The Association was first formed in 1986 and officially launched as the Irish Association of Drama, Art and Music Therapists in 1992. It became the Irish Association of Creative Arts Therapists in 1998 when Dance Movement Therapists first joined.
IACAT’s vision is to be the voice and presence of creative arts therapies in Ireland. It does this by
– monitoring professional standards of members and training institutes,
– providing best practice by ensuring members adhere to a Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics,
– supporting creative arts therapists to network, collaborate and promote their practice across modalities,
– promoting IACAT members to public and private institutions, agencies and government departments,
– seeking to establish statutory registration for creative arts therapists
– organising conferences and CPD events to ensure relevant current thinking across all modalities is available and accessible to IACAT members and allied professionals.
IACAT is run by volunteers who sit on the council and executive council (Chair, vice chair, treasurer and secretary) as elected by the membership during our yearly AGM. The association also runs sub-committees and working groups on the following subjects: code of ethics review, complaints, events, HSE, mentoring, peer support, Polyphony journal, PR/Marketing, standards and accreditation, statutory registration and supervision/CPD. The association has 2 part time paid contractors, an administrator and a journal editor.
The association has the following types of memberships: professional, student, non-practicing, associate, and organisational.
In 2020, the IACAT Dance Movement Therapists started meeting regularly to discuss the vision, work and future of Dance Movement Therapists in particular in Ireland. IACAT became an associate member of EADMT in 2021. As of 2022 there are 4 Dance Movement Psychotherapists in Ireland meeting together with 1 DMP in Northern Ireland (same island but part of the UK).
The Irish Dance Movement Therapists have trained in the UK and in the USA Unfortunately there is no DMT training in Ireland, however it is our hope to work on providing regular DMT workshops in order to continue raising the profile of the profession under the IACAT umbrella.
