260 • Introduction to Art Therapy
United States. When psychiatrist Bertram Brown, for example, was Director of the National
Institutes of Mental Health, his support facilitated many things, including the publication
of two bibliographies of art therapy literature (Gantt & Schmal, 1974 (A); Moore, 1981 (B)).
Starting in the 1960s, the Maurice Falk Medical Fund supported studies and films on
dance (C), drama (D), and art therapy (E) in Pittsburgh. In June of 1979, Philip Hallen, pres-
ident of the fund, suggested and funded a two-day Conference on the Creative Arts Therapies.
This Washington meeting, hosted by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), was an
opportunity to inform the invited decision makers. Perhaps even more important, the feed-
back from others led to the formation of NCCATA, mentioned above, which was also facili-
tated by support from the Falk Medical Fund. It was fortuitous for the arts therapies that
Brown and Hallen were married to dance therapists, and that the then-president of APA was
married to an art therapist.
Philip Hallen had also suggested that a Task Panel on the Arts in Therapy & Environment
be part of the President’s Commission on Mental Health. Thanks to his influence, since I
was president of AATA at the time, I was able to serve as a consultant in 1978. In this role,
I could speak in support of the lone creative arts therapist in the group. Together, we were
eventually able to persuade the initially skeptical artist and educator members of the panel
to include the arts therapies in their recommendations.^4
From 1976 to 1982, I served on the board of the National Committee * Arts for the
Handicapped (NCAH, now VSA Arts—www.vsaarts.org). At this critical period for public
awareness of art therapy, it was very helpful to have a voice for the creative arts therapies in
that group. In 1979, NCAH funded a meeting co-sponsored by the American Art Therapy
Association and the National Art Education Association.^5
As with the APA Conference and the Task Panel, these are examples of the kinds of pub-
lic information activities essential to the growth and development of the new discipline of
art therapy. Recognition and collaboration, by and with others with our interests, was the
goal. Such alliances and representation are now widespread, for example the Society for the
Arts in Healthcare (SAH), the Health Professionals Network (HPN), the Joint Commission
on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), the American Association of
State Counseling Boards (AASCB), and many others.
Concluding Thoughts
Despite the difficulties of learning to be an art therapist and of honing one’s skills—not
to mention the obstacles to recognition by others—the discipline continues to grow. It
is impressive that a large percentage of students in art therapy training programs are
pursuing a second career. They are often artists, teachers, nurses, or other health care
professionals, who want to use their ability to help others to create in a more deeply sat-
isfying fashion.
Because of the complexity of doing responsible art therapy, the required two years of full-
time training—in theory, practice, and self-knowledge—are an essential first step. In order
to become a Registered Art Therapist (ATR), the neophyte art therapist must accumulate
at least 1000 hours of supervised work beyond the master’s degree. To be board certified
(ATR-BC), the registered art therapist must pass a written examination, and must accumu-
late 100 Continuing Education Credits every five years in order to maintain it.
Serious art therapists have always continued to learn, even before continuing education
was mandated. And the motivation to do so is great, because being an art therapist is both ter-
rifically challenging and intrinsically rewarding. I believe that art therapy is such immensely