Every topic pairs the hours you need with something you can't get from a webinar: engaging as a person, experiencing the method, and creating your own. Expressive Arts Training is open for 2027 registration. Other topics run for groups on request and open to individuals as dates are scheduled.
Filter by the requirement you're working toward. Hours shown are typical; most topics can run as a half day or full day.
Expressive Arts Training series
Our signature series. Each level builds on the last, from foundations to assessment to trauma work.
Includes cultural diversity7 hours
Expressive Arts Training, Level 1
Foundations of expressive arts in counseling: what it is, why it works, the neuroscience behind it, and multicultural applications. Practice core interventions through demonstration and paired role-play.
The expressive arts edge: Attendees create, watch a live demonstration, and practice with a partner, all in one day.
Trauma-informed expressive arts: why the body matters in processing trauma, how to pace and contain creative work, and how sandtray and other modalities support healing. Builds on Levels 1 and 2.
The expressive arts edge: Attendees experience trauma-informed directives with choice built in before adapting them for clients.
Most licensing boards require ethics hours every renewal. Ours are live and experiential, built around real decisions you make in session.
Ethics3 or 6 hours
Ethics of Expressive Arts in Counseling
Use art, sandtray, play, and movement within your scope of competence. Covers informed consent for creative work, ownership and storage of client artwork, documentation, and when to refer to a credentialed art therapist.
The expressive arts edge: Practice ethical decision-making through hands-on creative case work instead of reading code sections off slides.
Telehealth Ethics for Creative and Expressive Interventions
Use creative techniques online, ethically. Learn privacy safeguards for client materials on camera, how to adapt directives for virtual sessions, cultural considerations in telehealth, and how to manage risk when clients create at home.
The expressive arts edge: Leave with tested virtual expressive activities, not just a list of telehealth rules.
Navigate personal values, religious beliefs, and client autonomy. Explores values imposition, referral ethics, and integrating faith with clients who request it, in line with the ACA Code of Ethics.
The expressive arts edge: Reflective art exercises help counselors notice their own values before they show up in session.
Ethical Boundaries in Faith and Close-Knit Communities
For counselors who serve, or belong to, churches and tight-knit cultural communities. Covers multiple relationships, confidentiality in small networks, and boundary planning when everyone knows everyone.
The expressive arts edge: Sandtray mapping of community relationships turns abstract boundary rules into something you can see and plan around.
For clinical supervisors and counselor educators who want creative, relational ways to grow the clinicians they train.
Supervision6 hours
Creative Clinical Supervision: Sandtray, Art, and Imagery
A full day of supervision CE. Use sandtray, art, and imagery for case conceptualization, parallel process, countertransference, and supervisee self-awareness.
The expressive arts edge: Supervisors experience each technique as a supervisee first, then practice leading it.
Grow supervisees through mentorship, and support them when they struggle. Covers burnout, skill gaps, remediation, ethical gatekeeping, and having hard conversations that protect clients and supervisees.
The expressive arts edge: Creative check-ins give supervisees a safer way to name struggle before it becomes a performance problem.
Bring experiential, creative methods into the counseling classroom. Covers designing activities that engage students as people first, building cognitive flexibility, and assessing creative learning.
The expressive arts edge: Educators try each teaching method as learners before designing their own.
Many boards require hours in cultural diversity or competency. Each of these is 3 hours, and any two can be paired into a full day.
Cultural diversity3 hours
Out of the Box: Creativity in Cultural Competence and Advocacy
Use creative and experiential methods to build cultural humility, examine your own cultural lens, and advocate for clients whose voices are often overlooked.
The expressive arts edge: A cultural mind map and other creative tools make your own cultural story visible before you explore a client's.
Explores shame, family honor, stigma, faith communities, and barriers to help-seeking, with practical engagement strategies. Taught by a published researcher in the area.
The expressive arts edge: Nonverbal and family art activities open conversations that direct talk therapy can shut down.
Breaking Barriers: Stigma and Help-Seeking in Minority Communities
Why many clients from minority communities delay or avoid mental health care, and what counselors can do about it. Covers stigma, mental health literacy, trust, and culturally responsive engagement.
The expressive arts edge: Creative, low-pressure entry points help clients engage before they're ready to talk.
Religious and Spiritual Diversity, Including Religious Trauma
Working with clients across faith traditions, including those experiencing spiritual struggle or religious trauma. Balances respect for faith with care for harm.
The expressive arts edge: Symbol and imagery work lets clients explore sacred and painful material at a pace they control.
Count toward general CE hours. Each draws directly on our founders' clinical work, research, and published writing.
General3 hours
Crisis Competency: Ethics, Culture, and Cognitive Flexibility
What counselors need in a crisis: sound ethics, cultural competence, and the flexibility to adapt in the moment. Covers risk assessment basics, culturally responsive crisis response, and clear decision-making under pressure.
The expressive arts edge: Practice in-the-moment decisions through structured role-play, so flexibility becomes a skill rather than a hope.
An introduction to humanistic sandtray: setting up the tray, inviting a client in, witnessing without directing, and processing what emerges. Includes demonstration and paired practice.
The expressive arts edge: Build a tray yourself before facilitating one, so you know what your clients will feel.
Understanding and Responding to Non-Suicidal Self-Injury
What non-suicidal self-injury is, what it does for the people who use it, and how counselors can respond with compassion and safety. Covers assessment, safety planning, and collaborating with families.
The expressive arts edge: Creative interventions give clients other ways to express what self-injury has been communicating.
Engaging guarded adolescents and young adults navigating identity, independence, and pressure. Covers developmental considerations, rapport, and working with families.
The expressive arts edge: Young clients who won't talk will often draw, build, or play, so you gain openers you can use the next day.
Counselor Wellness: Mindfulness and Sustainable Practice
Compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, and burnout prevention for clinicians, with mindfulness and reflective practices you can sustain. Attendees build a personal sustainability plan.
The expressive arts edge: Attendees create for themselves, making this restorative as well as educational.
6.5 / 7average rating across 88 attendee evaluations, 2024 to 2026. 72% gave the top score.
This training is practical for real-life counseling. It is a hands-on approach to counseling making the theoretical come to life.
Fee R. · EAT Level 2
I started using EAT with clients after Level 1 training and really cannot imagine my work without it. I can't draw well and would not be categorized as an artist. It's wonderful that for EAT to be powerful and effective, I don't have to be and neither do my clients.
Jennifer O. · EAT Level 3
These courses brilliantly partner theoretical frameworks with hands-on learning that can be applied immediately!
J. Said · EAT Level 3
This training elevated my counseling skill set, particularly when feeling stuck with a client. The training is versatile for clients of different ages, cultures, and genders. Highly recommend!
Kathryn P. · EAT Level 1
This is a fantastic training! The format kept me fully engaged and focused; the lectures, activities, and role-play definitely increased my competence as a counselor.
Christina A. · EAT Level 2
This training provides the tools and the opportunity for therapists to deeply engage with and empower their clients to grow and heal at their pace without fear.
Bethany S. · EAT Level 2
Do not think twice about whether or not you should do this training! You should.
Margi W. · EAT Level 1
It was very beneficial to experience the difference between expressing something verbally and feeling something in my body and emotional brain.
Heidi T. · EAT Level 1
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Bring Innovare to your team
Tell us who you're training and what hours they need. We'll reply within two business days to plan topics, format, and dates.
Live online anywhere, or in person at your site
Half-day (3 hours) or full-day (6 to 7 hours)
Combine topics to cover ethics, supervision, and cultural diversity in one event
Faith-integrated versions available on request
Don't see your topic? Ask. We train extensively on special populations.