Curiosity: A Precursor to the Development of Expressive Therapies Continuum-based Assessment Skills
December 05, 2025 / 5:45-6:45 PM Pacific Time
Good clinical decision-making rests on empathic attunement and responsiveness
Empathic attunement and responsiveness rest on curiosity; learning to see with open eyes and an open mind facilitates better assessment
Explore the most important skill needed for observing client artwork through the lens of nervous system functioning and the Expressive Therapies Continuum
You’re not feeling so confident about taking your next steps
You wish you had more clues about where to start treatment. Every client is so different, and your assessment training has left you wondering if you’re missing something. Practicing art therapy is your life’s dream, yet untangling the “where-to-get-started” knot is discouraging.
You’d love it if someone would just give you a manual you could follow to help you feel more confident about connecting assessment results to the initiation of treatment.
You suspect there’s a better way to make sense of the assessment data in client images
You’ve heard of the Expressive Therapies Continuum and know it’s a framework for assessment and treatment. You wonder if the ETC could help you find that starting point you keep searching for after assessment is complete.
Lately you’ve been asking yourself if there’s a way to build a bridge between the way you were trained to see client images and the way these images are seen through the levels and components of the ETC.
I can help you cultivate the curiosity needed for seeing how the structure of the Expressive Therapies Continuum manifests in client artwork
I’m Megan, and I love supporting practitioners as they learn to build that bridge between an overfocus on client symbols and a view of client nervous system functioning per the Expressive Therapies Continuum.
It’s a process; acquiring the skills to see client artwork through the lens of the ETC involves many steps. The first and most important one is the cultivation of curiosity. Curiosity involves cognitive and emotional functions that are essential in the ability to assess, among other clinical tasks.
A lack of curiosity can cause a therapist to overlook assessment data that helps determine the starting point of treatment. It can also cause a therapist to miss learning opportunities, research questions, the expansion of their personal view, and chances to grow through mindfulness, introspection, and reflection in their work with clients.
All these things are necessary for the development of empathy and responsiveness in the delivery of outcome-informed art therapy services. Learning how to observe with curiosity when encountering client artwork will serve as a starting point for your own evolutionary journey as a practitioner.
You’ll begin to see assessment information that’s been hiding in plain sight. You can use that information to help you untangle the knot you’ve been struggling with and get treatment started in the right place for each client.
Are you ready to level up your ability to attune to client images made during assessment?
You don’t need a manual—you need curiosity! Manuals don’t promote empathic attunement and responsiveness, but curiosity does. Join me for a one-hour learning opportunity to expand your understanding of this overlooked cognitive and emotional asset and take a step toward seeing assessment data with open eyes and an open mind.
If your graduate program didn’t help you understand the value of being inquisitive and your work environment doesn’t prioritize it either, this live webinar is for you. We’ll explore curiosity as a precursor to the development of Expressive Therapies Continuum-based assessment skills, though you’ll be able to apply the webinar’s content beyond this in your work with others.
Learning Objectives: Attendees will be able to
define the role of assessment in outcome-informed treatment.
practice a curiosity-raising exercise to shape observation and responsiveness in assessment and treatment.
describe one major feature of each of the Expressive Therapies Continuum’s six information processing components as it relates to assessment data.
Investment: $40.00 USD
CE Hours: 1.0 for this live event
Megan VanMeter PLLC has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7793. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Megan VanMeter PLLC is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
Does your assessment training leave you wondering how to take the next steps in art therapy?
Hope to see you there!
More information about the webinar
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Megan VanMeter
LPC (AZ), LMHC (IN), LPC-AT/S (TX), ATR-BCMegan is licensed by the counseling boards in the U.S. states of Arizona, Indiana, and Texas, and she also holds board-certification status through the Art Therapy Credentials Board. She has developed an online private practice using the Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC), a nervous system-informed framework, as a basis for assessment, treatment planning, intervention, progress monitoring, and case conceptualization. Megan earned her master’s degree in art therapy with a specialization in grief and medical counseling from the University of Louisville, where she studied under ETC co-creators Vija Lusebrink and Sandra (Kagin) Graves-Alcorn.
She has served on professional boards and committees at local, regional, and national levels. A scholar at heart, Megan enjoys doing research, giving presentations, and writing about the Expressive Therapies Continuum. She is hopeful that a new generation of therapists will have the opportunity to learn the ETC via methods similar to the ones her professors used. Megan is cultivating a community of ETC enthusiasts and provides ETC supervision and webinars to help others develop appreciation for both the basics and the nuances of this important framework.
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