Eating Disorders and Expressive Arts is a 6-hour continuing education workshop designed for licensed mental health professionals and graduate students interested in expanding their clinical expertise working with eating disorders through expressive arts. This live experiential training blends instruction, hands-on practice, case examples, and group reflection to provide a trauma-informed, evidence-aligned framework for using the arts in eating disorder treatment.

Throughout the workshop, participants will explore how visual art, movement, writing, and symbolic expression can support emotional regulation, body reconnection, and parts-based work with clients experiencing anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, and other disordered eating patterns. The training emphasizes ethical practice, safety, and cultural humility while integrating expressive arts into established treatment models.

Experiential activities are central to this workshop, helping clinicians experience the tools they will later adapt for clients. Participants will learn to assess readiness for expressive work, structure safe and choice-based interventions, use creative arts for externalization and embodiment, and apply expressive methods for narrative integration and self-compassion.

For those pursuing REAT, this course includes 1 hour of individual, 3 hours of application and 2 hours of approach specific training.

By the end of the training, participants will be able to:

• Identify three or more ways expressive arts therapy supports eating disorder treatment through somatic and nonverbal processing. (individual)

• Describe the neurobiological and trauma-informed rationale for art-based modalities with this population. (application)

• Demonstrate expressive arts interventions for use with eating disorder clients. (approaches)

• Apply ethical and safety guidelines for expressive arts in clinical contexts. (application)

• Integrate expressive methods into multidisciplinary treatment frameworks. (approaches)

• Develop a clinically sound expressive arts plan tailored for eating disorder recovery. (application)

Format: Live experiential training combining instruction, guided activities, and case study discussion offering 6 CEU hours. All art supplies are included in the cost. There will be a 1 hour lunch break and lunch is on your own.

Training Location: My-T-By-Design Therapeutic Art Studio, 392 E. Sunbridge Dr, Fayetteville, Arkansas

Important Note: This course is for educational purposes only. It does not substitute for licensure, supervision, or specialized eating disorder training. Participants are responsible for practicing within their professional scope.