Create Therapy Institute

The Create Therapy Institute is a live, experiential training program created by Elizabeth Starnes, LPC-S, Board Certified Registered Art Therapist℠ (ATR-BC®), and Registered Expressive Arts Therapist (REAT), designed for therapists seeking to deepen their work through Expressive Arts Therapy and pursue the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association Registered Expressive Arts Therapist (REAT) credential.  

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This training is intentionally structured to align with IEATA educational requirements, including the completion of three out of four core training areas, each with a minimum of 25 hours of coursework 

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Participants will engage in four core courses:

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• Individual Expressive Arts Therapy Process
• Group Expressive Arts Therapy Process
• Application of Expressive Arts Therapy
• Approaches & Intermodal Practices in Expressive Arts Therapy

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In addition to the core curriculum, the Institute offers focused elective experiences, including:

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• Visual Journaling
• Witnessing the Art & Therapeutic Presence
• Ethics in Expressive Arts Therapy

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Additional electives will be offered to support continued growth, specialization, and integration of expressive arts practices across clinical settings.

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All courses are live and experiential, emphasizing intermodal process, therapist presence, and the ability to track and respond to client experience across modalities. This program is designed not only to meet professional standards, but to support the development of a grounded, intuitive, and ethically attuned expressive arts therapist.

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Supervision will be available both during and following the educational portion of the program, offering ongoing support as participants integrate expressive arts therapy into their clinical work and move toward meeting REAT requirements.​

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INDIVIDUAL EXPRESSIVE ARTS THERAPY PROCESS COURSE START DATE: JULY 21, 2026, 6 PM CDT.

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Course 1: Individual Expressive Arts Therapy Process

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This 10 week online experiential course introduces therapists to the foundations of the individual expressive arts therapy process through direct engagement with intermodal expressive arts practices.

 

Participants explore how healing, insight, and meaning-making emerge through creative expression while developing a deeper understanding of the therapist's role in supporting the expressive process.

 

Throughout the course, students engage in their own expressive arts experiences using visual art, movement, writing, sound, imagery, and other expressive modalities, of their choice. Emphasis is placed on therapist presence, witnessing, attunement, following the creative process, intermodal transfer, and supporting client meaning-making without imposing interpretation.

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Topics include:

• Foundations and principles of expressive arts therapy
• Therapist presence, attunement, and witnessing
• Following the process rather than directing it
• Intermodal expressive arts processes
• Tracking shifts in imagery, sensation, emotion, and expression
• The felt sense and embodied awareness in creative process
• Metaphor, symbolism, and dialogue with expressive work
• Working with resistance, stuckness, and uncertainty in the creative process
• Safety, pacing, regulation, and trauma-informed practice
• Cultural humility and responsive expressive arts therapy practice

 

Through experiential learning, reflection, discussion, and application to clinical work, participants develop a deeper understanding of how individual expressive arts processes unfold and how therapists can support those processes with curiosity, responsiveness, and respect for client autonomy.

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This course fulfills one of three the REAT educational categories, Individual Expressive Arts Therapy Process, and is designed for counselors, therapists, social workers, art therapists, helping professionals, and graduate students seeking training in intermodal expressive arts therapy.