"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for.”
"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for.”
What is Art Therapy?
Art Therapy is an integrative mental health and human services profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active art-making, creative process, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship.
Art Therapy, facilitated by a credentialed art therapist, effectively supports personal and relationship treatment goals, as well as community concerns. Art Therapy is used to improve cognitive and sensory-motor functions, foster self-esteem and self-awareness, cultivate emotional, resilience, promote insight, enhance social skills, reduce and resolve conflicts and distress, and advance societal and ecological change.
Through integrative methods, art therapy engages in the mind, body, and spirit in ways that are distinct from verbal articulation alone. Kinesthetic, sensory, perceptual, and symbolic opportunities invite alternative modes of receptive and expressive communication, which can circumvent the limitations of language. Visual and symbolic expression gives voice to experience, and empowers individual, communal, and societal transformation.
Art Therapy, facilitated by a credentialed art therapist, effectively supports personal and relationship treatment goals, as well as community concerns. Art Therapy is used to improve cognitive and sensory-motor functions, foster self-esteem and self-awareness, cultivate emotional, resilience, promote insight, enhance social skills, reduce and resolve conflicts and distress, and advance societal and ecological change.
Through integrative methods, art therapy engages in the mind, body, and spirit in ways that are distinct from verbal articulation alone. Kinesthetic, sensory, perceptual, and symbolic opportunities invite alternative modes of receptive and expressive communication, which can circumvent the limitations of language. Visual and symbolic expression gives voice to experience, and empowers individual, communal, and societal transformation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do Art Therapists Work? |
What kind of credentials do Art Therapists have? |
Art Therapists work in a wide variety of settings, including, but not limited to, the following: hospitals and clinics, both medical and psychiatric, out-patient mental health agencies and day treatment facilities, residential treatment centers, rehabilitation centers, domestic violence, and homeless shelters, community agencies and non-profit settings, sheltered workshops, schools, colleges, and universities, correctional facilities, elder care facilities, art studios, private practice, etc.
An Art Therapist may work as part of a team that includes physicians, psychologists, nurses, mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, rehabilitation counselors, social workers, and teachers. Together, they determine and implement a client's therapeutic goals and objectives. Other Art Therapists work independently and maintain private practices with children, adolescents, adults, groups, and/or families. |
Art Therapy is a mental health profession that requires a master's degree from a nationally accredited art therapy graduate program.
The credential of an art therapist may look like this: Jayden Doe, MA, ATR-P Jessie Doe MA, ATR, Jamie Doe MA, ATR-BC, ATR-P: Registered Art Therapist Provisional The ATR-P designation signifies that the mental health therapist is working towards obtaining their ATR credentials and has graduated from a graduate master’s program in Art Therapy. ATR: Registered Art Therapist The ATR designation signifies that the Art Therapist has completed two years of post-graduate supervision resulting in the ATR credentials (Registered Art Therapist). The ATR is recognized as a basic credential in the field of Art Therapy. ATR-BC: Registered Art Therapist and Board Certified The ATR-BC designation means that they have met the requirements for the ATR credentials and in addition have passed a voluntary ATCB Art Therapy certification examination to become Board Certified. |