What is Art Therapy?

I used to get that question a lot, but now, almost 30 years after becoming an art therapist, art therapy has become much more mainstream. The question has shifted from what it is to how you use it.

Art Therapy uses the Creative Process and mediums to communicate and explore aspects where words fall short. While words can explain or assist in processing what emerges during sessions, it is the experience with the art form that fosters insight and transformation. In other words, art can sometimes support you with deeper access to past wounds that affect your life in the present.

Art Therapy utilizes art materials provided at the therapist's discretion, which may include pencil, paint, clay, collage, or other options.

Dance/Movement Therapy, as the name implies, uses dance and movement to explore and interpret the material the client brings to the session.

Drama Therapy includes acting, performing, and expressing to reach and connect with what the client is working on.

Music Therapy uses sound, song, melody, instruments, and voice to address clients' needs.

Poetry Therapy is where the form and sound of the words reach what the left-brain language misses. Writing, speaking, and reflecting are part of this process.

There are overlaps, and depending on the practitioner’s background, training, and experience, therapists utilize elements from other modalities to address their clients’ needs.

Art therapy is a profession that requires at least a master’s level of study and training in mental health and psychology, as well as the utilization of art media and creative processes to assist people in coping with various internal challenges.

In the USA, the profession is governed by the American Art Therapy Association (AATA) and the American Art Therapy Credentials Board (ATCB). They establish the standards and requirements to ensure that art therapists meet the necessary educational and practicum hours as well as fulfill the professional, legal, and ethical criteria needed to practice under the title of Art Therapist, which includes passing an exam.

In New York, there is a license for Creative Arts Therapists (LCAT). LCATs must meet the standards set by AATA and ATCB and pass the New York State Exam administered by the New York State Education Department (NYSED).

In New York, the LCAT is an umbrella for all CATs seeking licensure as a Mental Health Practitioner, and these are the five categories included:

• Art Therapy

• Dance/Movement Therapy

• Drama Therapy

• Music Therapy

• Poetry Therapy

What Can Art Therapy Help With?

Art therapy has many applications, including assisting adults and children with cognitive impairments, improving eye-hand coordination, enhancing decision-making skills, and supporting addiction recovery.

In my private practice, I have witnessed adults transitioning from disorganization and scribbles to organization and form. I am reminded of Katherine, who was an artist. Her work was meant to be expressive, but instead emerged as a muddy haze. She could not find direction in her job or her relationships. She only knew she was angry and confused.

Over time, while continuing to create her art in and out of sessions, giving occasional directives, and being her companion on this journey, her work became expressive and clear.

Is Art Therapy Evidence-Based?

Yes, Art Therapy is an evidence-based practice. Multiple research studies have supported its effectiveness for a variety of mental health conditions. Studies include neuroscience connections in that art-making affects brain activity and emotional regulation.

From the start, Margaret Naumburg, educator and psychoanalyst, considered the “mother of art therapy,” began to explore the use of art therapy in the 1940s and published case studies. Adrian Hill, an artist and writer, formalized the term “art therapy” in 1942 and explored its use in mental health settings.

More recently, Girija Kaimal, an art therapist, professor, and researcher at Drexel University, has conducted studies exploring the effects of art therapy on stress and brain activity. Other university research teams, including those from Drexel University and Indiana University, have also carried out studies.

This is How I Discovered Art Therapy

I was going to be an artist. I studied art from California to New York, practicing my skills and showcasing my work. Then, I treated myself to a summer visiting my family in Greece. I fell in love with Greece and decided to extend my stay after getting a job teaching English and securing an apartment with a view of the Acropolis. Once settled, I took what was supposed to be a short trip to the island of Chios for a Tai Chi retreat. While there, I was riding on the back of a Moped with a friend when a drunk driver hit us head-on.

The next thing I knew, I was in a hospital in Athens, surrounded by friends and family. It took me two years to fully recover. My recovery included physical and art therapy. I began to use my art in ways I had not before, and it felt more meaningful to me.

After my recovery, I began teaching art at an American college in Greece and acquired an art studio and an apartment near my workplace. While I loved teaching and my students, my interests expanded beyond helping my students with technique and form. My art therapist at the time encouraged me to come to New York to study art therapy under Art Robbins specifically.

This meant coming to Pratt Institute, which also has fine arts programs. I ended up completing my art therapy studies there and getting a master's in fine arts.

After graduation, I found work teaching art to Special Education students in NYC. At the time, there was no line for “art therapy,” so I taught art to K-12 Students. In the classroom, I was told I could do art therapy, but I could not call it that at the time.

In Special Education, there is a lot of trauma. Given my accident, early life experiences, and work with traumatized children, specializing in trauma felt like a natural choice when I started my private practice. I quickly devoured trainings that I loved and that provided me with tools to work more effectively with my clients.

The unspoken spirituality that unfolds is an unexpected but happy result of working with trauma. I’ve also allowed myself to embrace my “Woo” that I thought I was supposed to hide as a Clinician.

With my Greek Art Therapist, most sessions were in Greek. When I came to the US, I found another excellent art therapist who helped me transition back to America and into adulthood.

Art does touch what words cannot.

Why Do I Use the Term Therapeutic Art?

Fast forward to the present. I am still an art therapist and continue to practice; however, when I wear my coaching hat or run a course or workshop, I engage in therapeutic art. I will explain more below about how I use art therapeutically.

I cannot use the term “Art Therapy” here because it is a licensed profession. If you were my psychotherapy client, filled out all the forms, and lived in a state where I am licensed, then we could talk. But here, I am practicing Therapeutic Art.

What is Therapeutic Art? Similar to Art Therapy, Therapeutic Art utilizes the creative process but does not involve diagnosing, prescribing, billing insurance, or establishing a formal treatment plan.

I continue to facilitate a creative learning experience using art materials and draw on the knowledge gained from my training and experiences, but I am not limited by the constraints of licensure. Instead, I apply insights from my Mandala certification, Interactive Guided meditation certification, Reiki certifications, and Intuitive Coaching Certification, for example.

As a Therapeutic Art guide, I incorporate my intuitive gifts into sessions, allowing Spirit to guide my clients and me to where we need to be and what we need to know through the creative process. I might even include my knowledge of astrology and Oracle cards.

For so long, I’ve felt a deep connection to the creative process; it is a place I go for sustenance and insight. Over the years, I’ve learned to facilitate others on this journey. Integrating the tools I’ve gathered as an art and trauma therapist melds beautifully with the freedom of a coaching relationship. Using Therapeutic Art, I am not a therapist but a professional walking side by side, respectfully and supportively, with you.

Benefits of Therapeutic Art

When we make Art, research has found that it reaches many parts of the brain, i.e., the visual cortex, frontal lobe, amygdala, medial prefrontal. Without effort, it changes our brain waves into a more relaxed Theta, Alpha, and Gamma waves.

As we make art, we involve the body, our thinking slows down, our brain changes, and we shift our state of being. This enhances our brain functioning, nervous system, and feelings. It raises our serotonin levels, which affect our mood; we create new neural pathways of thinking, and visual expression activates our feel-good center of the brain.

While making art, we engage those healthy areas of our brain, building and expanding how we think. If done in the presence of a knowledgeable, safe person to help channel whatever may come up, so we do not become overwhelmed, growth happens.

Making art is therapeutic, and shifts and realizations happen organically when facilitated in a group or individually.

For instance, art helps externalize what is happening inside, which can feel like a huge relief. It is no longer in me, but out there. And as a guide in these processes, it is my job to hold space for the “out there.”

What Art Techniques Are Used In A Session?

There is no limit to which technique, it all depends on the interest and ability of the people in the session.

My recommendation is to start with dry media (pencils, paper, move on to markers, and crayons) and move up the spectrum from dry to wet media like paint and clay at the other end of the spectrum.

As a trained art therapist, I am aware of the techniques, materials, and psychological processes. However, I keep that information in the back of my brain as I work with clients now. Now, I am more concerned with the Gestalt of the person, the whole mind, body, and spirit. Now, I am acting as an Intuitive Coach who has many tools that she may or may not use, that are not beholden to a treatment plan to guide my client’s needs, at least not in the CHI Creative Healing Integration™ programs. This is where I bring my knowledge of art and art therapy, knowledge of EMDR, knowledge of somatic experiencing, and knowledge of hypnosis, Reiki, and oracle cards, to my work, for instance.

How to Get Started with Therapeutic Art

What I offer here is not Art Therapy. I am not diagnosing you, and I am not creating a treatment plan that needs to be approved by your insurance company.

I am, however, bringing my expertise, knowledge, and tools to my work with you. One of my favorite and effective art modalities is the Mandala.

The Mandala I practice is based on the MARI (Mandala Assessment Research Instrument). It was created by Joan Kellogg, an art therapist who based her work on Carl Jung's use of symbols and colors to create a visual picture of the human psyche.

While I studied the MARI system many years ago, I now incorporate its principles into the mandala-making sessions I facilitate. These sessions are not clinical; they’re personal, intuitive, and restorative.

Upcoming Workshop:

To experience this process, please join my upcoming workshop, Energy Leaks Mandala Workshop.

If your energy feels scattered, depleted, or stuck, this experience offers a gentle yet profound way to return to yourself. Through the creative process, we’ll explore where your energy may be leaking and how to begin reclaiming it.

This is a nurturing, supportive space. No art experience is necessary, just your curiosity and openness.

The live workshop will take place on Sunday, June 22, 2025, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. EST via Zoom. There will be a recording of the replay for those who cannot make it live.

Want more information? Click Here.

With love,