Lessons from COVID-19: The Use of Fiber Arts for the Amelioration of Shared Trauma
Monday March 31, 2025 12:30-2:30 PM CT (virtual)
2 CE Hours
Register for ITA’s 9th Annual Integrated Creative Arts Therapy Conference
When therapists live and work in a community experiencing a shared community disaster, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the personal, interpersonal, and vicarious impacts of the event can adversely affect their work with clients. This workshop reviews creative coping strategies, including fiber arts, to support clinicians restore grounding and self-regulation.
1. Participants will be able to define shared trauma.
2. Participants will be able to list the six qualities of fiber arts that can be beneficial for individuals who have experienced trauma.
3. Participants will be able to demonstrate at least one application of fiber arts for self-care.
Remembering Her: Using the Digital Third Hand for Prolonged Grief
Originally presented at the AATA Conference October 8, 2024. If you are interested in having Dr. Altschwager present this for your organization, you can request this on the contact form.
This paper will review the use of art therapy during telehealth sessions with a client experiencing severe depression in the context of prolonged grief. Art therapy interventions including book making, phototherapy, creative writing, and collage will be discussed through the frameworks of behavioral activation and the third hand.
1. Attendees will be able to define behavioral activation.
2. Attendees will be able to identify at least techniques to facilitate third hand intervention when working with a client through telehealth.
3. Attendees will be able to describe at least one art therapy directive to utilize with clients who are experiencing grief and loss.
Creating a Digital Art Toolkit
Friday June 2, 2023 1:00-4:00 PM EST (virtual)
3 CE Hours
Register for the Water and Stone CAT Conference
With the plethora of new technologies available, how do you choose the best tools for your clients? This course will introduce the SPIRAL framework for evaluating apps for therapeutic use. Participants will use their devices to practice digital art and add new apps to their toolkit
1. Participants will be able to define the SPIRAL acronym for evaluating the suitability of art apps for a given client population.
2. Participants will be able to identify at least five apps which are suitable for the client population in their area of practice.
3. Participants will be able to demonstrate proficiency with one or more art making apps through the creation of a digital art work.
4. Participants will be able to apply the SPIRAL framework to evaluate at least one app.
Bite-Sized Self-Care: Moments of Creativity & Calm
Sunday, June 12, 2022 2:30-4:30 PM EST (virtual)
2 CE Hours
Register for the Water and Stone CAT Conference
There is growing concern among mental health professionals about the real risks of burnout, yet there are many obstacles to practicing self-care. In this workshop, we will explore and practice bite-sized, brief art interventions for expression, relaxation, and stress reduction that can fit into our increasingly busy schedules.
1. Participants will be able to state at least 1 barrier that currently interferes with practicing self-care.
2. Participants will be able to list 3 factors that put a clinician at risk for burnout.
3. Participants will be able to name at least 2 brief interventions for self-care.
4. Participants will be able to outline a plan that includes at least 1 creative intervention to support self-care.
Knitting as Coping: Fiber Arts and Shared Trauma
Originally presented at the 2021 AATA Conference online. If you registered for the conference this is available on demand at AATA’s Institute for Continuing Education until December 31, 2022. If you are interested in having Dr. Altschwager present this information for your organization please use the contact form. The full dissertation is available here.
When therapists live and work in a community experiencing a shared community disaster (e.g. pandemic, earthquake, mass shooting) the personal, interpersonal, and vicarious impacts of the event can adversely affect their work with clients. This presentation reviews creative coping strategies, including fiber arts, to support clinicians restore grounding and self-regulation.
Integrating Digital Art Into Your Art Therapy Practice
Art and technology have been inextricably linked throughout the course of history with the advent of such advances as paper, the printing press, photography, pigments and later chemical compounds for mixing paints, and now the mouse, stylus, and touch screen. Polarization within the art therapy literature might lead us to believe that traditional materials are somehow mutually exclusive or incompatible, when in practice they share similar properties (Ansano Thong, 2007). Edith Kramer (1971) cautions that the art therapy studio should be a respite from the bombardment of imagery and overstimulation created by the seductive environment of television, computers, and video games. She argues that these devices leave our clients isolated, passive receptacles rather than connected creative agents. Brian Austin (2009) challenges us to consider the role of technology in relation to the artist’s hand. While computer-aided technologies allow us to create images with accuracy and control far-beyond that which is possible off screen, “Most art therapists would agree that authentic craftwork requires a dialogue between hand and material,” (p. 84). Penelope Orr (2010) would argue that, like the pencil or paintbrush before it, digital technology is simply a tool in the art therapist’s toolbox. With these conflicting messages swirling through the technological landscape the question remains: how can art therapists integrate digital media into existing studio practices without sacrificing familiar, tactile tools?
This course will provide an overview of the theory around using digital tools in art therapy, risks and benefits of the medium, ethical concerns, and strategies for avoiding technology overwhelm. You will also develop your own artwork using digital technology so that you can integrate these techniques into your clincal and studio practices.
Better Together: Using Family to Engage a Client in Art Therapy
Originally presented at the AATA conference in 2018 this content is available through AATA’s online Institute for Continuing Education
Kathryn Harmon & Bethany Altschwager
When a client has left treatment, the task of encouraging them to return is the ultimate challenge. This presentation details one case example of utilizing a family unit to engage the client into meaningful art making and discovery. Further explored is the impact of the therapeutic alliance, rupture, and repair.
Learning Objectives
Describe one or more therapeutic interventions that were employed during the course of treatment for this client.
Identify two or more clinical applications of engaging with a client’s family unit and including them in treatment.
Identify one or more examples of multidisciplinary teamwork which could be used to engage the client in art therapy.
1 Continuing Education Credit for Art Therapists
Can You Teach Me to Knit?: Considerations for Developing Fiber Arts Groups
Originally presented at the AATA Conference online November 7, 2020. If you are interested in having Dr. Altschwager present this for your organization, you can request this on the contact form.
Fiber arts have been around for centuries and remain popular in the modern era, yet many training programs don’t provide instruction about them. This presentation explores differences in goals, potential risks and benefits, directives, ethical concerns, and logistical considerations when developing fiber arts groups for clients, students, and professional peers.
1. Participants will be able to identify at least three potential benefits of participation in fiber arts groups.
2. Participants will be able to differentiate between the intended goals of fiber arts group for clients, students, and professional peers.
3. Participants will be able to describe at least two fiber arts directives appropriate for clients, students, and professional peers.