Glossary of Common Terms

1. Expressive Arts– Expressive Arts utilize visual arts, music, dance/movement, drama/theater, poetry/writing, and other creative processes in an intermodal, integrative approach to foster deep personal growth and community development.

*Intermodal: The process of interweaving and sequencing multiple expressive arts modalities. It is this intermodality that leads to deeper insight and expanded awareness and is essential to IEATA’s definition of expressive arts.

*Integrative: The process of interweaving and blending multiple creative theories with clients in expressive arts therapy or expressive arts facilitation sessions.

2. Expressive Arts Therapy– Expressive Arts Therapy, as defined by IEATA, is a therapeutic model that engages multiple expressive arts modalities with an intermodal approach in order to facilitate an integrative experience involving the threading of: visual arts, music, dance/movement, drama/theater, poetry/writing, and other creative processes.

3. Expressive Arts Consultation, Education & Facilitation– Expressive Arts Consultation, Education, and Facilitation engages multiple expressive arts modalities with an intermodal approach in a non-clinical setting. It facilitates an integrative experience that interweaves visual arts, music, dance/movement, drama/theater, poetry/writing, and other creative processes. Facilitation may be therapeutic yet does not include diagnoses or treatment plans.

4. Creative Arts– Separate or individual arts modalities (including visual arts, music, dance/movement, drama/theater, poetry/writing, and storytelling) that actively engage one’s imagination across all domains—cognitive, language, social, emotional, and physical.

5. Expressive Therapies/Creative Arts Therapies– Umbrella terms that include all of the various creative arts modalities in therapy, including art therapy, music therapy, dance/movement therapy, drama therapy, writing/poetry therapy, play therapy, and expressive arts therapy. These are therapeutic interventions that utilize creative arts modalities to facilitate communication, emotional expression, and enhanced self-awareness, as well as foster health and change.

6. Person-Centered Expressive Arts Therapy– Developed by Dr. Natalie Rogers, this approach combines the intermodal creative process with the in-depth theory and practice of her father, psychologist Dr. Carl Rogers’, person-centered approach. The Creative Connection® is the term coined by Natalie to define the integration and deep insight that arises from the interweaving of multiple arts modalities.

7. Multimodal/Multimodal Expressive Arts– Using various art forms or modalities in a single session or series of sessions, as separate and unique processes.

*IEATA recognizes this term has historically been used interchangeably with the term intermodal. We believe multimodal does not fully describe the integrative process nor does it adequately represent the interrelatedness and intermodal transfer between the arts. To keep true to the essence of what we believe fosters deep creativity and connection, IEATA has decided to replace the word multimodal with intermodal when describing the work of expressive arts therapy and facilitation.

8. Somatic– Affecting the body.

9. Somatic-Based Expressive Arts– A type of facilitation or therapy that integrates a body-focused approach, which practitioners combine with expressive arts in many different ways to support growth, integration, connection, and healing.

10. Nature-Based Expressive Arts– A type of facilitation or therapy that integrates nature and acknowledges our interrelatedness with the non-human world to support growth, integration, connection, and healing.

11. Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC)– Originally designed and used in Art Therapy, this is a model that provides an understanding of how visual arts materials, ranging from resistant to fluid, can influence the experience of the participant and can be consciously chosen by a therapist or facilitator depending on the needs and ability of the client or group. The ETC is now widely used in expressive arts therapy as well.