Welcome to Northwest Creative and Expressive Arts Institute
We provide quality continuing education and training in Expressive Arts Therapy for mental health professionals throughout Seattle, the Puget Sound region and Northwest environs!
Upcoming Workshops & Events
We offer CEs to mental health professionals including social workers, mental health counselors, and marriage and family therapists.
If you are outside of Washington State, we advise that you check with your state licensing board to confirm that they accept NBCC approved CEs.
Northwest Creative & Expressive Arts Institute is a NBCC Approved Continuing Education Provider ™, ACEP No. 7014.
The next cohort of the Expressive Arts Therapy Professional Training Program will start in September 2023. Program information and application are now available! We are also offering a new hybrid option to the all-online option for the 2023-24 Program. Application deadline is June 30, 2023 for both programs.
Have questions? Want to learn more? Register for a free InfoSession webinar, or a free 1 hour experiential workshop, Taste of the Expressive Arts, more details here.
Can’t attend an InfoSession? Watch the recording here!
Check out all our Free Events!
Participate in our first ever Expressive Arts Community Roundtable
A “roundtable” is an opportunity for participants to express opinions and ideas with open and equal access. We sincerely hope you’ll consider joining and being a part of the discussion! Everyone is welcome! Free but registration required for Zoom link.
We are now offering options for REAT Supervision. Are you interested in becoming a Registered Expressive Arts Therapist? Read more about the REAT requirements and check out our current supervision opportunities.
Would you like NWCEAI to provide a CE workshop tailored for your organization? We can do that! Receive a discounted registration fee for 10 or more attendees. Here’s the list of organizations we’ve worked with over the years. Contact us with questions!
If you are a Black person, Indigenous person or a Person of Color and are interested in attending one of our workshops, please contact us. In our effort to contribute to diversifying the Expressive Arts Therapy community we are offering a workshop scholarship.
Read our Creative Response to COVID-19. We’d love your artistic contributions!
Keep in touch via our mailing list! and receive the 411 on all our upcoming programs!
We would love to answer any questions you might have about our organization and how we can serve your CE and training needs!
Learn More
Why Art Therapy and Expressive Arts Therapy?
Expressive Arts Therapy is a multi-modality, integrative approach to working with the creative arts. We use visual arts, drama, music, writing, sand tray, and movement to explore the experience of being human and foster growth and healing.
By including the arts in the therapeutic process, we are employing a modality to consider qualitative aspects of the person that are not readily measured by quantitative, laboratory-based methods, although there is a large and growing body of evidence of its effectiveness. The literature suggests, and we have found in our own Art Therapy and Expressive Arts Therapy practice the following:
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- Expressive Arts Therapy is Expansive. Over the last fifty years, it has become clear that traditional forms of psychotherapy have limited effectiveness for many people.
- Expressive Arts Therapy Engages the Whole Being. For optimal health, we need to be able to connect feelings and ideas (both right and left hemispheres of the brain), to link past and present, to make sense of the now, and to plan for the future. Engaging in the creative arts, whether visual, drama, movement, writing, or music provides this opportunity.
- Expressive Arts Therapy is a Bridge. Offering a way to make contact, connect, and begin a meaningful dialogue for those who may have difficulty expressing themselves in traditional talk therapy.
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- Expressive Arts Therapy Holds Space. The creative arts provide an opportunity for the safe expression of feelings, creating a “boundary” or “container” where previously there may have been none.
- Expressive Arts Therapy is Client-Centered. The client has the opportunity to work with both the process of creating, as well as the product/outcome.
- Expressive Arts Therapy Helps Tell a Story. Engaging in the creative arts can be part of how a client tells their story. Through visual art, drama, music, writing, movement, and sand tray, there are opportunities to explore one’s story and gain awareness and insight to generate healing, and new narratives.