Frequently Asked Questions

    
 
What would life be like without really good questions?
  1. What is the difference between art therapy, dance/movement therapy & expressive arts therapy?

    Each single-arts approach to therapy (art, music, dance...) utilizes its own modality in healing environments. Expressive Arts Therapy is, by nature, multi-modal and nurtures the blending and integrating of the arts modalities. Believing that expression, in and of itself, is healing, the Expressive Arts Therapist calls upon her/his own creativity and training in the different arts approaches to determine which modality or combination of modalities is needed in any given moment in time.
     
  2. Do you have to be a therapist or have a degree to take this training?

    No. This training is for those of us who learn best through a combination of experiential exercises, group and individual processing and theoretical application. Students come to this training with a desire to feel freer, more confident and creative, more joyful, more centered and clear, about their professional direction and more deeply in touch with their own spirituality.
     
  3. You mention I can earn college credits and C.E.U‚s ?

    Some schools like Antioch, Union Institute, and Schools that allow Independent Study will give credit for students who do this work and write me a 10 page paper. Each state has specific schools that are willing to make this work for students interested in Expressive Arts since most schools do not teach it. It's up to the student to discover if and how they can create this arrangement. I have had students do this both in California and Washington state. They will, though, have to pay the University also. My first year in Spokane we made an arrangement with Eastern Washington University. Both the student and I spoke to faculty at the University to make that happen. I am a licensed provider with the California Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBSE). and the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC).
     
  4. Must you become a certified expressive arts therapist to practice
    expressive arts therapy?

    No. However, your education and expertise in the field you choose to work in must fit together. For example, you need to be currently licensed as a psychotherapist to practice expressive arts in psychotherapy. If you are a registered counselor you may use these modalities as a registered counselor. You need not have any degree, certification, registration, license to share the skills and exercises you learn in the training with other populations. For example, volunteering at a school, hospital, counseling center.
     
  5. How do I become certified? registered?

    Since 1986, the National Expressive Therapy Association (N.E.T.A.) has been granting Certification, the title, C.E.T. (Certified Expressive Therapist) to those students I recommend who successfully complete my 240 hour training program and apply for certification. After completion of the professional program, students need to fill out an application, have it reviewed by the Association and pay for the costs for Certification.

    The International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (I.E.A.T.A.) was created in the early 1990‚s upon the need to create a global community encouraging the arts in healing where professional recognition would be given to those psychotherapists, educators, consultants and healing artists who have worked in the expressive arts. The general guidelines for (R.E.A.T.) Registered Expressive Arts Therapist include a Masters Degree, an Institute Training led by a R.E.A.T., an Arts Practice and 2,000 hours of Supervised Practice.
     
  6. How much is the Certification?

    $480 for Certified Expressive Arts Therapist (C.E.A.T.) - for those without a psychotherapy license. These practitioners tend to be more oriented towards expressive arts as a spiritual practice, a personal growth modality or for community building, teaching and healing.
    $580 for Certified Expressive Therapist (C.E.T.) - for those folks
    who already practice psychotherapy with a state license.
     
  7. What is the benefit of joining these organizations?

    As a Certified Expressive Therapist or a Registered Expressive Arts Therapist, you will be entering the professional field, with the status and credibility that gives you. You will receive a membership directory, a listing of upcoming conferences, newsletters, announcements, book launches and other goings on in the expressive arts community. As a member, you will also be able to present your work at these conferences.
     
  8. Am I a certified expressive arts therapist after taking your training?

    No. Dr. Goldberg gives a Certificate of completion of Training that shows you have completed 240 hours of training in Expressive Arts Therapy. You are then eligible to apply for National Certification. You may also apply your hours towards the International Registration. Dr. Goldberg is both a C.E.T. and a R.E.A.T.
     
  9. What exactly are the graduates of your program doing with the
    training they have received from you?

    Mostly, they are expanding and enriching the work they are already doing. For example, psychotherapists are bringing these new skills into their private practices, creating new ways of working with various populations. Educators are reaching their students more deeply and bringing material alive in the classroom. Artists become more creative in their work and more dedicated to the healing aspect of their work. People who never knew about their talents discover new direction - an ability to paint or dance....that has laid dormant for many years. They are creating new careers for themselves that are uniquely designed out of their own life experience and expertise.

    Creative examples include: A psychotherapist created a preoperative relaxation experience for herself during the training and now she sees many patients that require and appreciate this unique service. An elementary school educator in ill health who discovered a love for dance, healed herself, and is now teaching healing dance. A postal worker who discovered her ability to paint and now sells her work in Art Galleries. A woman with no degree who volunteered her services at a center with an aging population who hired her because of her Expressive Arts Training and doubled her salary within a year. A chemical dependency counselor who created an Expressive Arts Therapy program for chemical dependency counselors based on her experience of the training that is now regionally used throughout Eastern Washington. I hope this gives you a sense of the possibilities...
     
  10. What jobs does this certification qualify me to do?

    Expressive Arts Therapy is about expressing and awakening the life force within each of us; thus creating the clarity and commitment needed to discover and rediscover the path that is uniquely our own. Whether you choose to work in schools, hospitals, treatment centers, in your own self-created practice or business, or develop your capacity as an artist, this training will get you passionate and working.
     
  11. Should I be in psychotherapy while I am in this training or must I
    have been through psychotherapy to take this training?

    As I state in my Informed Consent Form, this training will entail a therapeutic process and any time you feel that you need additional personal work you may choose to do that for yourself. It is not necessary to be in therapy or to have gone through a great deal of therapy to take the training. It is only expected that you are psychologically sound, that you know what you are able to handle, that can withstand the joy and the rigor of this kind of program and are able to reach out for assistance when you need it.
     
  12. What if I miss one of the training sessions? How do I make it up?

    You may not miss more than 20 hours of the training if you are wanting certification. If you miss any time in the training you will be required to make it up. You may meet with me and pay an additional fee to make up the work missed. With my approval, you may learn about the art modality from another teacher. I believe it is essential for the continuity of the program and the safe container of the community that everyone be present and on time for each session. Please find a way to clear your schedules for both your enhanced participation in the training and that of everyone else.
     
  13. What is your withdrawal policy/refund policy?

    It is my belief that the training sets in motion powerful energies that work to move us forward in our lives. Once you begin the process, I feel it is necessary to complete it. Whatever happens in your life becomes part of it and I do not want you to run from the gifts that come from the challenges that are sure to arise. I want you to stay with it. Therefore, there are no refunds. Your commitment is to yourself and I want you to respect wherever you go in the creative process and create a safe enough container for you to successfully complete the entire year.
     
  14. What are your qualifications as a trainer/therapist?

    I am a R.E.A.T., Registered Expressive Arts Therapist, a C.E.T., Certified Expressive Therapist, a Ph.D. in Transformational Psychology, a licensed Marriage, Family, and Child Therapist, the Director/Creator of the University for Humanistic Studies Post Master‚s Certification Program in Expressive Arts Therapy in Solana Beach, California. I love to paint, to write and read and I truly like to play and pray. I love to travel and teach and empower people to get out there and live their dreams. I have been successfully conducting these trainings since 1986 and have taught and trained over 500 students in the last 17 years.
     
  15. Who are your faculty and what are their credentials and background? Are they active in the field?

    In the past, my invited guests have been healing artists, expressive arts therapists and educators who practice this healing work. I will continue to provide new and diverse facilitators that will expand and enrich the experience that are uniquely chosen for the needs of each individual training group. If the group loves to sing, I will find the perfect person to deepen the healing qualities of voice work and provide more intensive exploration in that area.
     
  16. Are there scholarships, financial aid, payment plans I can do? If
    so, how do I apply?

    Yes. There is one partial work scholarship available for each training. It will entail gathering and distributing art materials and transportation for the facilitator. If you are interested, please submit your request with a description of why you‚d like this scholarship and attach it to your application form. Please also submit a letter if you are requesting a unique payment plan or are having special financial needs.
    Some employers, corporations, businesses, treatment centers will pay for the student's tuition in order to provide professional development. I have also had insurance companies pay for tuition so the student could begin a new career direction because of a disability.
     
  17. Do I need to provide my own art supplies or do you provide them?

    For the most part, I supply the art supplies. However, students are encouraged to start their own collection, for their own use at home. Sometimes students truly enjoy using their own special materials and bring them to the week-ends. That is perfectly fine.
     
  18. What do I bring? What do I wear?

    If you apply to the training a detailed information sheet will be sent to you in advance with reminders, recommendations, maps, and descriptions of our facilities.

    You will receive homework each month. Whether it is an art or writing project, you need to bring it when we gather each week-end. Dress comfortably. Bring water or pillows or whatever your comfort needs are.
    Come and be ready for some serious play!


Other Leaders in the Field Answer the Question:
Why Expressive Arts Therapy?

From "The Creative Connection" by Natalie Rogers (1993)
Expressive arts therapy uses various arts- movement, drawing, painting, sculpting, music, writing, sound, and improvisation - in a supportive setting to facilitate growth and healing. It is a process of discovering ourselves through any art form that comes from an emotional depth. It is not creating a 'pretty' picture. It is not a dance ready for the stage. It is not a poem written and rewritten to perfection.
We express inner feelings by creating outer forms. Expressive art refers to using the emotional, intuitive aspects of ourselves in various media. To use the arts expressively means going into our inner realms to discover feelings and to express them through visual art, movement, sound, writing or drama.
We use the arts to let go, to express and to release. Clients report
that the expressive arts have helped them to go beyond their problems to
envisioning themselves taking action in the world constructively. Involving oneself intensely with the creative process brings an alignment of mind and body, creating an opening to receive divine energy. Discovering one's spirituality through creativity actually happens.


From "The Foundations of Expressive Arts Therapy" (1999) Stephen and Ellen Levine
Wholeness and self-actualization are seen as the goals of therapeutic work:
the arts are necessary precisely because of their capactity for expressing the totality of the self.

No matter what the framework, we sense a common concern with human suffering and the possibilities of an artistic response.

Expressive Arts are those activities in which creative expression fosters psychological, physical and spiritual wellness.


From "The Arts and Psychotherapy" Shaun McNiff (1981)
The psychotherapeutic use of the arts offers an opportunity to integrate scientific knowledge about the psyche with the more imaginative and spiritual hemisphere of the mind, where the power to heal lies.

6 major client benefits:

  • Identify and be in touch with feelings (heart)
  • Explore unconscious material
  • Release energy
  • Gain Insight
  • Solve Problems
  • Discover intuitive, mythological and spiritual dimensions of the self

Real Benefits For You With This Program

  • Immediately apply new skills and techniques to your professional work and personal life.
  • Create a deepening and developing connection to your Highest Self and your Best Work.
  • Open your heart to express freely and fully all the colors of your own Creativity.
  • Using the arts to co-create clarity and solutions, honoring our lives and building safe community.
  • Learn an interdisciplinary approach to body/mind health and wellness.
  • Receive the ability to promote creativity, self-awareness and risk-taking.
  • Through creativity and spirit, re-connect with the inherent knowledge we have available in our bodies.
  • Take this opportunity to become nationally certified as an expressive arts therapist after the completion of the year-long program. Take the creative leap. It's time!

Remember, there are no stupid questions.


Please feel free to call me at 949-760-0115

or email me at jane@expressiveartstraining.com

 

  
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