Creative Arts Therapists Celebrate Achievements

The National Coalition for the Creative Arts Therapy Associations (NCATA) is celebrating Creative Arts Therapy week Sunday June 1st through Saturday June 7th.

New York City

Families who survived a school shooting meetweekly for poetry workshops. Office mates from a building near the World Trade Center on September 11th create a performance piece describing their escape. Children with developmental disabilities pound on drums while enthusiastically singing about being bullied.

All of the activities above are led by creative arts therapists, who are trained in both the use of the arts and therapy to promote education, wellness and healing. The creative arts therapies include art therapy, dance/movement therapy, drama therapy, music therapy, poetry therapy, and psychodrama.

For over 50 years, creative arts therapists have provided meaningful therapeutic opportunities for people of all ages in a wide variety of treatment settings and schools. 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 special needs ways to express themselves that may not be possible through more traditional therapies.

The National Coalition of Creative Arts Therapies Associations (NCATA), founded in 1979, is an alliance of professional associations dedicated to the advancement of the arts as therapeutic modalities. NCATA represents over 8000 individual members of six creative arts therapies associations. Creative Arts Therapy week, June 1st through June 7th will be a celebration of the achievements of creative arts therapists and offer opportunities for the communities in which creative arts therapist work to meet and learn about the profession.