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Clinical Programs

Creative Forces®: NEA Military Healing Arts Network is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs and the state and local arts agencies that seeks to improve the health, well-being, and quality of life for military and veteran populations exposed to trauma, as well as their families and caregivers. The initiative was established in 2012 through a partnership with the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and has grown to include multiple clinical sites at the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs treatment facilities across the nation.

Creative Arts Therapies

As part of Creative Forces, creative arts therapists, known as CATs, provide creative arts therapies—art therapy, music therapy, and dance/movement therapy, as well as creative writing instruction—for military patients and veterans at military medical facilities, including telehealth delivery of care for patients in rural and remote areas.

Creative arts therapies are part of intensive outpatient programs and longitudinal outpatient programs. CATs use specific directives and interventions to address behavioral health issues such as difficulty verbalizing emotions and processing traumatic experiences. They help patients increase self-awareness, self-efficacy, and self-esteem. 

Moreover, creative arts therapies help patients reduce hyperarousal, avoidance, and depression, and decrease social isolation. In the rehabilitative realm, creative arts therapies address cognition, motor, and speech/language functioning. Lead CATs from among the disciplines of art, dance/movement, and music therapies serve as resources for the Creative Forces network to provide training, mentorship, and support across  our operation.

Creative Forces creative arts therapists are employees of  the DoD, VA, or supported through funding from the National Endowment for the Arts to the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, who manages the clinical component of Creative Forces in partnership with the Arts Endowment.

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Art Therapy

Art therapy is defined by the American Art Therapy Association as a mental health and human services profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active art-making, creative process, and applied psychological theory and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship. 

 

Dance/movement Therapy

Dance/movement therapy is described by the American Dance Therapy Association as the psychotherapeutic use of movement to promote emotional, social, cognitive, and physical integration of the individual for the purpose of improving health and well-being. Their focus is on working with the natural intelligence of the mind-body connection throughout treatment. 

 

Music Therapy

Music therapy is characterized by The American Music Therapy Association as the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program, clinical internship, and earned board-certification as a music therapist.  

 

Clinical Activities by the Numbers

As part of Creative Forces, 29 creative arts therapists work in clinical settings across the country in addition to providing services through telehealth programs for rural and remote areas and in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

17 K
patient treatment encounters delivered annually.
18 k+
patients served since 2012 with an average of 160 new patients annually per creative arts therapist.
25
clinical research studies published in peer reviewed journals since 2016.

Learn About Creative Forces Clinical Program

Creative Forces Clinical Sites

The Creative Forces Network supports creative arts therapists in collaboration with military locations at Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs sites. 

 

Map with stars of Creative Forces clinical sites

 

 

Woman sitting in chair with ball in front of computer screen
Dance movement therapist Brittni Cleland providing telehealth session. Photo courtesy of James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital in Tampa, Florida

Telehealth and Virtual Arts Engagement

During COVID-19, Creative Forces’ creative arts therapists quickly pivoted from face to face clinical encounters to those conducted via telehealth, ensuring limited disruptions in patient care. Their adept ability to change delivery was due in large part to experiences gained through Creative Forces’ partnership with the VA’s Rural Veterans TeleRehabilitation Initiative (RVTRI) in which creative arts therapists deliver services to patients in rural and remote areas using secure internet video.

 

Case Report: Music Therapy Telehealth for Military Populations (March 2020)
Drawing of woman researcher at office computer
Creative Forces researcher

Research and Impact

Creative Forces invests in research on the impacts and benefits – physical, social, and emotional – of creative arts therapies as innovative treatment methods.  Bio medical and behavioral research in clinical settings is conducted around five priority areas:

 

1.Targeted deployment of creative arts therapies interventions
2.Creative arts therapies in integrated care
3. Co-treatment and telehealth
4. Population characteristics and relationships to creative arts therapies implementation and outcomes
5. Neuroimaging and creative arts therapies

 

In partnership with the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, Creative Forces aims to advance knowledge, leverage subject-matter expertise, and promote use of best practices to benefit targeted military patient populations. Creative Forces clinical research findings have resulted in 23 peer-reviewed articles published since 2016.  

 

Learn More about Clinical Research Findings
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Creative Forces® is a registered service mark of the National Endowment for the Arts. All Creative Forces logos are proprietary marks of the National Endowment for the Arts and may be used only with permission.