26 • Introduction to Art Therapy
Art Therapy: What It Is and What It Is Not (DVD 2.1)
Art therapy is a unique profession, with the entry level for practitioners only after two years
of full time training at the master’s level. This is necessary because doing art therapy in the
fullest sense requires combining a deep understanding of art and the creative process with
an equally sophisticated understanding of psychology and psychotherapy.
In the years since the first edition of this book was published, an awareness of “art ther-
apy” as an idea has become part of our culture. This heightened consciousness of the heal-
ing power of art has also bred confusion. It seems, therefore, even more imperative today to
clarify the distinctions between trained art therapists and others providing therapeutic art
activities. This list includes artists-in-residence, art teachers, and volunteers who provide
therapeutic art activities to individuals under stress, from homeless shelters to hospitals.
This list also includes psychologists, social workers, counselors, and psychiatrists who
request drawings or incorporate creative tasks in their clinical practice. All of these individ-
uals are involved in significant and necessary work, whether their impact is on individual
patients and families, or on groups in the community. However, when they provide art
activities for those they serve, it is similar to but different from the work of credentialed pro-
fessional art therapists. On the DVD you can see a psychiatrist asking a child to draw (A).
Since art therapy overlaps so many other areas, a useful way to define it is to compare
and contrast it with closely related disciplines and groups. Despite the fact that art therapy is
better known today than ever before, it remains poorly defined and misunderstood by many
(B). Even when people have heard of art therapy, they are often unclear about just what it is.
Art therapists contribute to this confusion, for they have different backgrounds and ways
of describing what they do. So it is essential to know not only what art therapy is, but also
what it is not.
Many people think, for example, that art therapy means working in art with those who
are different from the norm. But the definition of art therapy does not depend on who is
being seen, any more than it is a function of where the work occurs; rather what is important
Figure 2.1 Elinor Ulman, founder, Bulletin of Art Therapy.