Therapy Through the Arts (Evening)

Therapy Through Arts is a perfect course to enroll in these times, when social distance is important. Therapy through the Arts course offers students the added opportunity to apply learning goals and objectives in this course to their environment outside the classroom giving the students an opportunity to enhance not only the theories involved in art as therapy but also to introduce students to hands on activities outside the classroom in order to navigate their terrain in uncertain times. The course will increase skills and consciousness of the role of movement, visual art, theater, music, and media can play in problem solving, social justice, and in the resolution of internalized fear, conflicts, or blocks. Because the course is developed using a variety of hands-on activities, the ability to complete assignments away from campus presents an ideal setting to apply learning, meet learning goals and objectives, assess and expand learning in contexts outside the classroom.

Crayons, paper, glue, paints, scissors, camera phone, etc., to take pictures can be tools used to complete assignments. Such activities as online art museum tours as field trips, readings, online short films/video, and zoomed in local and national art therapist guest speakers, scavenger hunts of spaces and methods outside of classroom where art as therapy can be discovered and practiced from inside student's home, in social media interactions etc. will be a part of the course in order for students to discover sources of imagery, sound, and movement as tools to awaken their creative problem solving from two perspectives as creator and viewer in their own contexts and in asynchronous (outside classroom)environment. To minimize our time in front of a computer, two of the days in the weekly class sessions will be completed as a student workshop with detailed assignments to complete in asynchronous (outside classroom) settings. These assignments will be discussed in synchronous (inside zoom classroom) sessions and in breakout rooms during synchronous zoom class meetings. In addition my class will be taught in a day session starting at 10am and option of enrolling in evening starting 6pm. 

Students interested in human services, social sciences, social justice, media, humanities and education will find this course engaging. This course does not require any prerequisite art classes or training. Students may attend either day or evening sessions; first, second or full sessions for 8 or 16 credits accordingly. Students wanting 12 credits full session will negotiate with the faculty on course requirements.