This week’s edition of The A to Z of Allied Health shines a spotlight on creative arts therapy. (Read our introduction to The A to Z of Allied Health here.) We’ll define creative arts therapists, what they do, where they work, and professional education requirements.

 

What is a creative arts therapist?

An arts therapist is a mental health professional who works with a client or patient through artistic media and practices.

Arts therapists work with individuals of all ages and groups using therapeutic techniques that are traditionally based on psychoanalytic or psychodynamic principles.

Arts therapists use a range of experiential, expressive, and creative modalities, including visual art making, drama, and dance or movement within a therapeutic relationship to inform and improve and physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing.

Art psychotherapy can be used in both therapeutic and diagnostic processes. In art therapy, the emphasis is on the process of creating and meaning-making, rather than on the end product. Art therapies are evidence-based and theoretically informed.

 

Where do creative arts therapists work?

Arts therapists work in several countries including Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and the USA, and are also recognised in several countries in the Asia/Pacific Region, including Singapore and Hong Kong.

Arts therapists work in a range of settings, including residential aged care, community health organisations, prisons, not-for-profit organisations such as crisis centres, hospitals, schools, and in private practice.

 

How do I become a creative arts therapist?

Arts therapists must have completed a two-year Masters degree in an approved art therapy program and at least 750 hours of supervised clinical practice.

In the UK, aspiring arts therapists will usually require a primary degree, experience of professional care work (usually one-year full time equivalent) and then complete a two-year Master of Arts or Master of Science degree.

Similarly, in Canada and the USA, arts therapists must hold a Master degree or Master Diploma in Art Therapy. Graduate level education requires a minimum of 700 hours of supervised clinical practice.

Arts therapists are self-regulated in Australia, New Zealand, the Asia Pacific Region, and Canada.

In the USA, art therapy is self-regulated in some states, in others, it is regulated with professional art therapy licenses, other professional licenses (e.g., in Texas, Licensed Professional Counsellor with Specialty Designation in Art Therapy).

There is one peak body for professional membership in the Australia-Pacific region: the Australian, New Zealand and Asian Creative Arts Therapies Association.

 

Which character traits are most helpful in creative arts therapy?

In addition to competency and affinity for working with artistic media, successful arts therapists tend to have the following character traits:

• emotionally stable
• insightful
• empathetic
• sensitive
• patient

 

Workforce considerations for creative arts therapy

Although art therapies have a long history in some countries including Australia—where the first association was established in 1987—there is still generally poor recognition and understanding of the profession. What’s more, inaccurate advertising of products and services as “Art Therapy” is problematic for this relatively small allied health profession.

 

Find out more

• Australian, New Zealand and Asian Creative Arts Therapies Association
• Creative Art Therapy Australia
• British Association of Art Therapists
• Canadian Art Therapy Association
• American Art Therapy Association
• Art Therapist | Health Careers NHS

 

If you have questions about the creative arts therapy, or if you wish to share your experiences as a creative arts therapy professional, please leave a comment below.

Subscribe to Allied Health Insights to receive incisive and up-to-date allied health commentary and solutions. | Browse our range of insights into the allied health professions here.

If you offer professional development or business support services for creative arts therapists or their employers, please list your business on our Service Directory.

AHP Workforce provides developmental educator workforce planning, strategy and consulting for employers, managers and public sector stakeholders. For allied health workforce solutions, contact us today.