Dance/Movement Therapy is where psychology and creativity meet to help us help others. Through experiential, embodied learning and immersive clinical training, you’ll discover the curative nature of the creative process and the healing potential of dance.
Creative, aesthetic, and psychotherapeutic theory come together in everything we do. Movement is done in every course and is used to learn a range of therapeutic skills. Experiential processes translate the theoretical framework into personal and practical application. You’ll focus on a variety of populations over the course of two years of clinical training.
The Experience
The MS in Dance/Movement Therapy is a 60-credit program for students who want a diverse skill set, balanced with a strong theoretical framework. Interdisciplinary, socially engaged, and justice-driven, our Creative Arts Therapy community is connected by a shared mission for transformative change.
Low-Residency Format
The low-residency format is an innovative educational program based on a low-residency adult-learning model. The program is designed for those students who do not live near or are otherwise unable to engage in a traditional master’s degree format.
Students in the low-residency format are admitted for the spring semester only.
The cycle of classes is as follows: in March, the students take two, 3 credit classes over 9 days; in June they take two, 3 credit classes over 9 days of classes with a weekend break followed by three weeks of classes which run Monday–Friday. Students generally complete reading assignments before classes and then complete their papers after classes are over, giving them a chance to integrate class experience with readings and clinical training experience. Two years of clinical training are done from September through May following the first and second year of summer classes. Supervision is completed through weekly online contact, as well as an active online forum that keeps low-residency students consistently in touch with Pratt faculty and one another. Housing is available on campus. The low-residency program is not considered full-time. Therefore, international students will be ineligible for F–1 visas.
Internships
We believe creative and clinical practices are best developed together, each informing and improving the other. Internships are a vital part of the hallmark experiential learning process. Much of the coursework draws directly from clinical experiences and processing of client material. Students complete internship experiences in an array of site placements, including inpatient hospitals, community mental health agencies, and school-based settings, among others.
The mission of the Creative Arts Therapy Department at Pratt Institute is to provide the highest level of clinical training in art and dance/movement therapy, preparing graduates to work effectively with people from diverse communities. Our unique teaching philosophy is based on a combination of personal experience, didactic learning, and practical application, and is rooted in the primacy of creative process and psychodynamic theory. We offer an integration of historical perspectives and current andragogy, leading to applications of practice in a variety of settings. The program combines the power of non-verbal communication, artistic process, and embodied creative action. Our students develop self-awareness and recognition of their unique attributes through experiential learning. They acquire an increased sense of self and resiliency, which is translated to their work as creative arts therapists.
Students will be able to identify and utilize their own internal processes in service of therapeutic interventions.
Students will comprehend and apply creative and aesthetic processes in the context of creative arts therapy theory and practice.
Students will be able to establish a therapeutic relationship using imagery, movement, symbolization, and verbalization; and recognize shifts within that developing relationship.
Students will be able to demonstrate knowledge of psychodynamic theory within the context of creative arts therapy practice in the service of diagnosis, treatment, and ongoing evaluation.
Students will be able to articulate clinical theory and applied practice through writing, research, oral presentation, and professional advocacy across broad interdisciplinary communities.
Students will be able to apply ethical and professional codes of practice as they apply to clinical practices, communities, and self.
Students will be able to understand the intersectionality of power, privilege, and oppression as they apply to clinical practices, communities and self.
Our Faculty
Alongside their teaching roles, our faculty are accomplished artists who integrate creative and clinical practices every day in their work. See all Creative Arts Therapy faculty and administrators.
Join us at Pratt. Learn more about admissions requirements, plan your visit, talk to a counselor, and start your application. Take the next step.
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Both the MPS in Art Therapy and Creativity Development and MS in Dance/Movement Therapy Master’s are 60-credit programs providing a synthesis of creative, aesthetic, and psychotherapeutic theory. Courses offer a thorough theoretical framework that is translated into personal and practical application through an experiential process. Artwork and/or movement is done in every course and is used to learn therapeutic skills. Students focus on a wide variety of populations and are required to work with a different population for each of the two years of fieldwork/internship/practicum. Both programs are for students who want a broad body of skills, balanced with a strong theoretical framework.
Low-Residency Format
The low residency format is an innovative educational program based on a low residency adult-learning model. The program is designed for those students who do not live near or are otherwise unable to engage in a traditional master’s degree format.
Students in the low residency format are admitted for the spring semester only.
The cycle of classes is as follows: in March, the students take two, 3 credit classes over 9 days; in June they take two, 3 credit classes over 9 days of classes with a weekend break followed by three weeks of classes which run Monday–Friday. Students generally complete reading assignments before classes and then complete their papers after classes are over, giving them a chance to integrate class experience with readings and fieldwork/practicum/internship experience. Two years of fieldwork/internship (dance/movement therapy) or practicum (art therapy) are done from September through May following the first and second year of summer classes. Supervision is completed through weekly online contact, as well as an active online forum that keeps low residency students consistently in touch with Pratt faculty and one another. Housing is available on campus. The low residency format is offered to both art and dance/movement therapy students. The low residency program is not considered full-time. Therefore, international students will be ineligible for F–1 visas.
