Looking back, looking forward: New masters-level creative arts therapists reflect on the professional impact of an interprofessional community health internship

• Service learning incorporates educational standards of creative arts therapies.
• A summer community health experience cultivated awareness of health disparities.
• New creative arts therapists gained experience in interprofessional collaborations.
• Participants developed awareness of systems issues for those living in poverty.

In the Philadelphia area, the Bridging the Gaps Community Health Internship Program (BTG) is a city-wide community health service learning program primarily open to graduate-level students of health professions, including medicine, public health, dental, pharmacy, social work, creative arts therapies, occupational and physical therapy, and law. Interns in the seven-week, paid, summer program work in interprofessional teams four days per week at a community site and spend one day each week in presentations, workshops, and small group discussions. Six creative arts therapists who participated as graduate students in this non-curricular internship during the summers of 2007 and 2008 were interviewed in 2011 to examine their perceptions of the impact of BTG upon their professional identity as new creative arts therapists. The study suggests that the internship cultivated in these participants a foundation for interdisciplinary clinical work that is socially and culturally aware. Shared themes included awareness of social determinants of health, healthcare as a privilege, and differing perspectives in healthcare environments, as well as increased empathy for marginalized and vulnerable populations. The authors recommend interprofessional learning opportunities that foster the development of clinicians who acknowledge their clients’ sociocultural differences and systemic interactions.