Practising Licence Programme: Dialogic-Diagnostic Arts Therapist (ONLINE)
This programme qualifies trainees who have met all requirements of the International Association of Counselors & Therapists (IACT) for admission as licensed Dialogic-Diagnostic Arts Therapists (DDAT). Artistic representations such as drawings and paintings serve as visual manifestations of an individual’s emotional and cognitive processes, as well as a means of communicating information. Trainees will develop an understanding of various artistic methods — including drawings of a house, tree, person, and family — used as dialogic-diagnostic tools. They will learn to analyse the significance of symbols, realia, artefacts, genograms, sociograms, and ideograms in visual representations to gain insight into the latent psyche and nine distinct mental states of the creator. Trainees will further apply these drawings to understand phases of socio-emotional development and family dynamics, and to identify underlying issues within depicted scenarios. Personalised intervention and counselling strategies will also be developed following the identification of social-emotional and behavioural difficulties.
IACT is the largest and most prestigious professional body of its kind, based in the USA, admitting individuals who have fulfilled the rigorous requirements of its practising licence programmes as licensed counsellors or therapists. Membership is a mark of high standards and excellence. Practising members are clinically knowledgeable, bound by high ethical standards, and widely respected. They are eligible to practise in many countries across North America, Asia, Europe, and beyond.
IACT’s practising licence comprises three tiers: Credentialed (Therapist), Registered (Assessor), and Board-Certified (Diagnostician), with Board-Certified being the highest status. As required by IACT, all coursework, assignments, and essays must be supervised and verified by an IACT-approved instructor and submitted to IACT’s Assessment Board in the USA for final assessment.
Merlion Academy is authorised to supervise and verify trainees’ work in support of their IACT membership applications, with additional support provided by the IACT Singapore and Malaysia chapters. Upon admission as an IACT member, graduates are eligible for Allied Membership with the Association of Educational Therapists (Singapore).
Admissions are conducted on a rolling basis and may commence at any time.
IACT-qualified Dialogic-Diagnostic Arts Therapists who wish to practise as Special Needs Educational Therapists are required to complete three additional top-up modules.
Course Modules:
- Module 1: Arts (Drawing/Painting) as the Creative Mode of Communication
- Module 2: Developmental Stages of Projective Drawing
- Module 3: Types of Arts as Dialogic-Diagnostic Tools
- Module 4: Arts (Drawing/Painting) for Socio-Emotional Behavioural Challenges
- Module 5: Intervention for Persons with Socio-Emotional Behavioural Issues
- Module 1: Psychological Complexes
- Module 2: Mandala Assessment and Therapy
- Module 3: Self-Awareness & Single Human Figure Projective Drawings
- Module 4: Family Dynamics & Family-Centred Circle Drawings
- Module 5: Miscellaneous Projective Drawings
- Module 1: Colours and Chromatic Analysis of Coloured Projective Drawings
- Module 2: Collective and Individual Psyches
- Module 3: Understanding Archetypes in Dialogic-Diagnostic Arts Therapy
- Module 4: Kinetic Projective Drawing Techniques
- Module 5: Case Studies in Dialogic-Diagnostic Arts Therapy
Case Study Presentation Symposium
Trainees will be provided with a detailed case study to prepare for their oral defence, drawing on all five series completed throughout the programme. An external examiner will be present to assess and grade the presentation.
Assessment:
1. Assessments are assignments-based, mainly submission of publishable journal articles and papers.
2. Guided learning hours to fulfil: 30 hours per module (150 hours per tier).
3. Non-guided learning hours (research, assignments and journal papers writing for publishing): 30 hours per module (150 hours per tier).
Practicum:
Upon completion of the Registered tier qualification, trainees are required to complete 220 hours of internship under clinical supervision at a counselling centre, therapy clinic, school, or hospital.
Duration:
8 months per tier
Entry Requirements:
Age
21 years and above
Minimum qualification
Minimum a bachelor’s degree in
i. special education, education, psychoeducational therapy, biology, medicine, counselling or psychology; or
ii. any discipline with postgraduate diploma in teaching, education, educational therapy, psychology etc.
English requirement
1. IELTS 6.5 (reading and writing must be at 6.5); or
2. A pass in English Language paper at GCE Ordinary Level; or
3. Equivalent (Pearson English Test, TOEFL).
Course Fees:
(Non-refundable one-time application fee of SGD 95.00 is payable upon application)
Programme fee
SGD 1,500.00 per module
Marking fee
SGD 50.00 per module
Payment mode
Stripe / Credit card / Alipay
Refund Terms
90% – more than 28 days before course commencement
50% – less than 28 days before course commencement
10% – less than 3 days before course commencement
0% – more than 3 days after the course commencement
