Art Therapy - Teaching Psychology

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CHAPTER 12

What Next?

What if imagination and art are not the frosting at all, but the fountainhead of human

experience?

Rollo May

Perhaps even more today when the intellect and cerebral activity is too highly valued

to the exclusion of feeling, man is turning for very life to the means of expression in the

arts.

H. Irene Champernowne

Finding Out More About Art Therapy

Now that you have read something about art therapy, you might be wondering where to go
from here. Whatever your level of interest, this book can offer no more than an overview of
the discipline. Like an aerial map of the territory, it has hopefully given you a broad view of
the lay of the land, historically and currently.
If you are not already enrolled in a training program, one excellent way to get a feeling
for art therapy is to attend an annual conference of the American Art Therapy Association
(AATA), where experiencing the workshops and hearing the presentations can give you a
condensed introduction to the discipline. Another possibility is to take an introductory
course in art therapy, if one is available where you live. Another excellent way to find out
more is to meet with one or more art therapists, if that is at all possible. You can probably
find someone through AATA, and possibly through the closest local association. Most art
therapists are pleased to be of assistance.
You may also want to volunteer your services, which will give you a more intimate
acquaintance with what it feels like to do this kind of work. Because of the wide diversity
in populations and settings served by art therapists, you need to realize that any particular
volunteer experience you may have, while it will be invaluable in your decision-making
process, cannot possibly be broadly representative.
Another way to get an idea of what art therapy can look like in practice is to watch the
film, Art Therapy Has Many Faces (www.expressivemedia.org/f1.html), which, like this