Development of the Expressive Therapies Continuum: The Lifework of Vija B. Lusebrink, PhD, ATR-BC, HLM

Abstract

Abstract This Viewpoint essay serves three purposes: (1) revealing the life experiences of Vija Lusebrink that shaped what would become the pantheoretical art therapy assessment and treatment model known as the Expressive Therapies Continuum; (2) clarifying the broad and deep scope of this model; and (3) encouraging the art therapy audience to recognize this model as a complex marriage of information processing and agents of change. The Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC) lends itself to outcome-informed treatment in art therapy as a systems-oriented means of gauging client responses to multidimensional interventive inputs and modifying the therapist’s approach accordingly. It is important for art therapists to share a unified understanding of the ETC that is consistent with the ideas of its co-creators.