Creative Arts Therapist: Job Description, Education, Skills and Duties, Earnings and Outlook
Submitted by: paula
Job Overview As the name implies, creative arts therapists are types of rehabilitation staff who use several forms of creative arts to treat or rehabilitate people with mental, physical as well as emotional disabilities and difficulties. The forms of creative arts that they employ include several performing arts such as music, psychodrama, dance and literary and visual arts such as poetry, drawing and sketchings.They use these methods to be able to diagnose problems of their patients as well as to enable them to achieve their therapeutic goals. Commonly, creative arts therapists specialize in a particular therapeutic activity, be it music, psychodrama, or poetry to which they are trained for.
Education, Knowledge and Trainings Required
If you really want to pursue this kind of profession, take as many subjects in related arts such as Literature, Music, Physical Education, Visual and Performing Arts as early as high school. These will provide you with a very good background in doing the interventions as a soon as you become a creative arts therapist. For the Post graduate training, a minimum requirement of a bachelor's degree in the related arts is needed. Courses that can be taken include Art Education, Psychology, Studio Art as well as Music. Certification to be able to practice in this profession is recommended for an additional credentials. However, lincenses are required by most of the states to be allowed to practice as a creative arts therapist. many registered creative arts therapists have other licenses in fields like social work, marriage and family therapy as well as on mental health.
Skills and Abilities
The most important skills that shoud be highly developed in this profession are the skills in helping and teaching, as well as skills in specific creative art of choice. Take for example, if you are to concentrate on musical therapy, you should have mastered at least an instrument of choice, piano, guitar, violin, etc., as well as the music theory. Communication skills are essential as they deal with rehabilitating people and working their way to be more productive despite their abilities through understanding their concerns and higlighting their strengths.
Duties
The duties of a creative arts therapist are not similar to one another. These are dependent on the cases of patients that they handle and the activities that are best suited as a rehabilitation measure. Their work can either be indoors and outdoors too. Before the therapist start with any of the interventions, they meet indoor with the team of the other health professionals.
The purpose of this is to primarily coordinate the findings as well as deliberate with the improvements the patients have been exhibiting. They are tasked to get a file of the patient's strengths, limitations, as well as their interest so to be used in creating a plan for a good program of therapy. The program is supposed to create a positive change in them. After administering several sessions of the appropriate therapy, they will then evaluate and reassess, and confer with the other health professionals as to what other things can be done and included.
Earnings and Job Outlook
The salaries of the creative arts therapist are varied. It may range from 20,000 U.S dollars to 62,000 U.S. dollars in the hospital psychiatric facility. Those who are working for the disabled children are paid more approximately around 70,000 U.S. dollars at the maximum. There are others who gain more income through freelance practice that will add to their usual salary from their employment. The job oportunities for this kind of profession is also said to increase at a steady rate as more population is becoming aware of the possibilities of rehabilitation as well as because of the growing elderly population in need of these kinds of services.
Paula Hiz is a researcher and a human resource specialist who helps newly graduates, job applicants and post graduate professionals be aware of their job opportunities and available trainings for skills and practice upgrading.
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