For Professionals
ART PSYCHOTHERAPY EXPANDS THE CLINICAL FIELD.
Art therapists are clinicians with master’s-level or higher degrees trained in art and therapy. Their professional preparation integrates art therapy theory and methods, creative process, psychological and clinical study, and supervised clinical practice.
A GENERAL PSYCHOTHERAPY CREDENTIAL DOES NOT BY ITSELF CONFER ART THERAPY EDUCATION.
Art therapists complete discipline-specific graduate education and supervised clinical preparation in art therapy. A counseling, psychology, social work or other psychotherapy credential does not by itself provide art therapy education or competence.
ART THERAPY PREPARATION IS SPECIFIC.
Graduate preparation includes art therapy theory and methods, materials and techniques, assessment, psychological and developmental study, ethics, research, multicultural and social issues, and supervised practicum and internship.
THERAPY DOES NOT NAME A UNIVERSAL TRAINING STANDARD.
The word therapy does not establish that care is trauma-informed or that a clinician has trauma-specific competence. Those capacities depend on relevant education, supervision, experience, scope and practice. This applies across disciplines, including art therapy.
WORDS ARE ONE FORM OF COMMUNICATION.
People differ in how they use language, what words mean to them and how readily experience can be organized verbally. Art psychotherapy can work with words while also working through image, material, gesture, sensation, spatial relationships, metaphor, silence and creative process. Verbal formulation does not have to come first.
Clinical attention can include what is created and what occurs throughout the creative process: choice, pacing, movement, sensory response, material engagement, use of space, repetition, revision, association, metaphor, emotional shifts, regulation and the meaning the person gives the work.
MATERIALS ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE.
Different media create different sensory, motor, perceptual, physical and cognitive demands. Art therapists consider material properties and the person’s response to them clinically.
MEANING IS NOT ASSIGNED TO THE PERSON.
Art therapists do not apply universal meanings to colors, symbols, forms or images. Meaning is explored with the person in relation to their associations, context and creative process.
BRAIN + BODY MATTER WITHOUT BECOMING A FORMULA.
Creative process can involve sensory, motor, perceptual, affective, cognitive, symbolic, embodied and neurobiological processes. These dimensions are considered in context rather than treating an image, material choice or creative response as a direct measure of brain function.
The Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC) is one framework art therapists may use to consider kinesthetic/sensory, perceptual/affective and cognitive/symbolic modes of processing, with a Creative dimension across the continuum.
ART THERAPY MAY BE PROVIDED AS PSYCHOTHERAPY OR WITHIN COORDINATED CARE.
The role depends on the clinician’s qualifications, setting, professional scope and applicable requirements.
WHEN TO REFER
Referral can be appropriate when art-therapy-specific expertise would add clinically relevant access to visual, sensory, material, symbolic, embodied or creative processes.
COORDINATED CARE
Art therapists can participate in interdisciplinary teams, coordinate care and communicate clinically relevant information within their professional scope.
ARTWORK + CONFIDENTIALITY
Client artwork can contain clinical or personally identifying information. Consent, confidentiality, storage, photography, sharing and display require ethical handling.
EDUCATION + SCHOOL SYSTEMS
Art therapy and art education are distinct professions. Within schools, art therapists and art educators can collaborate while retaining distinct clinical and educational roles.
USING ART DOES NOT BY ITSELF MAKE A SERVICE ART THERAPY.
Art therapy identifies a specific mental health profession. Professional art therapy is grounded in art-therapy-specific graduate preparation, supervised clinical education, professional ethics and qualified practice.
Verify active national art therapy credentials through the ATCB Public Registry .