[Self-Study] Separating Expressive Therapies Continuum Truth from Myth: Guidance for Art Therapy Practitioners, Educators, and Researchers (N/NY)

Megan VanMeter is a board-certified art therapist who is licensed through the counseling boards in Arizona, Indiana, and Texas.  She currently operates a virtual private practice, but prior to this she provided clinical art therapy services in behavioral health, correctional, educational, medical, and social services settings, offering workshops for therapists on the side. Megan earned her master’s degree in art therapy at the University of Louisville, where she studied under Expressive Therapies Continuum co-creators Drs. Vija Lusebrink and Sandra (Kagin) Graves-Alcorn.  From these two visionary art therapy pioneers, she learned how to develop responsive, in-the-moment interventions that serve to connect with and support clients as they organically move toward integration. A teacher at heart, Megan has been helping art therapists learn facets of the Expressive Therapies Continuum for over 15 years.  Megan offers an ETC newsletter to keep professionals abreast of learning opportunities, and she maintains an ETC bibliography that features the framework’s co-creators and their educational descendants. 

This free resource supports exploration of the ETC within the context of a training lineage and is available at https://www.meganvanmeter.com/for-expressive-therapists. 

Megan hopes to support other art therapists in understanding the ETC through training methods similar to the ones used by Lusebrink and (Kagin) Graves-Alcorn.  Aside from her passion for helping others learn, she has served the art therapy community through board and committee work via the American Art Therapy Association, AATA affiliate chapters, and the Art Therapy Credentials Board.

Dr. Lisa D. Hinz is a licensed clinical psychologist and board-certified art therapist with more than two decades of experience advancing the theory and practice of art therapy. She is an associate professor and director of the Art Therapy Psychology Doctoral Program at Dominican University of California in San Rafael. Dr. Hinz began her career in clinical psychology but discovered her passion for art therapy while supervising a master’s student at the University of Louisville Counseling Center. This experience led her to earn a post-graduate certificate in art therapy in 1992, where she trained under Drs. Vija Lusebrink and Sandra (Kagin) Graves-Alcorn, co-creators of the Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC)—a foundational framework for understanding the therapeutic power of art. A leading voice in the field, Dr. Hinz has authored numerous professional publications and three influential books, including Expressive Therapies Continuum: A Framework for Using Art in Therapy, now in its second edition (2020). Her scholarship reflects a deep interest in materials and methods in art therapy, and she has been teaching and writing about ETC theory for over 23 years. In addition to her academic leadership, Dr. Hinz maintains a private practice in St. Helena, California, specializing in the treatment of eating issues, substance abuse, and lifestyle medicine.