Creative Arts Therapist

Job Title: Creative Arts Therapist

Location: NEW POINT CAMPUS

Department Name: Adult Psych (AP)

Req #: 0000268704

Status: Hourly

Shift: Day

Pay Range: $29.39 - $37.24 per hour

Pay Transparency:

The above reflects the anticipated hourly wage range for this position if hired to work in New Jersey.

The compensation offered to the candidate selected for the position will depend on several factors, including the candidate's educational background, skills and professional experience.

At RWJBarnabas Health, our behavioral health teams work collaboratively to deliver safe, compassionate, and transformative patient care. Joining our team means becoming part of a premier academic healthcare network dedicated to clinical excellence and community healing. Within our Adult Psych department at the Trinitas New Point Campus, we are seeking a dedicated Creative Arts Therapist to design and facilitate expressive interventions. This clinical position integrates the creative process with traditional counseling to minimize distress, build insight, and foster long-term resiliency. If you are a compassionate clinician eager to define a superior healing experience through teamwork and empathy, we invite you to build a rewarding career with us.

A Typical Day
As a Creative Arts Therapist, a typical day might include the following:

• Facilitating Expressive Therapy: Developing and conducting individual or group treatment interventions using an integrated creative arts framework to elicit expression from verbally defended clients.
• Conducting Clinical Assessments: Assessing patients' social, perceptual, physical skills, and recreational resources in strict accordance with discipline-specific clinical standards.
• Building Patient Insight: Utilizing symbolic content and the creative process to diagnostically uncover clinical information, increase patient self-understanding, and enhance problem-solving skills.
• Collaborating on Care Continuity: Partnering with the multidisciplinary team to formulate, implement, and dynamically update comprehensive treatment plans and post-discharge resource mapping.
• Managing the Therapeutic Milieu: Organizing daily program activities, maintaining a clean treatment environment, and monitoring critical changes in patient behavioral or physical conditions.
• Supporting Crisis Stabilization: Participating actively in the immediate management of clinical crisis situations under direct nursing or administrative leadership.

This Role Might Be For You If:

• You are deeply passionate about providing a safe, supportive, and non-judgmental healing space for individuals navigating severe trauma and psychiatric challenges.
• You are highly imaginative and excel at adapting therapeutic activities to resolve internal conflicts and teach relaxation techniques across diverse patient groups.
• You take operational pride in documentation excellence, ensuring concise professional assessments are logged in compliance with hospital policy.
• You maintain an exceptional professional demeanor, high emotional resilience, and clear communication across multidisciplinary medical teams.
• You believe that true behavioral recovery and patient comfort are optimized through structured visibility, open communication, and deep empathy.

To Be Considered:

• Education: Minimum of a Bachelor’s or Master's Degree (BA/BS/MA/MS) in Art Therapy, Music Therapy, Recreational Therapy, or Dance/Movement Therapy is required.
• Certification: Active Board Certification in your respective creative modality is required. Must hold or obtain an active American Heart Association (AHA) BLS Provider Certification within six months of hire.
• Experience: A minimum of six (6) months of prior experience working directly within a behavioral health or psychiatric setting is required.
• Physical Stamina: Physical coordination to manage active standing, walking, constant hearing ability, and color vision acuity required to review patient artistic submissions.