What Is Art Therapy? • 45Despite the fears of some individuals that involvement with other groups would dilute
or contaminate art therapy, the advantages of working with music, drama, and dance ther-
apists are great. In addition to the expansion of service and training programs, political
coalitions have been formed, and have been quite effective. Although some worried that the
natural rivalry of creative arts siblings for jobs and recognition would be destructive, that
has not generally been the case.
The National Coalition of Creative Arts Therapy Associations (NCCATA) was formed
in 1979. The member groups of NCCATA have worked together, holding joint conferences
(1985 and 1990), as well as regular meetings to address common political concerns. While a
closer administrative relationship among the member organizations has been proposed, it
has yet to occur. Cooperation for political and economic purposes has been acceptable to all
members of the coalition, but an underlying tension between autonomy and collaboration
remains (Johnson, 1999). In European coalitions, relationships among the different creative
arts therapies seem to be similarly ambivalent. The ongoing debates concern both practical
and philosophical issues.
Training Issues
Many art therapy educators have questioned the feasibility or desirability of training students
in more than one creative modality. Most have expressed anxiety about producing shallow dil-
ettantes, though some have become more comfortable with multidisciplinary approaches.
Two training programs in the United States were in expressive therapies from the start
(Lesley College and the University of Louisville). Several others have since added train-
ing in other art forms, including the Pratt Institute, whose founder has long argued for an
expressive therapy approach (Robbins, 1980, 1994). Lesley now awards degrees not only in
specializations like art therapy, but also in expressive therapy.
One of the first art therapists to advocate a multimodality approach was Shaun McNiff,
whose training program at the Institute for the Arts & Human Development of Lesley
College was in the expressive therapies from its inception in 1974. McNiff (1981, 1986)
described his rationale for a multimodal approach to expression and training, noting its
roots in shamanism and ancient healing rituals (D) (McNiff, 1994, 2004). His colleague,
Paolo Knill (E) also argued for an interdisciplinary approach, which he has referred to as
“Intermodal Expressive Therapy” (Knill, Barba, & Fuchs, 2004), as well as “Expressive Arts
Therapy” (Knill, Levine, & Levine, 2005). Knill and his colleagues, like Steven Levine (1992)
and Ellen Levine (2003), agree with the critics that a superficial acquaintance with differ-
ent techniques is meaningless, stressing instead what they call intermodal understanding,
comparing it to art forms like opera, film, or performance art.
The Levines run an integrated arts therapy training program in Toronto under the aus-
pices of the International School for Interdisciplinary Studies (www.isis-canada.org). There
is, in fact, a growing network of expressive arts therapy training centers in both institutes
and universities training people in a multimodal approach in many countries. The univer-
sities include not only Lesley, but also the California Institute of Integral Studies (where
Natalie Rogers has taught) and the European Graduate School (founded by Paolo Knill). In
1995 the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association was organized, with members
who are artists, educators, and therapists (www.ieata.org).
Although most art therapists are still trained and skilled primarily in the visual arts,
there is unquestionably a greater openness to the use of other art forms than in the past.
This is reflected in the literature, with many recent books containing chapters by art, drama,
dance, music, and poetry therapists (Betts, 2003; Brooke, 2007; Camilleri, 2007; Carey, 2005;