A Creative Continuum: A Framework for Working with the Whole Child by Integrating Expressive Arts with Play Therapy

Jill Weidknecht Van Horne

PhD, RPTS, LCMHCS, NCPSC, EAGALA Certified

Katherine S Biddle

PhD, LPC (VA), REAT

Saturday, June 20, 2026

5:00-8:15 pm (EST)

(APT Non-Contact CE Hours)

Disclaimer: UNC Charlotte encourages the following guidelines for CE credits for participating in Live Webinars/ Non-contact. All participants in live webinars must 1) actively participate in the Live Webinar through the chat feature and experiential activities; 2) have their camera on and each participant is onscreen for the Live Webinar; and 3) complete an evaluation and post-test questions within one week of the webinar. UNC Charlotte staff will monitor attendance. UNC Charlotte utilizes Zoom for their Live Webinars.

Session Description

The practices of play therapy and expressive arts therapy are closely aligned in their focus on principles of creativity, imagination, and humans’ innate impulse toward healing. When combined, these approaches leverage therapeutic practice, addressing a range of outcomes from self-regulation to the development and integration of insight. The Expressive Therapies Continuum can be applied as an accessible framework for offering expressive arts approaches in conjunction with play therapy, addressing children’s needs from either bottom-up or top-down methods. Through this presentation, participants will have the opportunity to apply previously developed knowledge of play therapy within a clinical framework that expands modalities and mediums of engagement to include visual art, music, movement, drama, writing, and more. The presenters will offer an overview of the ways in which unique modalities and mediums facilitate experience on different levels of human experience, including sensory/kinesthetic, perceptual/affective, and cognitive/symbolic. Participants will be invited to engage in a multi-modal experience that invokes different levels of the continuum within their play therapy sessions. Through didactic learning, discussion, and experiential engagement, participants will learn how the Expressive Therapies Continuum may be used to conceptualize and assess play therapy creative process and develop a multi-modal approach to working with their play thearpy clients in holistic ways, including all levels of human experience. By expanding their own creative continuum, participants will be better equipped to ethically and effectively integrate expressive arts approaches within their play therapy practice to support their play therapy clients (children, adolescents and adults) they work with in achieving a wide array of therapeutic outcomes.

Primary Area: Play Therapy Skills and Methods, Play Therapy Special Topics

Play Therapy Competencies Addressed: Clinical Play Therapy Skills

Theoretical Basis: Integrative

Webinar Schedule:

5:00-6:30 pm Present Content

6:30-6:45 pm Break

6:45-8:15 pm Present Content

Learning Objectives

Identify three distinct clinical benefits of integrating expressive arts and play therapy approaches
Using the Expressive Therapies Continuum as a framework, assess a hypothetical play therapy client’s creative process and engagement
Apply the Expressive Therapies Continuum to one's play therapy practice practice

Brief Bio:

Jill Weidknecht Van Horne PhD, RPTS, LCMHCS, NCPSC, EAGALA certified is the director of the Professional School Counseling (PSC) Program and Associate Professor at Appalachian State University. She has 25+ years of PSC & CMHC with children and adolescents. Professional interests include incorporating multisensory & experiential approaches such as equine assisted therapy, expressive arts and play therapy. She is the Past President of the European Branch of the American Counseling Association and Past VP of the North Carolina Association for Play Therapy. Her coedited textbook on creative & expressive art treatment planning is currently in press.

Brief Bio:

Katherine S. Biddle, PhD, LPC, REAT is an Assistant Professor in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. Dr. Biddle received a master’s degree in Expressive Arts Therapy from Lesley University (Cambridge, MA) in 2007 and completed her counseling residency in community mental health, providing outpatient counseling for children, adolescents, and families. A Licensed Professional Counselor and Registered Expressive Arts Therapist, Dr. Biddle has 15 years of experience facilitating individual and group-based counseling, expressive arts therapy, and art-based interventions with clients of all ages in outpatient, inpatient, residential, and medical settings. Dr. Biddle completed her PhD in Counselor Education at Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA) in 2018 and served for several years as an arts-in-healthcare program administrator prior to joining App State in 2022. Dr. Biddle’s research agenda focuses on application of the arts and expressive arts in counseling, health, and education.

Questions?

Please contact the Office of School and Community Partnerships at oscp-coed@charlotte.edu if you have any questions.