Talk

MPS Art Therapy presents a virtual presentation by Juliet L. King PhDc, ATR-BC, LPC, LMHC, on the intersection of creative arts therapies and neuroaesthetics. Recent years have seen a growing emphasis on how neuroaesthetics informs culture, arts and health, generating enthusiasm from policymakers, funding agencies and advocacy groups. Despite advances, direct propositions that investigate links between neuroaesthetics evidence and established healthcare practices are just beginning. Creative arts therapies have used concepts from cognitive neuroscience in the development and application of rich theories and clinical strategies for nearly a century yet are at risk for being overlooked as instrumental partners in collaborative research. This presentation will review common areas of interest to cognitive neuroscience and creative arts therapies and explain how the different disciplines inform one another in the development of research and practice strategies to address critical healthcare needs. Barriers to translation including language, methodological challenges, and ethical considerations will be discussed. With a spirit of camaraderie, this presentation will emphasize the need for transdisciplinary research and offer examples for how partnerships between creative arts therapists and neuroscientists are a powerful source that leads to innovation and scientific breakthrough in our troubled times.

Juliet L. King PhDc, ATR-BC, LPC, LMHC, is an associate professor of art therapy at The George Washington University and an Adjunct Associate Professor of Neurology at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Juliet has over two decades of experience as a clinician, administrator and educator. She developed and implemented the graduate art therapy program at Herron School of Art & Design-IUPUI, where her leadership spearheaded over 30 graduate student internships in the Indianapolis community and throughout the state. She developed and continues to oversee the art therapy in neuroscience and medicine program at the Indiana University Neuroscience Center which provides clinical support and research activities for people with neurodegenerative disease and trauma. Professor King’s research explores the systematic integration of art therapy and neuroscience with a particular focus on neuroaesthetics and Mobile Brain/Body Imaging (MoBI) as instrumentation to explore and test the psychological mechanisms of change in the creative arts therapies. Juliet is pursuing a PhD in translational health sciences and her dissertation is the development of a neuroscience-informed art therapy toolkit for the treatment of psychological trauma. In 2016 she wrote and edited Art Therapy, Neuroscience and Trauma: Theoretical and Practical Perspectives and is currently working on a second edition, set for publication in early 2024.

Objectives:

• Demonstrate how knowledge of neural processes underlying aesthetic perception informs the theory and practice of creative arts therapies (visual art therapy, dance movement therapy, music therapy, psychodrama and poetry/bibliotherapy).
• Discuss how the receptive and expressive processes involved in creative arts therapy interventions contribute to the understanding of attention, memory and problem solving for clinical and non-clinical populations.
• Explain how scientific evidence from neuroaesthetics can be used to firm the evidence base for creative arts therapies practice and research with a focus on the therapeutic relationship, emotional regulation and creative process.

The MPS Art Therapy Department at the School of Visual Arts is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed creative arts therapists. #CAT-0054.

1.5 CE hours available for LCATs.

SVA wants to ensure persons with disabilities have access to this event. If you are a person with a disability who requires accommodations to access or participate in this event, please reach out to the department at (your department email) or to SVA Disability Resources disabilityresources@sva.edu at least seven business days prior to the event.