Development of the Expressive Therapies Continuum: The Lifework of Vija B. Lusebrink, PhD, ATR-BC, HLM

Abstract

This Viewpoint essay serves three purposes: (1) revealing the life experiences of Vija Lusebrink that shaped what would become the pantheoretical art therapy assessment and treatment model known as the Expressive Therapies Continuum; (2) clarifying the broad and deep scope of this model; and (3) encouraging the art therapy audience to recognize this model as a complex marriage of information processing and agents of change. The Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC) lends itself to outcome-informed treatment in art therapy as a systems-oriented means of gauging client responses to multidimensional interventive inputs and modifying the therapist’s approach accordingly. It is important for art therapists to share a unified understanding of the ETC that is consistent with the ideas of its co-creators.

Keywords:

• Expressive Therapies Continuum
• ETC
• art therapy
• expressive therapies
• expressive arts therapies

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lisa D. Hinz

Lisa D. Hinz, PhD ATR-BC, is Associate Professor and Director in the Department of Art Therapy Psychology at Dominican University of California, San Rafael, CA.

Megan L. VanMeter

Megan L. VanMeter, MA, ATR-BC, LPC-AT/S, is in private practice in Prescott, AZ.

Vija B. Lusebrink

Vija B. Lusebrink, PhD, ATR-BC, HLM, is Professor Emeritus at University of Louisville, Louisville, KY.