sense of interconnection among humans, ancestors, spirits, land, and animals.

So, for an innumerable amount of time, our human brains and bodies have evolved to make meaning, grow, and connect through these artistic, creative, and imaginative “special-making” behaviors. This is reflected in modern-day brain imaging, which shows that therapies using the creative arts bolster our ability to learn, heal, relate, and more ¹⁰.

What Does an Expressive Arts Therapy Session Look Like?

EXA is guided by a highly trained expressive arts therapist with education and clinical experience in psychotherapy and the expressive arts. Few colleges in the United States offer EXA training that meets the rigorous standards set by IEATA; my program at Prescott College is one of them. In the United States, expressive arts therapists also must hold a license as a mental health professional, such as a licensed counselor, psychologist, or marriage and family therapist.

The EXA therapist’s role is to co-create a safe and supportive environment in which you can freely explore authentic expression, imagination, and try on different ways of being. There is no analysis of your artworks; just gentle witnessing and encouragement. Because the mechanism behind EXA is engagement with the creative process itself, rather than the product created, no prior art skills are needed. Every EXA technique is an invitation, not a directive. As in any psychotherapy, your therapeutic goals serve as a guiding light for our work together.

EXA sessions can be as varied as the people participating in them. No session is exactly the same. The therapist and therapy-seeker will establish a rhythm for sessions together, often beginning and closing with a ritual such as verbal processing and/or a mindfulness exercise. Themes will be identified before moving into a liminal space for creative exploration, with the therapist as your partner and support. Sometimes sessions are much more talk-based, sometimes they contain an even mixture of talk and EXA, and sometimes they are almost entirely non-verbal. We truly get to construct a session container to fit your needs every time.

Some of the processes¹¹ we might include in an EXA session are:

• Empowerment: Honoring yourself as you move through life.
• Reducing stress and increasing body regulation.
• Consolidating implicit, pre-verbal memories and trauma.
• Increasing neuroplasticity, or the brain’s ability to change.
• Bridging the body and mind when it feels like there is disconnect.
• Externalization and containment of overwhelming thoughts, emotions, and sensations.
• Embodied learning: actively practicing new ways of being.
• Completing past stories that were disempowering or unresolved.
• Creative problem-solving and decision-making.
• Finding alternative ways to communicate that go beyond words.
• Increasing self-efficacy and confidence through creative projects.
• Improvisation: Learning how to respond, not react, in safe and authentic ways.
• Experiencing your birthright to play, have fun, and feel joy and vitality.

Conclusion

EXA is a trauma-informed, evidence-based therapy rooted in practices that are central to the human experience. It is a highly adaptive approach that can meaningfully incorporate your culture, abilities, and curiosities. A trained EXA guides you to safely engage with the creative process, honoring and making meaning from what you find there.

If you’re interested in trying on this unique approach to therapy, schedule your free consultation by clicking on the button below:

References

1. International Expressive Arts Therapy Association. (2026). What is intermodal expressive arts?. https://www.ieata.org/what-is-intermodal-expressive-arts/ ↩︎
2. Poor, S. B., Ryan, S. R., Sortino, A. N., Armour, J. F., Livingston, A. B., & Pass, M. A. (2025). Exploring the impact of expressive therapies on military veterans with PTSD: A systematic review. Arts & Health, 17(2), 72-96. https://doi.org/10.1080/17533015.2023.2284197 ↩︎
3. Knettel, B. A., Oliver-Steinberg, A., Lee, M. J., Rubesin, H., Duke, N. N., Esmaili, E., & Puffer, E. (2023). Clinician and academic perspectives on expressive arts therapy for refugee children and families: a qualitative study. International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, 19(3-4), 260-272. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMHSC-11-2021-0110 ↩︎
4. Law, M. A., Pastirik, P., & Shamputa, I. C. (2023). Expressive arts for grieving youth: A pilot project. OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine, 8(1), 1-17. http://dx.doi.org/10.21926/obm.icm.2301009 ↩︎
5. Ho, R. T., Chan, C. K., Fong, T. C., Lee, P. H., Lum, D. S., & Suen, S. H. (2020). Effects of expressive arts–based interventions on adults with intellectual disabilities: A stratified randomized controlled trial. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1286. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01286 ↩︎
6. Yan, Y. J., Lin, R., Zhou, Y., Luo, Y. T., Cai, Z. Z., Zhu, K. Y., & Li, H. (2021). Effects of expressive arts therapy in older adults with mild cognitive impairment: A pilot study. Geriatric Nursing, 42(1), 129-136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gerinurse.2020.11.011 ↩︎
7. Meyer, I. (2023, August 8). Prehistoric art – History of humanity’s earliest artforms. Art in Context. https://artincontext.org/prehistoric-art/ ↩︎
8. Science Daily. (2026, March 22). This 67,800-year-old handprint is the oldest art ever found. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260322020300.htm ↩︎
9. Dissanayake, E. (2015). Art and intimacy: How the arts began. University of Washington Press. https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9780295997469/html ↩︎
10. Vaisvaser, S. (2021). The embodied-enactive-interactive brain: bridging neuroscience and creative arts therapies. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 634079. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.634079 ↩︎
11. De Witte, M., Orkibi, H., Zarate, R., Karkou, V., Sajnani, N., Malhotra, B., Tin Hung Ho, R., Kaimal, G., Baker, F. A., & Koch, S. C. (2021). From therapeutic factors to mechanisms of change in the creative arts therapies: A scoping review. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 678397. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.678397 ↩︎