The Expressive Therapies Continuum

What is art therapy? Is it only for children? Is it arts and crafts? Although art therapy can be

beneficial with children and crafts can be very therapeutic, art therapy is so much more. Art

therapy is a dialogue that can help clients interpret, express, and resolve emotional thoughts

and conflicts. Art therapists use many tools and concepts to perform art therapy. One of the

tools art therapists use in their work is the Expressive Arts Continuum or the (ETC)

The ETC is a concept that can be used in art therapy that summarizes the essential steps

involved in visual expression and information processing. It is organized into four levels of media

interactions that represent different developmental stages in information processing. The levels

extend from ones considered more primitive to increasingly complex and sophisticated. It is no

coincidence that the levels of the ETC mirror the stages of human development and are

structured similarly to the mind. At the bottom of the ETC, creative expression involves a

kinesthetic/ sensory experience. On the other end of the ETC is complex symbolic imagery.

Sensory/kinesthetic activities can be described as those involving a sensory experience and an

experience involving movement. Symbolic and kinesthetic processes can be found in

fingerpainting and clay molding. When you feel the paint on your hands and between your

fingers, you process information tactilely. When you use clay, it requires force and pressure to

mold it into its desired form, which is its own tactile experience.

In therapy, a client may start out using one kind of media on a specific level of the ETC

but benefit from exploring different or opposing levels. For example, watercolor paint is a

medium that is difficult to control. It tends to move freely, is fluid, and has an element of

surprise. Someone seeking structure, control, and rigid boundaries may find themselves

gravitating away from this medium and towards a medium with more predictability and

noticeable marks, like a pen. Someone known to have anxiety and perfectionist-like qualities

may gravitate to something that provides an eraser and soft lines, such as a pencil.

Moving away from mediums such as pens and pencils to something less forgivable such as

watercolor or oil paints, allows someone to experiment with tolerating different levels of

unpredictability in small, controlled, and measurable ways. The same is true in reverse.

Someone interested in developing self-discipline may benefit from using an art medium like

pens because they are precise, and the marks are irreversible.

What comes from these explorations and shifts? A more profound sense of self-understanding

and behavioral changes that extends from the artwork to relationships and real-life scenarios.

Just as creative expression can make the internal external, the shifting of creative energy on

paper or canvas reflects internal changes as well. Seeing these changes occur through art-

making makes It easy for the client and therapists to track progress.

Imagine! The ETC is only one small component of art therapy.

-Written by Meghan Mcenerney, LAC.