Accessibility Statement

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. 


United States map with stars indicating locations of Creative Forces clinical sites

 

 

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