Creative Lesson Plans and School Counseling Interventions: Integrating Theory, Best Practices, and Expressive Arts into Our Work

Aubrey Uresti & Suzy Thomas  

 

Art, music, and dance have always been instrumental in helping people to celebrate happiness, grieve losses, and foster hope in ways that words alone cannot always facilitate (Degges-White, 2017; Malchiodi, 2005). Expressive arts techniques can be integrated into an inclusive, comprehensive school counseling program that enhances the experiences of students, school counselors, and the entire school community. Literature documents the mental health benefits of using expressive arts techniques (Bitonte & De Santo, 2014) in school counseling with K–12 students (Arroyo, 2020; Degges-White & Colon, 2014; Van Velsor, 2013). Teaching students to use expressive arts supports healthy self-expression, exploring feelings, reducing stress and anxiety, and improving self-esteem (Gil, 2011).   

Many counselor education programs include expressive arts curriculum, as expressive arts pair well with the teaching of counseling theories (Degges-White, 2017). Visual arts, music, movement, and drama can support the development of graduate students by increasing their self-awareness, expanding their skillset, and promoting confidence in their ability to work with diverse clients. The tangible physical and mental health benefits of expressive arts are relevant for counselors-in-training and for their future clients and students (Li & Peng, 2022; Lindsey et al., 2018; Malchiodi, 2005).  

Expressive arts can honor moments of joy and give voice to experiences of pain and trauma (Uresti, 2013). These approaches may reach a wider audience because they move beyond traditional talk therapy and allow for non-verbal and creative expression (Li & Peng, 2022), mirroring the principles of culturally sustaining counseling practices (ASCA, 2021a; Ratts & Greenleaf, 2017; Ratts et al., 2016).  

Practicing school counselors can develop powerful interventions and original lesson plans to support students’ academic, career, and social/emotional development by intentionally combining culturally sustaining practices and counseling theories with expressive arts. School counselors can learn strategies to use art, drama, music, and storytelling to support the entire student body and to empower underrepresented student groups.  

Art-based school counseling also offers benefits to practitioners, as it represents a fun way to engage with students and the hope of feeling inspired as practitioners (re)discover their own innate creativity. There are documented physical and mental health benefits to counselors and clients (Degges-White, 2017; Gladding, 2005; Malchiodi, 2005; Oaklander, 1998). These benefits may potentially serve to offset the potential for school counselor burnout, as has been found for other counselors (Gam et al., 2016).  

This article describes a series of school counseling interventions to support PK-12 students with expressive arts and through a culturally sustaining counseling lens. We present original applications of expressive arts techniques (e.g., art, music, movement, and drama) to support students' academic, career, and social/emotional development. The overarching focus of this manuscript is on creativity in school counseling delivery.  

School-based Interventions and Lesson Plans 

Interventions are, in some ways, anything school counselors do. However, there are some criteria to keep in mind to use interventions well and to combine them with expressive arts. Effective interventions are grounded in theory, which means that it is critical to have a good sense of the counseling theory or theories guiding our work and to maintain currency in the field (Corey, 2024). Interventions can be preventive, aimed at offering support to students, or geared toward intervening in times of crisis; and, interventions can be developed for implementation at any delivery level, including individual or small group counseling, large groups such as classrooms or grade levels, or school-wide. The primary principle is that interventions should be intentional, and the guidelines presented in this manuscript encourage that intentionality.  

Lesson plans represent a specific type of intervention that school counselors can deliver as part of their comprehensive school counseling programs, often at the classroom level. There are a number of tools that support school counselors who wish to design effective, theory-based, research-informed, and culturally sustaining lesson plans that incorporate expressive arts. These include the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and backward design (CAST, 2024; Wiggins & McTighe, 2005), the templates provided by the American School Counselor Association (ASCA, 2025), and the framework of multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS; Goodman-Scott et al., 2023).  

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Backward Design  

The principles of UDL and backward design include multiple means of engagement, representation, and action & expression (CAST, 2024; Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). The concept of multiple means of engagement involves offering choices, emphasizing students’ interests, and encouraging collaboration. An example of multiple means of representation would be using different formats to present information (written, audio, video) to honor ways of learning. Multiple means of action and expression would include offering a range of ways for students to demonstrate the knowledge or skills they gain in the lesson and varying your approach to assessment of learning (CAST, 2024; Wiggins & McTighe, 2005).  

Backward design (CAST, 2024; Wiggins & McTighe, 2005) is a well-known approach to designing curriculum that begins with an emphasis on learning outcomes, or what students need to know, understand, and be able to do after the lesson. With backward design, instead of starting by designing the activity, the first step is identifying the desired outcome and a measurement for that outcome (i.e., assessment or evidence, both formative and summative). Backward design is also considered a student-centered and purposeful approach to developing lesson plans. The principles of UDL and backward design lend themselves well to applying expressive arts in school counseling, because they involve a respect for creativity and innovation and a focus on student choice.  

ASCA Lesson Plan Templates  

Lesson plans that incorporate expressive arts should also be grounded in research and literature. The ASCA lesson plan templates (2025) offer a series of steps for school counselors to develop and deliver a lesson plan that meets certain criteria. The template asks for a title, an indication of whether it is one lesson or part of a series, the age group or audience, and a list of needed materials. It also asks for the source or evidence base and for an identification of learning outcomes. The template is grounded in ASCA Student Standards: Mindsets and Behaviors for Student Success (ASCA, 2021b) and includes an assessment or evaluation component. Using the ASCA templates supports school counselors in being organized in the conception and implementation of their interventions, and also provides a method for ensuring that each intervention is assessed to support reflective practice, revisions, and future implementation and to document effectiveness of the school counseling program.  

Multi-tiered Systems of Support 

Multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS; Goodman-Scott et al., 2023) offers a framework for school counselors to reflect on the time they spend delivering interventions and lesson plans at various levels in their schools and to engage in intentional design of their school counseling programs. Finding ways to move toward more balance in terms of which tiers take up the majority of time can promote greater job satisfaction and efficacy in terms of the implementation of interventions. For example, school counselors who spend most of their time in individual counseling with students in crisis may find that their work is ultimately more effective in preventing crises if they develop more widespread classroom-level interventions and school-wide programs that address those crisis issues. On the other hand, school counselors who spend a lot of time offering classroom lesson plans but have not yet explored group work might consider developing a plan for a group on a topic that there is a need for at their school. MTSS is recognized as a strengths-based, inclusive, and collaborative model for school counseling, meeting the criteria of culturally sustaining practices, discussed next (Boulden & Goodman-Scott, 2023).  

Culturally Sustaining School Counseling Practices  

Another foundation for delivering meaningful school counseling interventions and lesson plans using expressive arts involves integrating culturally sustaining principles (ASCA, 2021a; Boulden & Goodman-Scott, 2023; New York State Education Department, 2018; Ratts & Greenleaf, 2017; Ratts et al., 2016). Some of the tenets of culturally sustaining counseling surface in UDL and backward design, such as being student-centered and collaborative. Being collaborative also means being positive and relational, encouraging students to be actively involved in the intervention as opposed to passive learners. Strengths-based approaches to learning also entail recognizing the holistic set of assets and resources of students instead of focusing on deficits or problems, and this strategy represents another dimension of culturally sustaining practice (Alim et al., 2020; ASCA, 2021a; Atkins & Oglesby, 2019; New York State Education Department, 2018). Being inclusive involves welcoming and celebrating diversity, but also actively addressing issues of race, culture, and identity. Advocacy in culturally sustaining practices is a longstanding element of the ASCA priorities for school counselors to be leaders and change agents, which involves interrupting inequities and working toward social justice (ASCA, 2021c; Atkins & Oglesby, 2019; Boulden & Goodman-Scott, 2023; Holcomb-McCoy, 2021; Ieva et al., 2022).  

Culturally sustaining practices focus not only on how we are with our students, but also with regard to ourselves. Self-awareness is critical and includes being reflective and knowledgeable about historical and current injustices as well as our own identities, positionality, and history (ASCA, 2021a; Ratts & Greenleaf, 2017; Ratts et al., 2016). 

The use of expressive arts in counselor education and school counseling aligns well with culturally sustaining counseling practices. Degges-White (2017) underscored the effectiveness of expressive arts with diverse groups of clients/students. Expressive arts help to promote more inclusive practices because they support moving beyond words in counseling and offer more options for students to express themselves with color, sound, imagery, and movement.  

Types of Expressive Arts 

There are many types of expressive arts that can become part of a school counselor’s repertoire, including visual arts (e.g., paint, pastel, charcoal, clay, photography, collage), movement, music, writing (e.g., journaling, poetry), and drama. Different media allow for different types of expression and varying degrees of control, which may be chosen intentionally by the counselor or student. For example, a student who is feeling overwhelmed and frustrated and is unable to contain those feelings might experience a powerful release through visual arts by using finger paints, whereas a student who wants to show an internal dynamic or feeling with precision might prefer gel pens or colored pencils. Colors evolve from soft to saturated, or dull to bright, a parallel to emotions. Students can shade or deepen the color to represent  stronger feelings and use different materials (e.g., crayons, pastels, watercolor, markers, fingerpaints) to show what the feeling word “sad” might mean, what it looks like, how light or saturated the feeling might be.  

The tools used provide a wide range of possibilities for expression of themes and emotions that reflect the issues the student is experiencing. Finding ways for students to safely express themselves and release energy can be helpful in supporting them to navigate their way through the school day, understand and describe their feelings, find cognitive space to focus on learning, and have healthy social connections at school.  

Model for Integrating Expressive Arts into Interventions and Lesson Plans 

We have developed a model for implementing expressive arts interventions and lesson plans into school counseling practice. Each example is presented at a specific delivery level (i.e., individual, group, classroom, school-wide). The examples employ one type of expressive arts and include techniques from one or more well-known counseling theories, a suggested list of materials needed to carry out the intervention or lesson plan, and a connection to culturally sustaining counseling practices. The interventions and lesson plans were developed using principles of UDL and backward design and ASCA best practices, including identifying learning outcomes and objectives and noting the ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors (2021b) that are achieved. Many school counselors use visual arts materials in their work (e.g., markers, crayons, and paint) but may not have experimented with some of the tools presented next. We intentionally chose expressive arts modalities that might offer the potential for stretching beyond the familiar and gaining comfort with new tools and techniques.  

We reviewed the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCC; Ratts et al., 2016) and principles of emancipatory pedagogy (Love, 2019; Thurber et al., 2019) and synthesized several key principles of culturally sustaining practices in counseling and education. We organized these into a framework for developing and implementing expressive arts interventions in school counseling. The themes we chose to focus on include self-awareness (for the school counselor and the students), identity development and understanding, authenticity, inclusivity, collaboration, and advocacy. These themes are infused into the interventions presented, represented through the expressive arts component, and connected to the chosen theory/theories and ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors (ASCA, 2021b).  

Mask Making: Individual Counseling from a Jungian Perspective 

Mask making is a type of sculpture that we suggest for work at the individual level. Materials needed include plaster cloth (i.e., the type used for casts for broken bones), scissors to cut the cloth into strips, a bowl with water, paper towels, Vaseline, a headband, a mirror, spackle, papier mâché, sandpaper, paint, glue and embellishments (e.g., feathers, poms, glitter, buttons, ribbon). The student needs to apply Vaseline to their face so that the plaster mask will come off easily when dry and having a headband to push hair back so that the mask doesn’t stick to hair is also helpful. Students can place the strips on their own faces, and/or the school counselor can help them with the application; a mirror is useful for this project. Once there is a structured outline to the face (i.e., several layers have been applied and have dried), the student can remove the mask and put it on a surface to continue the work. Materials at this stage include using more strips of plaster to strengthen the mask and then spackle or papier mâché to build up and reinforce parts of the mask. When the spackle has dried, the mask can be painted and embellished in whatever way represents what the student wishes to express with their mask. Mask making is not an activity that takes place in one counseling session, because the mask needs to be built and reinforced, with time between sessions for the materials to dry.  

As an expressive arts intervention, mask making can be used with a theoretical connection to Jungian archetypes in counseling sessions (Jung, 2023), as the mask is not a literal representation of the face but a metaphorical or symbolic one. Students can make masks to represent parts of themselves that they wish to know more about or parts they see as hidden (i.e., Self, Shadow, Anima/Animus; Jung, 2023). As such, the starting point or learning outcome for the mask intervention involves increasing self-awareness, and the technique connects to the culturally sustaining practice of supporting self-awareness and identity development (ASCA, 2021a; Ratts & Greenleaf, 2017; Ratts et al., 2016).  The ASCA Mindset and Behaviors (ASCA, 2021b) that map onto this activity (M1., B-SMS 6) focus on holistic development and balance and overcoming barriers, themes that parallel the process of Jungian individuation (Jung, 2023).   

School counselors may or may not be familiar with the technique of mask making, and they may worry that the time involved in the stages of making a mask exceeds their capacity for working one-on-one with a student. Expressive arts techniques like mask making complement the exploration that takes place in counseling sessions, and school counselors using mask making can schedule multiple meetings over a period of weeks, combining the preparation of the mask along with counseling conversations about the themes that brought the student into counseling and whatever is surfacing for them as they work on their mask. The first author used mask making with students who were exploring self-concept and identity, grief and loss, and healing from family violence and trauma. 

We recommend that school counselors try out the materials themselves first and make their own mask, paying attention not only to how the materials feel and work at each stage, but also to their own cognitive and emotional responses as the mask emerges and takes on a life of its own. Attending to our own growth and development and making masks at different stages of our careers or during pivotal moments in our own lives, offers us an opportunity for attending to our own process of individuation. The second author has been making masks for over 25 years to honor specific milestones, represent grief, or welcome growth and change.   

Psychodrama and Storytelling: Group Work  

Psychodrama (Moreno,1994, 2011; Moreno & Moreno, 1969, 1975) and storytelling through narrative therapy (Besley, 2001; Nafziger & DeKruyf, 2018; Patrick, 2017; White & Epston,1990) and expressive writing (Baikie & Wilhelm, 2005; Degges-White, 2017) represent expressive arts techniques that can be carried out in small group counseling. Combined with the narrative technique counter-storytelling used by critical scholars (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002), this can provide the foundation for a powerful intervention. The learning outcome in this intervention is healthy expression, through action, movement, and dialogue, and/or reflection and writing. These approaches, specifically psychodrama, work best when multiple roles can be developed and explored in a group setting. The theoretical underpinnings for storytelling are psychodrama and narrative therapy.  

Like mask making, it might be the case that school counselors are not as familiar with psychodrama techniques and might wonder if they can be carried out in a school setting. We encourage school counselors to explore psychodrama for its potential to increase self-awareness and prosocial skills and for the ways in which leaning into spontaneity offers opportunities for growth for group members individually and for meaningful connections among group members. We have found that students of all ages grow through experiences with psychodrama in group work. We offer suggestions here for getting started, and recommend additional reading and practice with psychodrama techniques before leading a psychodrama group.  

Preparing for a group that uses psychodrama includes having an open space, enough chairs for the group members and to use as props for empty chair exercises, for use during experiments, and/or for building a story. Chairs can represent people, places, or objects like bridges. Other props that the school counselor might bring include hats, sunglasses, wigs, or even costumes, although we generally prefer simple items like scarves or pillows that become symbols for objects, people, or feelings. For example, a bag of scarves (e.g., pieces of fabric in different colors) can be placed in the group and members are asked what qualities they would like to bring into the group space. The group facilitator might say, “I want to invite playfulness here,” drop a scarf into the center of the circle to represent playfulness, and ask, “What is another quality that you want to bring into this space?” A scarf could be used to show the “wall” between two people in a psychodrama enactment, or a pillow could be placed to depict the distance between two concepts (e.g., confusion and certainty).  

Psychodrama begins with the warm-up stage, inviting group members to ready themselves for actively participating in exploration of their own issues and stories and those of other group members or even the group (Moreno,1994, 2011; Moreno & Moreno, 1969, 1975). School counselors can use warm-up exercises like “soundball,” where an imaginary ball is passed around the group with an accompanying sound, “caught” with that sound, and “sent” with a new sound. Warm-ups can include creative approaches to group introductions; for example, each group member is invited to say their name and add a gesture, sound, or a comment about how they are feeling that day, which the group plays back to them by mirroring that gesture, sound, or comment.  

The warm-up is followed by the identification of a story (i.e., the action stage) that a group member (i.e., the protagonist) would like to tell. The protagonist assigns roles (people, places, objects, feelings) to other group members, who then show the sounds, phrases, and movements of that story, which might be retold multiple times in different ways. The warm-up is followed by the action stage, in which a group member (i.e., the protagonist) tells a story through an enactment that involves other group members who assume roles in the protagonist’s life. The group facilitator (i.e., the director) supports the protagonist in setting up the enactment and facilitates the psychodrama, which may involve group members “showing” (i.e., through movement, sound, or phrases) an experience, a feeling, or a relationship that the protagonist wants to explore. In psychodrama, students can tell their story, participate in another group member’s story, and have a collective experience together as a group (Moreno,1994, 2011; Moreno & Moreno, 1969, 1975).  

The last stage in a psychodrama is the debrief, where the protagonist, members who played roles in the enactment, and audience members (i.e., group members who were not assigned roles) reflect on what they experienced and witnessed (Moreno,1994, 2011; Moreno & Moreno, 1969, 1975). The debrief stage may lead to the next story to be explored through another psychodrama or be followed by journaling or expressive writing (Baikie & Wilhelm, 2005; Degges-White, 2017) to support storytelling, re-authoring narratives, and counter-storytelling. Students can engage in expressive writing as a group, or in individual reflective writing time after a psychodrama. Exploration of multiple perspectives and externalizing problems, key concepts in narrative therapy, can occur through psychodrama, dialogue, or writing (Besley, 2001; Nafziger & DeKruyf, 2018; Patrick, 2017; White & Epston,1990). Narrative therapy is a strengths-based theory, making it relevant in a culturally sustaining context. A specific tool that challenges deficit-based thinking, counter-storytelling (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002) focuses on untold stories and lifts up the voices of populations that are marginalized, making it another option for school counselors who wish to ground their work in culturally sustaining practices that promote living authentically and finding and cultivating an authentic voice (Atkins & Oglesby, 2019; New York State Education Department, 2018).   

The ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors (ASCA, 2021b) that correspond to the proposed intervention address lifelong and self-directed learning (M.6, B-LS 4), as well as teamwork in diverse groups (B-SS 7). The lead author has used psychodrama in groups with middle and high school students, who were exploring familial relationships, adolescence, and navigating transitions. For the second author, poetry represented a powerful expressive arts intervention in her work with adolescents. 

Music: Classroom Lesson Plans and Person-Centered Approaches 

We chose the classroom level for an expressive arts intervention as a lesson plan involving music. The learning outcome we designed for this intervention is promoting a sense of empowerment, which can be achieved in many ways but may be especially meaningful when students feel empowered together in a class setting. Music reaches people on multiple levels and has implications for who we are, how we identify, and how we understand our cultural background and family history. The culturally sustaining practice connection involves both inclusivity and collaboration (ASCA, 2021a; Boulden & Goodman-Scott, 2023; New York State Education Department, 2018; Ratts & Greenleaf, 2017; Ratts et al., 2016).  

The suggested lesson plan incorporates the ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors (ASCA, 2021b) related to positive attitude toward learning, collaboration and cooperation, and cultural awareness and sensitivity (M 3, B-SS 6, B-SS 10), with the goal of creating a song that represents the class. Drawing from person-centered theory (Rogers, 1961), with a specific connection to Natalie Rogers (1993), an expressive arts intervention in the form of music supports interpersonal connections and promotes inspiration and meaning making (Uresti, 2013). An emphasis on the core conditions of genuineness, congruence, and unconditional positive regard (Rogers, 1961) can be incorporated not only by school counselors in their nonjudgmental interactions with students, but this can also be taught to the students and practiced in class as a way to foster cohesion and support among classmates. The ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors (ASCA, 2021b) (viz., B SS-4) emphasize the development of empathy as an important social skill.  

The lesson plan can be carried out with a higher or lower level of technology, depending on the resources available at the school or the personal preferences of the school counselor and students. Materials could include paper and pencils (with lots of erasers to support revisions as the song develops), rhyming dictionaries or apps, and multiple ways to record the song (i.e., on a phone, iPad, laptop). If the school has access to musical instruments, these can be brought into the classroom; however, school counselors and students can also use common objects (e.g., pencils tapping a desk, zipper on a hoodie) or their own bodies if musical instruments are not available (e.g., clapping hands, using mouth as “beat box” or pencils as drumsticks).  

The first author has used music in classroom settings; for example, by making a community playlist of songs that students use to stay motivated and inspired. Students have enjoyed the opportunity to represent themselves individually and collectively through sound, by choosing existing songs that define moments for them or creating new songs together.  

Murals: School-wide Interventions Using SFBT and Existentialism 

At the school-wide level, a visual arts intervention in the form of a school mural has the potential for showcasing a school theme, responding to a current issue, or promoting meaning-making for students and the school community (Uresti, 2013). The learning objective we started with for this intervention was collective consciousness raising in the form of engagement in advocacy, which is also one of the culturally sustaining practice elements in this example. If there is a wall that can be approved for the project, the mural can become a more permanent feature at the school. If not, it can work to use a large piece of paper or fabric canvas and attach it to a wall or place it in a hallway. Additional materials include paints and painting materials, rulers, tape, rags, cleaning supplies, gloves, and smocks.  

The theories we turned to include existentialism (Yalom, 2009), as murals often reflect people’s sense of meaning in the world; and solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT; De Shazer, 1982; Patrick, 2017), partly as a way to reframe and celebrate the skills and strengths of graffiti as an art form and also in that the theme of the mural could relate to identifying exceptions to problem patterns (e.g., a mural on the theme of grief could also be a way to honor those we have lost). Murals may reflect advocacy in support of specific causes or issues that students care about, such as climate change/disaster, and this represents a culturally sustaining aspect of the intervention (ASCA, 2021a; Atkins & Oglesby, 2019; New York State Education Department, 2018; Ratts & Greenleaf, 2017; Ratts et al., 2016). The ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors (ASCA, 2021b) for the mural project include respect and inclusion at individual and collective levels (M 2), extracurricular involvement (B-LS 10), and skills in advocacy for oneself and one’s community (B-SS 8).   

SFBT pairs well with existentialism in the focus on defining new meanings for “problems” and imagining solutions through tools such as the miracle question (e.g., “What is the first thing you will notice when this situation begins to change?”). These techniques involve co-constructing the solution and work well within a culturally sustaining framework that is strengths-based (Patrick, 2017). The mural itself can be seen as a manifestation of the miracle question, the “what if” alternative vision or solution for something that the group longs for or is actively involved in changing or achieving. The first author worked with students to create a mural in the form of a “grief wall” that started out as a group intervention and evolved into a school-wide project. The mural supported students and the adult members of the school community in making sense of losses and feeling less isolated and alone (Uresti, 2013).  

Data Collection and Evaluation Methods 

Best practices in the field include the recommendation that school counselors who implement expressive arts in their interventions collect data and evaluate the effectiveness of their interventions (ASCA, 2025; Boulden & Goodman-Scott, 2023). We value multiple forms of assessing outcomes and evaluating programs. A needs assessment is a good starting point to ensure that the interventions being developed connect with the priorities of the community. Many school counselors are familiar with using pre/posttest designs that measure change across time (e.g., surveying students before and after a group counseling or classroom lesson series) and looking at relevant quantitative data, such as attendance records, changes in grades, or graduation rates. Qualitative methods like interviews or focus groups also offer excellent options for school counselors to gather data and evaluate interventions by identifying common themes that are emergent in the data.  

Other tools school counselors might consider include developing a logic model (W. K. Kellogg Foundation, 2024) to identify what is being introduced (inputs), the activities being presented, and the outputs and expected outcomes. Because of its grassroots focus and potential for empowerment through community generated knowledge, we recommend action research for school counselors as an effective and culturally sustaining way to study themselves in their own settings to improve their practice (Mertler, 2012; Thomas, 2017; Thomas & Uresti, 2022). 

Program evaluation is more comprehensive than an assessment of a single intervention and can be formative or summative and focus on process or outcomes. We also use informal, in-the-moment assessments (e.g., asking for thumbs up, sideways, or down to gauge a response) or exit tickets (e.g., “Tell us what your ‘sticker’ is. What is one thing that you learned today that will ‘stick’ with you?”), and we vary these and tailor them to the specific intervention. When using interventions that rely on expressive arts, the evaluation method could also incorporate visual arts or another modality (e.g., “show with color your experience in counseling today” or, “write a haiku response to the lesson plan”)  Finally, peer feedback in the form of observations, informal conversations, and consultation groups can provide additional avenues for self-evaluation and reflective practice.  

Recommendations and Conclusion 

Some school counselors may already use expressive arts in school counseling, but for others, these tools might be different or unfamiliar. And as Degges-White (2017) noted, combining theory and expressive arts may be new to mental health practitioners. The model presented in this manuscript is not intended to be a prescription to be replicated exactly as we presented it. Each piece can be modified because each piece is grounded in research, theory, and best practices. For example, music or storytelling could be used in individual counseling, and mask making or murals could be adapted for use in groups. The theories supporting the development of suggested interventions could also be adapted and used at different levels. Moreover, additional theories may be appropriate for the intervention based on who the intended participants are and the rationale for the intervention. For example, the five basic needs of Reality Therapy– survival, belonging, power, freedom, and fun (Glasser, 1988)– have applications in expressive arts interventions (Davis et al., 2019; Portrie-Bethke, 2017) and may be useful to pair with a counseling group using drama therapy.   

We both incorporate expressive arts in our teaching as school counselor educators, and we also used a variety of expressive arts in our previous positions as school counselors and classroom teachers. We appreciate the role of art, music, and dance in promoting healing and hope. Including expressive arts in the preparation of pre-service school counselors helps to increase their self-awareness and confidence, along with their capacity for working with diverse clients, making them more well-rounded and culturally competent practitioners. We believe that school counselors who integrate expressive arts into their school counseling programs benefit from this inclusion because it allows practitioners to access more resources with which to support their students.   

We are proponents of lifelong learning and professional development, and this extends to our exploration of the importance of expressive arts in our professional work and in our personal lives. We also propose exploring new forms of creativity and art and applying these first to ourselves and then in our professional settings. The first author has engaged in photography as a hobby since adolescence and recently expanded her skillset by learning more about digital photography. She recommends photography as a dynamic tool for showing what we see in the world and sharing what matters to us in ways that do not have to involve words, and as a counseling intervention that can be carried out in individual, group, classroom settings, or even school-wide levels. The second author took an online art journaling class after experiencing a major loss and loved using different kinds of art media—from pencils to markers to watercolor to collage—on the same page, with both images and words to support her process. The model described in this manuscript offers concrete ideas for developing and implementing original, theory-based interventions at every delivery level, using a range of expressive arts techniques. It is our hope that adopting the approach described herein will support school counselors in increasing their commitment to culturally sustaining counseling practices and enhancing their enthusiasm for using expressive arts in their school counseling practice.  

  

 

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