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Expressive arts therapy · Arlington, VA
Art-based and music-based sessions used alongside clinical therapy in PHP and IOP — no artistic skill required, and no replacement for evidence-based care. For trauma, shame, and emotions that talk therapy alone can stall on, for adults in Arlington, Washington, DC, and Northern Virginia.
Medically reviewed by the VABH Medical Team
Who this helps
It's used most often when the material a person is working through is hard to access through conversation alone.
Traumatic memory is often stored in fragments — images, sensations, sounds — rather than a clean narrative. Art and music can access that material when verbal recall stalls or feels impossible.
Learn more about Trauma that's hard to put into wordsShame frequently resists direct discussion because naming it out loud feels exposing. Making something — a drawing, a piece of music — creates distance that makes shame easier to approach.
Some clients, especially early in depression treatment, don't have the energy or words to talk through what they're feeling. A creative process can open a door that conversation hasn't.
Learn more about Depression with low verbal engagementRecovery often requires rebuilding an identity apart from substance use. Creative expression gives clients a nonjudgmental way to explore who they are without use, especially early on.
Learn more about Substance use recovery and identity rebuildingFor clients whose anxiety makes stillness and direct conversation activating, having their hands occupied with a creative task can lower defenses enough for real processing to happen.
Learn more about Anxiety and difficulty sitting still with feelingsGrief rarely moves in a straight verbal line. Music and visual art give grief somewhere to go besides a sentence, which is often closer to how it actually feels.
How it works
Expressive arts groups run inside PHP and IOP programming, feeding directly back into your individual clinical care.
Sessions are not an art class and nothing is evaluated for quality. A stick figure and a five-minute drawing carry exactly as much clinical value as a detailed one — what matters is the process, not the product.
Drawing, painting, collage, and other visual media are used to externalize an internal state — a feeling, a memory, a relationship — so it can be looked at and discussed from some distance.
Listening to or creating music, rhythm work, and lyric analysis help access and regulate emotion, particularly for clients whose feelings live more in the body than in words.
Trauma and shame are often held below the level of language. Expressive arts work bypasses the verbal defenses that can keep talk therapy circling the same territory without resolution.
Expressive arts groups run alongside — not instead of — individual therapy, group CBT or DBT, and psychiatric care. Material that surfaces in an arts session is brought back into clinical work with your primary therapist.
Sessions are led by clinicians trained in expressive arts methods, not by outside art instructors, so what comes up is handled with the same clinical judgment as any other therapy hour.
Expressive arts therapy is not a replacement for CBT, DBT, EMDR, or medication management — it's a way to open up material that then gets worked through using established, evidence-based approaches.
Clients who feel intimidated by traditional talk therapy sometimes engage more readily through a creative modality first, which then builds the trust needed for deeper clinical work.
Levels of care
An assessment determines your overall level of care; expressive arts groups are layered into that plan, not offered as a separate track.
Expressive arts groups are woven into the daily PHP schedule alongside individual therapy, psychiatric care, and process groups, giving multiple channels for material to surface and be worked through.
Art and music-based groups run within IOP programming, complementing CBT and DBT skills groups during day or evening tracks.
Material that emerges in an expressive arts group is brought into individual sessions with your primary therapist, so nothing surfaces in a group and then gets left there.
We don't offer expressive arts therapy on its own, outside of a broader clinical treatment plan — it works as a complement to evidence-based therapy and psychiatric care, not a substitute for it.
Across the river from Maryland
Our Arlington center is a short drive from Bethesda, Montgomery County, and Prince George's County. Maryland clients regularly attend in-person PHP and IOP here, and evening tracks keep treatment compatible with a DC workday. Telehealth sessions are available for Virginia residents.
Common questions
No. Expressive arts sessions are not evaluated on skill or aesthetics. The value is in the process of creating and what it surfaces, not in producing something polished. Many clients who feel they have 'no artistic ability' get real clinical benefit from these sessions.
An art-based session might involve drawing a feeling, a relationship, or a memory using simple materials, followed by discussion of what came up. A music-based session might involve listening to a chosen piece, creating rhythm together, or analyzing lyrics tied to your experience. A clinician facilitates and helps process what surfaces.
Some material — especially trauma and shame — is stored in a way that's hard to access purely through language. Being able to talk about a problem intellectually doesn't always mean the emotional charge has moved. Creative modalities can reach material that stays just out of reach in conversation alone.
No. Expressive arts therapy is a complement to evidence-based treatment — CBT, DBT, EMDR, and medication management remain the core of the clinical plan. Arts-based work opens material that then gets addressed through those established approaches.
Yes. It's often used to help clients explore identity and emotion during early recovery, when substance use has previously been the main coping mechanism and new ways of processing feeling are still being built.
Expressive arts work here is primarily delivered in group format within PHP and IOP programming, though relevant material is always followed up individually with your primary therapist.
Expressive arts groups delivered as part of PHP or IOP programming are covered under your program's daily or per-session rate, the same as any other group therapy component. Our admissions team verifies your PHP and IOP benefits before you begin.
In-person care at 5400 Shawnee Road, Arlington, VA for VA, MD, and DC residents. Telehealth for Virginia residents only.
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Insurance accepted
Expressive arts groups delivered within PHP and IOP programming are covered under your program's daily or per-session rate, as a behavioral health benefit under most commercial plans — Anthem, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealthcare, Optum, Sentara Health Plans, UMR, and Johns Hopkins Health Plans. Send us your card and we'll confirm your benefits before you begin.
Don't see your plan? Call us — we also work with out-of-network benefits and self-pay.