Expressive Arts offer people of all ages the opportunity to express themselves through art, craft, writing, music, movement, and narrative arts. Getting through life's challenges and crossroads is often difficult. While traditional therapies and counselling are helpful, sometimes at these moments we need to tap into our deepest creative self to deal with our feelings and emotions. Fleming's Ontario Graduate Certificate in Expressive Arts is a helpful addition to the counselling, teaching, or ministry you currently offer others. As a teacher, artist, nurse, social worker, minister, or someone in a caring profession, you will benefit from knowing how to facilitate the development and transformation of the people in your care, through expressive arts.

 

Program Highlights

Through four mandatory and four elective courses, you will explore your own creativity and learn how to design and deliver expressive arts programming to people in a variety of circumstances. In addition, you will examine the theoretical and practical approaches to expressive arts as therapy, and learn how to protect yourself from burnout. The mandatory courses are Exploration of Therapeutic Relationships, Introduction to Expressive Arts Therapies, Planning Expressive Arts Experiences and Professional Issues with the Expressive Arts. The additional four courses focus on various modalities, including music, dance, clowning, mask, storytelling and art making. You may take this certificate on a part-time basis, course by course, or in an intensive eight-week format offered each spring.

 

Why Choose Fleming?

Our particular approach to training in the Expressive Arts is unique. We offer the certificate with the flexibility of studying full or part-time so professionals currently working can fit this training into their busy schedules. Backed by the reputation of the Haliburton School of The Arts, and many enthusiastic instructors with experience in counselling therapies and/or the arts, you will benefit professionally and personally from your time spent in pursuit of this certificate.

 

What it Takes to Succeed

• An interest in the arts
• Good communication skills
• Empathy, tact and sensitivity
• Cultural awareness and diplomacy
• A holistic attitude toward health and well-being
• Confidentiality
• Active listening skills
• Active work on your own self-development
• Previous work experince in a therapeutic capacity an asset

 

Career Opportunities

The Expressive Arts Certificate will be a useful complement to an existing career in education, counselling, social work, social service, the arts or ministry. With the broad-based focus of this certificate, expect to find yourself using many of the skills you have learned in the workplace on a daily basis.

 

Minimum Admission Requirements

The minimum admission requirement is a human service or arts Ontario College Diploma or university degree. Applicants who do not have the academic admission requirements as stated above, but who have relevant experience will be considered on an individual basis. These requirements apply to full-time and part-time studies.

 

Selection Process

Course	Hours
Semester 1
Clowning in Expressive Arts	47.50
Exploration of Therapeutic Relationships	47.50
Expressive Arts - SoundWork and BodyPlay	47.50
Expressive Arts Modalities	47.50
Introduction to Expressive Arts Therapies	47.50
Planning Expressive Arts Experiences	47.50
Professional Issues With the Expressive Arts	47.50
Storytelling and Sandtray Therapy within the Expressive Arts	47.50
Please Note: This certificate is also available on a part-time basis. Contact the Haliburton Campus for further information.

Semester 1

Clowning in Expressive Arts

Course Number: ARTS356

Please note: To register for this course you must meet the admission requirements for the EXA Graduate Certificate. Details available on EXA page.
As an expressive art and communication technique, clowning provides a unique opportunity to interact in a manner less inhibited and more innocent. From schools and children's hospitals to the street, theatre and the Big Top, clowns hold a special place in the hearts and minds of children and adults alike. This introductory clown course, based on the Pochinko technique, will begin with a focus on listening. Games and exercises are used to awaken and encourage a sense of enjoyment, an awareness of one's immediate environment, and an honest response to internal impulses and external events. You will then be introduced to the clown world, where you will wear noses and hats to help discover your clown. An individual and group playground is created where the clown explores its physicality, innocence and experience, extremities and normalcy. The course will culminate with your creation and presentation of a short clown piece.

Units: 47.50
Hours: 47.50

Exploration of Therapeutic Relationships

Course Number: ARTS091

Please note: To register for this course you must meet the admission requirements for the EXA Graduate Certificate. Details available on EXA page.
Introduction to Expressive Arts Therapies is a recommended prerequisite for this course.
In this course you will explore various types of therapeutic relationships, as well as several important aspects of therapeutic relations in general. It will include experiential, demonstrated, and didactic learning methods. There will be ample opportunity for practice, discussion and feedback using role playing of the client, the expressive therapist, and the witness/observer. Some of these opportunities will occur in pairs, some in small groups, others in the full group. There will be an attempt to use the 'here and now' experiences of the class/group member to highlight the important factors of therapeutic relationships.

Units: 47.50
Hours: 47.50

Expressive Arts - SoundWork and BodyPlay

Course Number: ARTS774

Please note: To register for this course you must meet the admission requirements for the EXA Graduate Certificate. Details available on EXA page.
SoundWork: Designing and Facilitating Sonic Rituals. Whether we are creating a ceremony of celebration or a ritual to grieve a loss, SoundWork enables participants to drop out of the topside world of words in order to engage the images, feelings, and themes of the inner life. Sonic rituals can be jubilant or heartfelt, but are always in-depth.BodyPlay: The Body calls to us to move, stretch, run, rest, stimulate, shift... The Emotions call to us to yearn, shout, sigh, laugh, cry... The Spirit calls to us to reflect, trust, open, grow, love...When we listen and respond we become artists in our own lives - living fully, authentically and with passion. These sessions will call on your body as companion, friend, and ally as you navigate the mysteries of yourself as Poet, Sacred Warrior, Healer, Magician, and Lover.

Units: 47.50
Hours: 47.50

Expressive Arts Modalities

Course Number: ARTS436

Please note: To register for this course you must meet the admission requirements for the EXA Graduate Certificate. Details available on EXA page.
This course provides an opportunity to interact with graduates of Fleming's Expressive Arts Post-Graduate Certificate Program and to explore some of the ways they have incorporated their training into work with others. Labyrinths and mandalas are ancient and powerful tools to centre, strengthen, and help us move out into the world. They have also been used for contemplation, ritual, initiation, celebration and personal spiritual growth. Centering exercises with breath, movement, colour, sound and words will lead you into the creation of a personal mandala, combining the ritual mandala of the East and the self-exploratory/expressive mandala of the West. The creation of both a personal and community labyrinth will provide further opportunities for self exploration and expressive arts experiences.

Units: 47.50
Hours: 47.50

Introduction to Expressive Arts Therapies

Course Number: ARTS112

Please note: To register for this course you must meet the admission requirements for the EXA Graduate Certificate. Details available on EXA page.
"Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes and the grass grows by itself. "(Zenrin). When we provide the right conditions for ourselves, we open the door to growth. Tapping into our creativity provides a natural source of imagery and energy to use for healing and personal expression. This course will introduce you to the theory and practice of the expressive arts. If you are working in the human service field, you will learn about the applicability of visual arts, music, writing, movement and theatre to your work settings. There will be a $10 material fee payable to the instructor.

Units: 47.50
Hours: 47.50

Planning Expressive Arts Experiences

Course Number: ARTS171

Please note: To register for this course you must meet the admission requirements for the EXA Graduate Certificate. Details available on EXA page.
This course will teach you to plan and lead expressive arts experiences for others. Instruction will address a broad spectrum of expressive arts experiences as well as present the theoretical tools for assessing what type of experiences might be appropriate for various individuals and populations. You will learn how music, movement, visual, and narrative arts can promote self-awareness and personal growth with various populations ranging from drug treatment facilities to nursing homes, daycares to prisons. There will be opportunities to experience leadership in the non-judgmental atmosphere of the student group.

Units: 47.50
Hours: 47.50

Professional Issues With the Expressive Arts

Course Number: ARTS183

Please note: To register for this course you must meet the admission requirements for the EXA Graduate Certificate. Details available on EXA page.
Successful completion of Introduction to Expressive Arts Therapies and Exploration of Therapeutic Relationships is recommended prior to taking this course.

It is important to recognize the parameters of utilizing expressive arts within the bounds of one's training experience. How does one handle situations that are beyond the scope of our professional practice? What are the needs of cultural and racial minorities which can be appropriately integrated into the expressive arts? How do we handle burnout creatively? This course will cover ethical and professional issues which may arise as a result of using the expressive arts.

Units: 47.50
Hours: 47.50

Storytelling and Sandtray Therapy within the Expressive Arts

Course Number: ARTS102

Please note: To register for this course you must meet the admission requirements for the EXA Graduate Certificate. Details available on EXA page.

This course is an introduction to the practice and theory of sandtray-worldplay therapy and the application of storytelling within the expressive arts. These modalities give voice to the internal and external worlds of both children and adults. They are tools with which to explore for example issues of loss, abuse, and self-esteem that can provide new perspectives on life experiences. This will be of interest to professionals working with children and adults in educational, health, recreation or therapeutic settings.

Units: 47.50
Hours: 47.50