[Online Supervision] Supervision in Creative Arts therapy

Supervision in Creative Arts Therapy

Supervision hours count toward international credentials including R-DMT, REAT, RPT and RDT

Online Group Supervision

Dr. Steve Harvey

Creative Arts Therapy is an umbrella term encompassing all professional fields that integrate art forms as healing mediums within a psychotherapeutic relationship, including dance/movement therapy, drama therapy, music therapy, art therapy (visual arts), play therapy, poetry therapy, and expressive arts therapy, among other parallel disciplines.

About the Course

This supervision course strengthens clinical reasoning, ethical practice, and professional communication within Creative Arts Therapy (CAT). It prepares therapists to work effectively within multidisciplinary systems while maintaining a clear theoretical framework and responsible clinical practice.

The course integrates professional ethics, structured case formulation, and creative supervision methods. Through discussion, case presentations, and experiential exploration, participants learn to organize clinical understanding using theory, identify change agents, develop treatment goals, and evaluate outcomes while incorporating creative arts approaches.

This supervision integrates ethical competence with structured creative exploration. It prepares Creative Arts Therapists to work responsibly, theoretically, and collaboratively within multidisciplinary environments. It emphasizes that strong clinical practice requires both professional accountability and creative responsiveness.

Supervision in Creative Arts Therapies also supports the development of reflective practice. Through discussion, case formulation, and creative exploration, participants learn to examine their clinical decisions, emotional responses, and theoretical assumptions. This reflective process strengthens professional judgment and supports the continuing development of professional identity while working within complex multidisciplinary systems.

Supervision hours are applicable toward four international credentials:

• REAT | Registered Expressive Arts Therapist (International Expressive Arts Therapy Association, IEATA)

• R-DMT | Registered Dance/Movement Therapist (American Dance Therapy Association, ADTA)

• RPT | Registered Play Therapist (Association for Play Therapy, APT)

• RDT | Registered Drama Therapist (North American Drama Therapy Association, NADTA)

Content

1. Professional and Ethical Competence Across Systems

Supervision is framed as a structure that protects clients, therapists, and agencies while fostering professional maturity.

Participants will review and deepen their understanding of key professional responsibilities, including:

• informed consent and clinical documentation
• limits of confidentiality and reporting requirements
• dual roles and power dynamics in therapeutic relationships
• scope of practice and limits of professional expertise
• interdisciplinary communication
• expectations across professional settings (schools, medical systems, and community programs)

This component emphasizes responsible clinical decision-making and the ability to communicate treatment plans and progress clearly within multidisciplinary teams.

Participants will also review structured approaches to case formulation, including:

• the 5P formulation model
• identifying theory-based change agents
• developing treatment goals
• monitoring therapeutic outcomes

Special attention will be given to how Creative Arts Therapies contribute to these clinical processes.

2. Expanding Case Formulation Through Creative Supervision

Physical Storytelling as a Supervisory Framework

Physical Storytelling (PS) serves as the central creative supervision framework for this course.

Physical Storytelling is a structured multimodal approach that integrates movement, sand tray work, visual art, narrative construction, and symbolic improvisation. These modalities allow therapists to explore clinical material beyond verbal discussion and help illuminate emotional, relational, and symbolic dimensions of clinical work.

Rather than functioning as separate techniques, these modalities are used strategically within the Physical Storytelling framework to explore supervision questions and deepen case understanding.

In supervision, Physical Storytelling may be used to:

• translate case material into embodied and symbolic forms
• clarify relational dynamics and emotional climate
• identify parallel process in therapeutic relationships
• refine case formulation
• identify theory-based change agents
• develop and clarify treatment goals

Creative supervision allows therapists to explore clinical material in ways that complement verbal analysis while maintaining professional accountability and structured clinical thinking

Participant Expectations

Participants will present clinical cases and are expected to:

• develop a structured case conceptualization
• identify theory-based change agents
• develop treatment goals
• design outcome measures, including CAT-based methods
• track progress across sessions
• reflect on ethical and systemic considerations in their work

Participants will also engage in creative supervision processes designed to expand their understanding of the emotional, relational, and symbolic dimensions of therapeutic work.

Instructor:

Dr. Steve Harvey

• Registered Expressive Arts Therapist (REAT)

• ADTA Board-Certified Dance/Movement Therapist (BC-DMT)

• Registered Play Therapist & Supervisor (RPT-S)

• Registered Drama Therapist (RDT)

• Editorial Board Member, Creative Arts in Education and Therapy – Eastern and Western Perspectives (CAET)

Dr. Steve Harvey brings over thirty years of clinical, teaching, and supervisory experience in creative arts therapy. He has practiced and taught clinical training courses in the United States and Guam. While working in New Zealand, he led and supervised internship training programs for child and adolescent clinical psychologists for twelve consecutive years.

Currently, he continues to provide online clinical supervision to mental health practitioners and school-based professionals—from beginners to experienced therapists. He is a pioneer in the field of family play therapy, has published extensively on parent-child physical play therapy, and has conducted multiple empirical studies on expressive arts and play-based interventions.

In recent years, he has focused on integrating the arts into traditional clinical and educational settings, including arts programs in mainstream and special education classrooms, as well as public mental health clinics.

Together with his wife Connor, he developed Physical Storytelling, an approach that serves as the core supervisory framework of this program and continues to be practiced and developed across multiple countries. He is currently engaged in body‑based, arts‑informed research and publication on Physical Storytelling in cross‑cultural contexts.

Register Now!

Format: Online

Time: April 26, May 10/24/, July 5, July 19, August 2, August 16, August 30. Sundays, 9:30am-12pm China time. (Please note the time difference)

20 hours in total!

Fee:

• Standard: 436 USD

• Early Bird: 407 USD (Register by April 12)

To register or inquire, please email: education@inspirees.com