Therapeutic / wellness / expressive art-making
Art-making can support expression, reflection, regulation, connection, recreation, meaning, and wellness. An art experience can be therapeutic without being art therapy or psychotherapy.
Indiana ATx
ART THERAPY IN INDIANA
THE PROFESSION.
THE WORKFORCE.
THE INDIANA CONTEXT.
Understand art therapy in Indiana: the profession, education and clinical training, credentials and state licensure, places art therapists work, workforce capacity, professional recognition, and ways Hoosiers and Indiana systems can connect with the field.
ART THERAPY, CLEARLY
RELATED DOES NOT MEAN INTERCHANGEABLE.
Creative expression, therapeutic art experiences, art therapy, and art psychotherapy can all matter. Their purpose, professional role, training, relationship, and clinical context are not the same.
Art therapy is a mental health profession integrating psychotherapeutic processes with art-making and creative processes within a professional art therapy relationship. Art therapists use graduate-level art therapy education and clinical training to work with psychological, relational, developmental, behavioral, medical, neurological, social, and human experience through combinations of conversation, images, materials, sensory experience, metaphor, reflection, and creative process.
Art therapy
Professional art therapy is provided by a trained art therapist within an art therapy relationship and integrates art processes with psychological knowledge, ethics, assessment, clinical purpose, and treatment.
Art psychotherapy
In art psychotherapy, art processes are integrated into psychotherapy itself. Images, materials, sensory experience, symbolism, relationship, and verbal reflection can all contribute to clinical understanding and treatment.
ART THERAPY DOES NOT MEAN NO TALKING.
Conversation may be central to the process. Art-making adds other channels for communication, reflection, relationship, noticing, symbolization, sensory and embodied experience, and experiences that may be difficult, incomplete, or not yet available in words. The balance between verbal and art-based processes can change depending on the person, setting, goals, and moment.
FROM DAILY LIFE TO SPECIALIZED CARE
ART THERAPY CAN HOLD A WIDE RANGE OF WORK.
Art therapy can be part of everyday mental health care and highly specialized clinical, medical, neurological, rehabilitation, educational, and community work.
Daily life
Stress · change · identity · relationships ·
transitions · belonging · self-understanding
Mental health
Grief · anxiety · depression · trauma · psychiatric care ·
regulation · relational work
Development
Children · adolescents · adults · older adults ·
neurodivergence · communication differences
Medical + neuro
Illness · pain · rehabilitation · neurological conditions ·
hospital care · chronic health experiences
Systems + community
Schools · organizations · public health · community programs ·
interdisciplinary teams · group care
WHERE ART THERAPY CAN HAPPEN
Private practice
Hospitals + healthcare
Behavioral health
Schools + universities
Community mental health
Rehabilitation
Residential care
Older adult care
Disability services
Veteran + military settings
Corrections + justice settings
Hospice + grief care
Community organizations
Research + education
Interdisciplinary care
ENTERING THE PROFESSION
EDUCATION, CLINICAL TRAINING + PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Becoming an art therapist is a graduate-level professional pathway. Education, supervised clinical experience, national art therapy credentialing, and any applicable state license each have their own requirements.
Graduate preparation
Graduate-level art therapy education meeting applicable professional and credentialing requirements.
Clinical training
Supervised practicum and internship experience as required by the educational and credentialing pathway.
ATCB credentialing
Current ATCB pathways include ATR-P, ATR, board certification for ATR-BC, and ATCS for qualified supervisors.
Applicable state licensure
State licensure is a separate legal system. Requirements depend on the jurisdiction, professional license, scope, and setting.
INDIANA GRADUATE EDUCATION
Indiana has graduate art therapy education pathways at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, Herron School of Art + Design at IU Indianapolis, and the University of Indianapolis. Use IndiATA’s graduate-program resource for current program details and accreditation information.
PROFESSIONAL LANDSCAPE
CREDENTIALING AND STATE LICENSURE ARE DISTINCT SYSTEMS.
ATR-P
The Provisional Registered Art Therapist credential supports professionals who have met required graduate education standards and are completing supervised post-graduate experience toward ATR status.
ATR
The Registered Art Therapist credential reflects completion of ATCB education and supervised post-education experience standards.
ATR-BC
Board certification is awarded to eligible Registered Art Therapists who meet ATCB examination and certification requirements.
ATCS
The Art Therapy Credentialed Supervisor credential recognizes qualified art therapy supervisors who meet ATCB requirements.
Indiana state licensure
Indiana’s Professional Licensing Agency does not list an independent art therapist license among its regulated professions as of August 2026.
Other mental health licenses
An Indiana art therapist may hold another state-regulated mental health license. The legal scope, supervision, billing, employer requirements, and board oversight depend on that individual license and setting.
Different systems, different questions
ATCB determines eligibility for ATCB credentials. Indiana licensing authorities determine requirements for state-regulated licenses. Graduate programs determine their own admission and academic requirements.
Verification
Credential and license status should be verified with the body that issued it rather than inferred from a job title alone.
IndiATA is a professional association,
not a credentialing board or licensing authority.
IndiATA can provide general professional information
and help identify the appropriate system for a question,
but it does not determine individual credential eligibility,
licensure eligibility, legal scope,
or regulatory compliance.
INDIANA MENTAL HEALTH WORKFORCE CAPACITY
Mental health workforce planning depends on counting the professionals already providing care.
Art therapists are already practicing across Indiana in mental health, healthcare, education, private practice, community settings, and interdisciplinary systems. When a profession is not identified distinctly in the systems used to understand workforce capacity, part of the existing workforce becomes harder to measure, connect, and plan with.
Art therapists are already part of Indiana’s mental health landscape.
Professionals are already providing clinical care, educating future practitioners, supervising, collaborating across disciplines, and serving Hoosiers.
Accurate planning requires the workforce picture to include them.
Workforce data and professional categories shape how capacity, shortages, service gaps, workforce development, and future investment are understood.
Mental health care
Psychotherapy, assessment, trauma-competent care, regulation, communication, sensory processes, identity, grief, relationships, and complex emotional experience.
Medical + behavioral health
Interdisciplinary contribution within hospitals, rehabilitation, behavioral health, wellness, chronic illness, neurological care, and other health settings.
Schools + universities
Clinical and developmental expertise relevant to students, emotional health, disability, communication, trauma, learning environments, and professional education.
Community capacity
A profession already positioned to contribute as Indiana increases mental health access, interdisciplinary care, prevention, workforce responsiveness, and community support.
PROFESSIONAL RECOGNITION + PUBLIC PROTECTION
ADVOCACY IS ABOUT A PROFESSIONAL SYSTEM PEOPLE CAN SEE AND UNDERSTAND.
IndiATA’s advocacy work includes accurate public and professional education, workforce visibility, stronger recognition of qualified art therapists, public protection, and continued work toward independent art therapy licensure in Indiana. Clear professional categories matter because they affect how employers, systems, policymakers, the public, and the workforce itself understand who is qualified to provide art therapy.
INDIANA SYSTEMS + PARTNERS
A DOORWAY INTO THE PROFESSION.
An Indiana organization does not need to already know an art therapist or understand every credential before beginning a conversation. IndiATA can provide general professional information, help explain the field, share resources, and help systems identify appropriate professional connections.
Healthcare
Hospitals, physician groups, rehabilitation, behavioral health, wellness, and interdisciplinary care.
Education
K–12 schools, colleges, universities, student services, special education, and professional training.
Community
Nonprofits, community mental health, disability services, older-adult care, public health, and community organizations.
Workforce + policy
Employers, workforce planners, legislators, agencies, professional associations, and partners working on mental health capacity.
FIND AN ART THERAPIST
LOOKING FOR ART THERAPY SERVICES IN INDIANA?
IndiATA is a professional membership association. It does not provide therapy, assign clinicians, evaluate treatment needs, or recommend a specific clinician. Use the dedicated Find an Art Therapist resource for directory options, credential information, verification pathways, and questions to ask when contacting a professional.
Search, verify, then contact professionals directly.
Directory participation and credential registries have different scopes. The dedicated IndiATA resource explains what each source can and cannot show and how to verify professional information.
FIND AN ART THERAPISTWHERE TO GO NEXT
LEARN. CONNECT. PARTICIPATE.
INDIANA ART THERAPY ASSOCIATION · INDIATA
PROFESSION · EDUCATION · CREDENTIALS ·
WORKFORCE · ACCESS · ADVOCACY