241CHAPTER 11
Professional Issues
Thus, the art therapist combines several disciplines. [S]he is at once artist, therapist, and
teacher. To maintain a sound balance between [her] several functions is [her] greatest
skill.
Edith KramerEvolution of Art Therapy Education
This chapter describes the development of educational programs in art therapy, the training
required to be a competent art therapist, and some of the unique aspects of learning in this
field. It is also about the evolution of standards for educational programs and for practice,
as well as the development of art therapy in regard to public and professional awareness.
Although the discipline is still quite young, it can fairly be said to have come of age in many
of those areas distinguishing the professions.
In order to promote art therapy education, the American Art Therapy Association
(AATA), founded in 1969, first needed to define a competent practitioner, and then to artic-
ulate guidelines for training. The development of standards for both individuals and train-
ing programs is described below. In order to understand how art therapy education has
evolved, I will first review some of the many paths people have taken.
Becoming an Art Therapist
Learning by Doing
Most first-generation pioneers were truly self-taught, including Edith Kramer and Margaret
Naumburg, each inventing her theories of art therapy from her own learning and experi-
ence. Also self-educated were artists like Edward Adamson in England and Mary Huntoon
in America, both of whom worked with patients in an intuitive fashion. The guidance they
received from the psychiatrists who initiated and supported their presence was usually to
do what came naturally.
The idea in most settings where art was offered to mental patients was to make avail-
able the healing properties of the creative process itself. From the outset, there was a fear