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Creative Arts Therapies are an integral part of the treatment process at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE). Watch the videos below to learn more about art therapy, music therapy and dance therapy.
Art Therapy
Art therapists are master’s-level behavioral health professionals who are trained to use art as a vehicle for non-verbal thoughts, emotions, and experiences. At the NICoE, service members have freedom of self-expression and use a wide range of media such as painting, sculpting, drawing, wood-burning, collaging, and creative writing. Trauma survivors struggle to put their experience into words, and art therapy can enable them to find their voice. By working with imagery, the emotional brain, and the physical body, art therapy helps to integrate and restore a sense of control over these painful memories.
Music Therapy
Music therapy is the clinical use of music-based interventions to accomplish therapeutic and rehabilitative goals which extend to skills, behaviors, and relationships beyond the musical context. The NICoE program offers service members various opportunities for exploring connections with themselves and with others through the music they listen to or create. Songs can be a meaningful space for processing a traumatic memory or sensory experience, and playing an instrument may provide engaging ways to exercise the post-injury brain.
Dance and Movement Therapy
Dance and Movement Therapy is the psychotherapeutic use of movement to promote emotional, social, cognitive, and physical parts of a person in order to improve health and well-being. This brings the body into the treatment process to address behavioral health and rehabilitative goals.
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Video
Mar 23, 2022
Adrienne Stamper, an art therapist at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE), provides a window into the process of healing through art therapy.
Art therapists are master’s-level behavioral health professionals who are trained to use art as a vehicle for non-verbal thoughts, emotions, and experiences. At NICoE, the service members have ...
Video
Mar 16, 2022
Liz Freeman, lead dance/movement therapist; and Kristine Keliiki, dance/movement therapist at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE), discuss the many ways they use dance movement therapy (DMT) to help patients at the NICoE. DMT is the psychotherapeutic use of movement to promote emotional, social, cognitive, and physical parts of a person ...
Video
Mar 16, 2022
Nate McLaughlan is a board-certified music therapist at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE). In this video, he discusses the many way music therapy can help patients at the NICoE. He explains that music therapy uses music-based experiences to address identified symptoms and goals with a music therapist who is trained to use elements of ...
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Last Updated: May 12, 2022