Creative Arts Therapies Week
- Lauren Nicholson
- Mar 26
- 6 min read
This week, typically held during the third week of March, highlights the various therapy professions that fall under the creative arts therapies umbrella. These therapies include art therapy, music therapy, dance/movement therapy, drama therapy, and poetry therapy.
Each profession under the creative arts therapies (CATs) umbrella utilizes their respective art forms to address mental, emotional, and physical health. These therapies are practiced by trained professionals who have completed specialized education and clinical training in their respective disciplines.
CATs work in a wide variety of settings: hospitals, schools, rehabs, inpatient centers, outpatient centers, the list goes on. I like to say that anywhere you can fit a mental health therapist/counselor you could have a creative arts therapist. In fact they could be in even more places. Like mental health therapists/counselors, CATs align their therapy with a therapeutic framework and theory, depending on the therapist’s training and background with their therapy.
Why is creative arts therapies week so important?
CATs week serves as an important opportunity to educate the public, healthcare providers, and policymakers about the benefits these therapies provide. These therapies utilize creative methods to address mental, emotional, and physical well-being, offering unique avenues for self-expression and healing.
While CATs as individual therapies are well supported, well loved, and well established in many settings, there are also a lot of challenges that CATs face. These challenges come in the form of roadblocks and, in some cases, are causing real problems in the field both on micro and macro levels.
Challenges in the field
I know that all creative arts therapists can relate to challenges to their profession and even to their own personal jobs and careers. I have personally been an art therapist for 5 years, and in my short career, I have faced a lot of challenging times. I’ve also been noticing some larger struggles that the art therapy profession is facing, I'm sure other CATs professions are facing similar issues.
Many CATs professions face the challenge of inconsistent licensure on a state-by-state basis; many states don’t have any licensure for the CATs professions. This can create a barrier to individuals seeking CATs therapies through insurance, without licensure CATs isn't covered by insurance. The lack of universal licensure or government standardization can create barriers to practice and even recognition for qualified therapists.
Without state licensure, this opens the door for individuals to falsely advertise and misrepresent themselves as a qualified CATs therapists. These individuals without the proper education, training, and credentials can mislead the public and undermine the credibility of each profession, not to mention the harm this can cause to the clients they treat. It’s crucial that hiring managers and companies understand the qualifications of each profession to help ensure their clients are receiving safe and ethical care.
Despite getting companies to understand proper credentialed professionals, there will still be individuals who practice on their own. This highlights the importance of educating the public as well for both people interested in becoming an art therapist and those seeking out an art therapist.
Unfortunately, there are an increasing number of companies scamming the public into thinking they can gain a CATs certification in a single course. I know forom personal experience that I’ve seen many “art therapy” certification courses being advertised on multiple social media sites. These companies claim to have “won awards” or “meet international certification criteria” when in most countries these courses don’t hold any real therapy credibility. Most CATs professions require a masters degree in their profession totaling about 6+ years of schooling and clinical training in the field, something that certainly can’t be obtained in a single course.
This is most alarming to therapists in the field; their credibility is being undermined, all the hard work, training, and experience to gain your CATs title. It can also feel like the profession is under attack. False therapists can misrepresent the field and most important of all can cause harm to individuals seeking these services.
Daily work Challenges
Speaking for myself, as an art therapist I’ve had several comments made to me by staff in my career. These interactions left me questioning how much my employers know about my role at the company, and their knowledge of CATs in general. I’ve had several things said to me by managerial staff like, “I know you guys(CATs) are sensitive when it comes to labels.” and “I love art therapy, I do art therapy with my children[their biological children].” and “You should be grateful to even be working here."
CATs week is a crucial time to advocate for and educate co-workers and companies that hire art therapists. Believe it or not, many CATs therapists can identify with challenges in their workplace. Some things can be small and adaptable, but when certain things aren't adaptable, the challenges can be stressful and even lead to the extreme of burnout.
These challenges can be related to logistical things; some facilities aren’t equipped to accommodate CATs. Sometimes companies don't taken into consideration the type of space that’s needed for each CATs, like treatment and storage spaces: art supplies, musical instruments, movement spaces, and drama props all require specific environments and storage to safely house their supplies.
There is sometimes a prevalence of only part-time positions for CATs therapies, forcing therapists to find another job just to make ends meet. Sometimes these part-time jobs have the same high productivity demands as if the job were full-time which creates a challenging work environment.
Therapists may struggle to manage large caseload demands while also having to do administrative tasks, especially if they are the only CATs therapist on staff. This pressure to maintain such high productivity can detract from the individualized and creative nature of their therapeutic work, ultimately affecting client care and leading the therapist to burnout.
Beyond the therapeutic sessions themselves, a significant amount of time and effort goes into tasks that are often misunderstood or overlooked by employers of CATs. These include: the preparation and care to maintain materials- not only gathering materials for a session but cleaning, fixing, tuning, and ordering supplies; the preparation and exploration of new projects- CATs often need to make or “try on” a project themself before giving it to a client to ensure it’s hitting the correct goals; and the unique aspect of teaching clients how to utilize their respective art form as a means of therapy- almost taking on the role of a teacher in some cases, clients need to learn the material or instrument before they can tap into creative exploration which takes a lot of time and effort from client and clinician.
In some cases, CATs therapists are on their own. Companies can only hold a small number on their staff or they’re contracted in. CATs end up under managers that oversee other employees that are not CATs but maybe similar. In these cases the managers may be less knowledgeable about CATs and don't know the best way to support them in their roles at the company.
In some instances CATs roles are modeled after already existing roles in the companies, this leads to a narrowing of the CATs therapists' roles. This narrowing is often fitting CATs into a box which they may not belong in, there ends up being no collaboration or room for clinical growth. With little representation in leadership and input from CATs on their roles, this usually leaves therapists feeling overwhelmed or unsupported in their professional roles.
Thank You CATs
I know many CATs can relate to these challenges. I’ve experienced all of the things first hand (luckily not all at the same time). Unfortunately for a lot of CATs it’s necessary for their initial jobs to be at companies and contract work to gain their certifications, only then can they .
If you’re reading this and are a CATs therapist, I want you to know that the benevolent work you do helps so many and does not go unnoticed. Thank you for all that you do.
If you're reading this and are an employer of CATs therapists, check in with you're CATs. Make sure that they're not being overworked and feel like they have room to grow professionally at your company. Collaboration and curiosity can go a long way.
Despite these challenges, Creative Arts Therapies Week remains a vital platform to advocate for the profession, highlight its importance in mental and physical health, and work towards addressing these issues. By raising awareness, fostering collaboration among professionals, and educating the public about the qualifications and ethical standards of creative arts therapists, the field can continue to grow and provide essential healing services to those in need Creative Arts Therapies Week.
Thanks for the read.
Lauren Nicholson, MA, ATR
Comments