Graduate Diploma in Expressive Arts Therapy – SUSS

Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) is in a unique position to offer an expressive arts therapy programme as it serves a wide range of professionals in the educational, health and social service sectors, and it is set up to deliver courses for adults already in practice. For many years, requests have been forthcoming for a part-time arts therapy course for those unable to pursue it full-time. Hence, our Graduate Diploma in Expressive Arts Therapy (GD XAT) programme offers not only a part-time and more flexible option, but also includes different art forms like play, art, mind and body work, narrative and storytelling. Through these in-depth opportunities, professionals could employ expressive arts therapy to combine psychology and the creative process to promote emotional growth and healing. This multi-arts approach uses our innate desire to create – via play, art, music, dance, poetry or any other artistic form – as a therapeutic tool to help initiate change.

Our GD XAT creates new connections with emerging Asian models of expressive arts therapy in India and Hong Kong. It presents a psychological approach that is humanistic in orientation. As a Graduate Diploma, graduates will not meet the requirements for full registration as an expressive arts therapist or qualify them to practise as therapists. However, it will form the basis for the eventual development of a full masters programme which will qualify graduates to register as International Expressive Arts Therapists with IEATA (International Expressive Arts Therapy Association) that is based in the US. Graduates from GD XAT should be eligible to register as Registered Expressive Arts Consultant/Educator (REACE) with IEATA and when they progress to the masters programme with the requisite clinical hours and supervision, they will then be eligible to be Registered Expressive Arts Therapists (REAT).

Students of our GD XAT programme are required to complete 30 credit units consisting of six core courses, inclusive of a personal creative practice with reflective journalling and some supervised practice, before they graduate.

Core Modules

• XAT501 Asian and Western Theories of Creativity
• XAT503 Techniques of Counselling and Therapy in an Asian Context: Core Skills and Methodologies
• XAT505 Play in Expressive Arts Therapy: Theory and Practice
• XAT507 Mind and Body Work in Expressive Arts Therapy
• XAT509 Art Making in Expressive Arts Therapy
• XAT511 Narrative and Storytelling

Applicants must possess an undergraduate degree or an equivalent qualification from a recognised institution.

For SUSS graduate programmes that are conducted in the English Language, you must meet the English Language Proficiency Requirement (ELPR)* if your undergraduate degree is not awarded by an English-medium university, or your undergraduate degree is awarded by an English-medium university but the language of instruction was not English.

* at least an IELTS (Academic) score of 6.5, or a TOEFL score of 580 (paper-based) or 85 (internet-based), or a PTE Academic score of 58, or C1 Advanced score of 180 [score must be obtained within the last 2 years at point of application].

Applicants with an undergraduate degree that was conducted in English but awarded by a non-English medium university must produce an official letter from the university to certify as such in order to seek waiver of the ELPR requirement.

This programme is currently unable to take in international students, i.e., you must be a Singapore citizen, permanent resident or a resident in Singapore (e.g., Employment Pass holder) in order to apply for admission.

Dates
For more information on Application Dates, click here.

Fees
For more information on Fee, Scholarships and Finance matters, click here.

Singapore University of Social Sciences
463 Clementi Road
Singapore 599494

Tel: +65 6248 9777
Email: student_recruitment@suss.edu.sg