Clinical Program

Clinical Program overview video transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING] Creative Forces NEA Military Healing Arts Network supports the integration of creative arts therapies including art therapy, music therapy, and dance movement therapy in military clinics and VA hospitals across the country.

Creative Forces art therapists use standardized assessments like mask-making, the bridge with path drawing, and the wellness wheel to help determine the goals of the individual patient. Art therapy allows our patient population to visually express thoughts and feelings about their injuries and identities that they may not otherwise have been able to describe. They can then process these themes with the therapist.

Creative Forces dance movement therapists use interventions such as mirroring the journey dance method and mind-body skills training to gain information from patients that shapes clinical decision-making. These embodied in movement-based interventions can increase self-efficacy and help patients reach their behavioral health and rehabilitative goals.

Music therapy interventions such as personal music inventory, lyric analysis, and songwriting promote emotional associations, meaning-making, and processing of experiences. Instrument playing supports motor function, musical sequencing, and learning processes that promote cognition. Deep breathing and singing reinforce speech and language.

The Creative Forces team is constantly working on building resources for our creative arts therapists.

These include a series of clinical practice training videos that illustrate how to modify standard interventions for our patients in the military community. Other resources include intervention and evaluation tool kits, standardized note templates, referral documents, performance management tools, presentation and brochure templates, standardized assessments, and research protocols. Sharing our research with others in the creative arts therapy world is also a critical part of our mission.

Due to the collective efforts of the Creative Forces Network, we’ve published numerous articles based on best practices and clinically based research outcomes.

Our many articles are available open access and can be found cataloged on our National Resource Center.

Our network also gives us the tools to respond to pressing needs in changing times. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we quickly trained and mobilized our creative arts therapists to treat patients via telehealth.

Our network of creative arts therapists, peers, leadership, clinical, research, and administrative teams is what enables us to build strong programs and practices and to have the greatest possible impact on military service members, veterans, and their families and caregivers.

For more information, refer to the National Resource Center at creativeforcesnrc.arts.gov.

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