Art therapists increasingly work outside traditional mental health treatment programs and facilitate art-making experiences within community-based settings. Although traditional mental health facilities provide frameworks for meeting ethical principles such as privacy, roles, consent to treatment, and setting therapeutic goals, community-based art…

This viewpoint proposes a model of art therapy integrated into an alternative art education program. Because of the pressure to meet educational standards, school systems may be less likely to support clinical programs that take students out of their classes. A blended model of art therapy and art education that utilizes effective strategies from…

This article is a reprint of the viewpoint which originally appeared in 2004 (volume 21(3), 163-167). It is a memoir of a horrific experience, expressed through drawings. The author takes the readers with him on his very personal frightening journey of quintuple bypass surgery. He not only tells the readers, he shows them how making art became a…

This is the appropriate time in the evolution of the profession of art therapy to re-create its image and explore a new model of the profession responsive to the postmodern mental health climate. To that end, the author would like to take the reader on a fantasy trip and hypothesize what it would be like to move the birth of this profession…

Children today are continually bombarded with visual and auditory stimulation, and many make their connections in cyberspace to the detriment of real-time face-to-face encounters with other people. The negative effects of multitasking and technological overload on children and adolescents are discussed in this viewpoint article from the…

This viewpoint reviews several historical positions on the relationship between technology and creativity, and their implications for the practice of art therapy in the techno-digital age. The author posits that the question remains unanswered as to whether the profession will accept and become fully proficient in the use of the computer as a true…

In this commentary, the author discusses the Open Studio Project, which he cofounded in 1995. The community studio, as perceived by the founders, is a place where anything can be expressed as a moment on life's continuum. Believing that meaning in art is renewed in the process of art itself, the project is not conceived at art therapy: there are…

In this narrative, the author relates her experiences as an art therapist of color, and describes the impact of cultural beliefs and values on her life from childhood, through education, and into the workplace. She contends that incidents of conflicts between cultures in the community, in education, and in the workplace reflect the continuing need…

This article presents a personal account of how one bicultural art therapist responded to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Highlighted are her roles in a workshop for mothers and children and assisting in schools as a facilitator. (Contains 12 references.) (GCP)

This article discusses the difficulties inherent in addressing the need for art-based assessments to place art therapy on an "equal footing" with research in medicine, psychology, education, and other mental health professions. The author questions whether it is to art therapists' advantage to strive for such "equal footing." (GCP)

The authors were both privileged and challenged to provide art therapy groups for children and their families in the aftermath of the Pentagon attack on September 11, 2001. This paper chronicles their participation with these children, describes their methods of working, and includes some information on the theoretical basis for the use of art in…

On September 12, 2001, the Techniques in Art Therapy class in the art therapy program at Albertus Magnus College met at its normal Wednesday evening time. This article describes the class session through the words and images of several class members who found the class useful in their own process of beginning to deal with the attacks and their…

Discusses the work the author did at the Children's Museum of the Arts with a parents' group with the intention of creating a healing place within the SoHo community after the September 11th attacks. Examples of the art produced, comments made by participants, and suggestions made to these parents concerning their own healing and that of their…

This essay explores a view of professions, invisible colleges, disciplines, and the diffusion of ideas. This discussion leads to the author's opinion that art therapy is a discipline around ideas, while art therapists are professionals. (Author/MKA)

Examines whether art therapy is a profession or an idea by exploring the differences implied by the words "profession" and "idea" and comparing them with the author's experiences as a art therapist. Specifically examines this question in light of the prevalent and distinguishing characteristics of those in the profession. (Author/MKA)