Demystifying Dissociation:
Expert Training in Complex Trauma, DID & Parts Work

Expressive Therapies Fall Virtual Summit
November 6-9 & 13-16, 2025
Live via Zoom

Over 45 Workshops

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CE Credits

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Hands-on & Interactive

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Over 45 Workshops 〰️ CE Credits 〰️ Hands-on & Interactive 〰️

Schedule
Speakers
Rates
Continuing Education
Register here

From Fragmentation to Integration:
Transforming Trauma Through the Creative Process

The Demystifying Dissociation Track at the Fall Virtual Summit offers an integrative, arts-informed approach to understanding and treating trauma across the spectrum of dissociative experiences. Designed for creative clinicians who value both evidence and empathy, this series blends neuroscience, expressive arts, and somatic awareness to illuminate how trauma fragments—and how creativity can restore connection. Through immersive workshops and research-based presentations, you’ll explore practical tools for assessment, stabilization, and repair that honor the client’s internal system while fostering resilience and post-traumatic growth. Whether you’re seeking to deepen your trauma-informed practice or expand your comfort working with complex cases, this track provides both clarity and confidence. Join us online this November to learn from leading experts in art therapy, EMDR, IFS, and community care—and discover how the creative process can transform the treatment of dissociation from mystery into meaningful change.

Summit Specialities

Experiential Learning

Not lectures or pre-recorded webinars. You’ll practice the hands-on therapy techniques in real-time with expert guidance.

Affordable Pricing

Nonprofit pricing allows us to keep our rates reasonable, and CE credits are included. No minimum required! Sessions start at just $25 per hour when you register before November 2.

Community Connection

Meet peers who speak your creative language and understand your challenges. Leave feeling validated and renewed.

Flexible Scheduling

Select any one or more sessions to create your own schedule. Daytime, evening, and weekend options of 2, 3, 4, and 6 hour workshops available.

Immediately Applicable

Use new techniques with clients on Monday morning. No theoretical frameworks you’ll never implement.

Expert Faculty

Learn from over 40 renowned speakers with decades of combined experience in a variety of creative modalities and clinical topics.

Earn Board-Approved Continuing Education Credits
NBCC, ATCB, SWSYS, NY LMHC, NY CAT, NY LMFT, APT

Choose Workshop Topics That Fit Your Practice

Learn From Leading Experts in a Variety of Creative Modalities

    • Selves Portraits: Enhance Internal Cooperation & Deepen Insight Using Multimodal Expressive Arts

    • Creativity in the Treatment of Complex Trauma & Dissociation Across the Lifespan: Essentials for All Clinicians

    • Compassionate Arts-Based Interventions: Creativity & Connection for Community Care and Post-Traumatic Growth

    • Exploring the El Duende Art Therapy Intervention for Adults with Complex PTSD

    • Art Therapy for Addiction, Trauma, and DID: A Neuroscience Perspective

    • Resistance to Persistence: Intermodal Arts and the Crucial Shift in Coaching for Transformation

    • Pivoting Into Expressive Arts Coaching: A New Opportunity for Mental Health Professionals

    • Group Coaching for Teens Who Worry Too Much: Narrative Drama Therapy & Projective Techniques

    • Relationship Coaching for Breaking Negative Interaction Cycles: Incorporating Expressive Arts for Enhanced Efficacy

    • Stressbusting: Writing Through Troubled Times

    • The Four Pillars of Well-Being: Neuroplasticity in Everyday Life

    • Expressive Writing and the Basic PH Integrative Model for Enhanced Coping & Resiliency

    • Pain Meets Pen: Quieting Chronic Pain With Therapeutic Writing™

    • Biblio/Poetry Therapy: Facilitation Skills for Mindfulness & Presence, Writing & Release

    • Journal Therapy with Clients Experiencing Burn Out: Prompts for Restorative Mindset

    • Somatic Self of the Play Therapist: Using Attunement & Activation to Deepen the Child Client’s Experience

    • Expressive Arts Therapy Techniques for Play Therapists and Others: Integrating Creativity Into the Playroom

    • Weaving Together Expressive Arts Therapy and Neuroscience

    • Client Directed Sandtray: An Adaptation for Telehealth

    • We Need to Talk About Psychedelics

    • Psychedelics, Art, Creativity, and Art Therapy: Theory and Practical Applications

    • Voice Dialogue Accessing Inner Selves: A Creative Approach for Enhanced Clinical Success

    • Somatic-focused Art-making: Embodied Expression for Effective Trauma Treatment

    • Sensory Processing, Trauma, and Anxiety Relief using Water Play Therapy

    • Creating Parts Work Art Cards: Exploring Inner Wisdom Through Mindful Expressive Arts

    • Compassionate Arts-Based Interventions: Creativity & Connection for Community Care and Post-Traumatic Growth

    • Creative Calm: Nurturing the Nervous System With Art

    • An Exploration of Grit, Trauma and the Expressive Arts Therapies: The EXAT Turned Ultra-runner

    • Repairing the Broken Bowl ®: The Ancient Art of Kintsugi

    • From Resistance to Resilience: Dynamic Arts Approaches for Reaching Difficult Clients

    • Therapeutic Puppetry for Enhanced Self Awareness & Emotional Resilience: Integrating Artmaking, Storytelling, Improvisation and More

    • Liberating Joy from Loss with Prescriptive Memory-Making & Dyadic Creativity

    • Inspiration From Within: Utilizing a Strengths-Based Perspective in Creative Arts-Inspired Clinical Supervision

    • Navigating Turbulent Times Through Touch Drawing and Intermodal Art

    • Jung, Mandalas, and Expressive Practices: Crossing the Threshold of Grief & Loss

    • Creative Cognitive Therapy Method: Short-term, Solution-focused Therapy

    • Focusing-Oriented Expressive Arts: Cultivating Embodied Self-Compassion

    • Creative Tools for Dementia Connection: Color Outside the Diagnosis

    • Hero/ine’s Journey: Arts-based Approach to Archetypal Psychology

    • Guiding Children Through Grief: Expressive Arts for Healing Hearts

    • Unlock the Potential of Astrology in Therapy

    • Inspiration From Within: Utilizing a Strengths-Based Perspective in Creative Arts-Inspired Clinical Supervision

    • Using Art in Therapy With Purpose, Intention, & Improvisation

    • Ethical Considerations in Art Therapy

    • Money, Marketing & Mindset Mastery: Business Skills for a Thriving Private Practice

    • Workplace Violence in Mental Health Settings: When Bad Things Happen to Good Therapists

    • Repairing the Broken Bowl ®: Facilitator Training

see the full schedule

See Why Participants Return Year After Year

  • "I am always inspired by the depth of the Summit sessions! Not only are the presenters open, professional, and highly knowledgeable, the experience is further enhanced by the diverse attendees and everything they bring."

    Linda S.

  • "The Summit consistently offers cutting edge creative arts workshops that are accessible and relevant for the non-arts therapists as well, providing a well organized educational experience that is both engaging and highly informative. I always leave with practical information I can use that enhances my private practice!"

    Peggy K.

  • "I love the Expressive Arts Therapy Summit! It is truly an inspiring and eclectic gathering of dedicated and caring people who create community through the arts. Knowledge is imparted joyfully while holding space to breathe and process the hard to hear information. Give yourself a treat every year - this is the place to spend your hard-earned CEU dollars!"

    Allyn S.

Who Should Attend the
Expressive Therapies Summit?

  • Licensed Counselors (LPC, LMHC)

  • Social Workers (LCSW, LMSW)

  • Marriage & Family Therapists (LMFT)

  • Art Therapists (ATR-ATR-BC)

  • Play Therapists (RPT, RPT-S)

  • School Counselors

  • Psychologists (PhD, PsyD)

  • Music, Drama, and Dance Therapists

  • Seasoned professionals seeking fresh approaches

  • New clinicians building their toolbox

  • Mid-career professionals preventing burnout

  • Graduate students

  • Career changers exploring new modalities

  • Trauma specialists expanding approaches

  • Looking to add creative interventions to your practice

  • Want to deepen existing expressive arts skills

  • Experiencing burnout and seeking renewal

  • Interested in evidence-based creative approaches

  • Need CE credits that don’t feel like work

  • Want connection with like-minded colleagues

 FAQs

  • Our workshops are open to educators and students, coaches, arts professionals, mental health, senior and hospice care, and social service professionals. You are not required to have any expressive arts or clinical experience unless specified in the session description.

    We encourage healers and helpers of all kinds to take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity to come together to learn, collaborate, and network.

  • Some sessions have specific requirements, usually common art-making supplies that are easy to obtain. Supply lists will be provided by sessions speakers and will be linked in your agenda as well as in our Attendee Hub.

  • All sessions are scheduled on Eastern Time (GMT -5:00) US and Canada. Use this easy time zone converter to adjust for your location. Be sure to set both the time and the date as our conference falls just after Daylight Savings Time ends.

  • Selected workshops have recordings available for review by registered attendees for a limited time. CE credits can only be issued if you attend the event live, but this is a great option for international participants.

  • Early bird pricing $25/hr before 11/2/25

    You can purchase one full week of sessions for $529 or two full weeks of sessions for $999 (both options include CE credits).

  • MODIFICATION POLICY

    Unless you are adding sessions to an existing registration, session change requests initiated by registrants incur a $15 fee per modification, $25 after October 15.

    CANCELLATION AND REFUND POLICY

    Cancellation Requests must be submitted in writing (email).   

       • Registrations cancelled more than 60 days before the start of the event are eligible for a 75% refund of the registration fees paid.

       • Registrations cancelled between 30 and 60 days before the start of the event are eligible for a 50% refund of the registration fees paid.

       • Registrations cancelled less than 30 days before the start of the event are not eligible for a refund.

    The Summit is not responsible for changes to faculty or sessions/times.