266 • Introduction to Art Therapy
It wasn’t hard to convince my committee of the need for more literature in this still-
small discipline.
By the time I published The Art of Art Therapy ten years later (1984), there were just 19
more books by art therapists. But only 10 years after that, 100 additional books on art ther-
apy had been published. Despite the fact that I had noticed my shelves gradually filling up
and spilling over, I had not realized how extensively the literature in art therapy had grown
in the intervening decade until I began reviewing it for this revised text.
Books by art therapists themselves have continued to proliferate, as well as more and
more from our colleagues in Great Britain, where the first book in the field since Hill and
Lyddiatt was published in 1984—Art as Therapy (Dalley, 1984). Because there are so many
recent publications of note by art therapists on both sides of the Atlantic, an alphabetical list
is available in the References. Selected books by individuals in related fields are also listed.
Indeed, this revision took a great deal longer than I had anticipated, largely because there
were 200 new books on art therapy and related areas.
Conference Proceedings Beginning with the seventh meeting in 1976, AATA has pub-
lished annual Proceedings, the title of each being the theme of the particular conference.
Until 1982, they contained many of the papers and panels in full, and these are listed in the
Resources section at the back of this book, along with the titles for each year. Since 1987,
one-page abstracts of conference presentations have been published annually, a list of which
is available from the AATA office.
Although no longer published by S. Karger as Psychiatry & Art, e d itor I re ne Ja k a b h a s c on-
tinued to print the Proceedings of the American Society for Psychopathology of Expression
(ASPE) and ISPE congresses when they have been held. Like AATA proceedings, the title of
each one is the theme of the meeting. The Resources list also includes contact information
for English-speaking professional associations. For information about specific countries,
the best resource is the International Networking Group of Art Therapists.
Art Therapy as a Career
Reality Check: Jobs and Salaries
Perhaps you have already read, observed, volunteered, and gone to conferences, and you are
becoming more and more convinced that art therapy is right for you. In fact, you may even
be enrolled in a program of study. However, because art therapy is still so new and in some
areas relatively unknown, you should be aware that jobs are not easy to find. And while the
salaries are much better than they used to be, they are only recently becoming comparable
to those in fields with similar training.
It is therefore critical that anyone deciding to study art therapy be absolutely certain that
it is right for them. If it is, the rewards are immense, and the potential for personal growth
and satisfaction is tremendous. But if income and job security are vital, you will want to be
very sure as well as pragmatic about your career choice. Although some of my art therapy
colleagues might consider this advice heretical, I think it is only fair and honest to describe
the situation, at least as it is in 2009.
For a full-time job as an art therapist, following what is usually two years of full-time
training, you may be able to find a job in your community if you are lucky, or you may need
to relocate. If you cannot move, you may have to work hard to create or modify an employ-
ment situation where you can have the pleasure of using what you have learned. It is not easy