Personal experiences and cultural factors can shape art therapists' art making preferences and aversions. By reflecting on the Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC), the author explores the impact of these realizations on her clinical practice with a case example. Implications for practice include the importance of understanding oneself as an…

This article describes a phenomenological inquiry into the art and narratives of artists of the Holocaust. The author interviewed four Holocaust survivors and one child of a Holocaust survivor, each of whom provided a narrative account of their experiences of creating artwork in camps or ghettos during World War II. Phenomenological analysis…

A 10 week supportive arts program was conducted in Jinja, Uganda via the collaboration between a local nongovernmental organization, a Ugandan artist, and two art therapists from the United States. The artist facilitated weekly artmaking sessions for former unhoused youth being served by the organization, as well as engaged in weekly virtual…

While the intersections of normalization and outsider art have been articulated in studio art therapy practice with people labeled/with IDD, little attention has been given to the intersection of art therapy, artists labeled/with IDD and disability art. As a counter-cultural endeavor rooted in a political movement, disability art offers a distinct…

Since the beginning of the field, many art therapists have used artwork as a practice to help them manage and understand their work with clients. In contemporary times, this form of creativity is known as response art. Some of the original writings about response art refer to its use to elucidate countertransference. This article provides an…

The Artist in Residence at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland offers an arts program that is deeply engaged with the field of disability studies. By moving beyond an exclusively medicalized model of disability, hospitalized children and adolescents are situated as experts on their own lived experience. Artists, art therapists, and pediatric…

This brief report describes the growth and expansion of the Art"Access" program at Queens Museum in New York, NY, that is shaped and operated by art therapists and teaching artists. Art"Access" was first piloted in 1983 as Please Touch for individuals who are blind or have low vision. The authors conducted oral history research…

Both art therapists and artists in health care commonly facilitate art processes in health-care environments. Their work is based on the shared belief that the arts and creativity can enhance quality of life, particularly during difficult times. Although art therapists and artists generally view their work as distinct, their respective fields are…

This article details a community-based art therapy mural project with young people involved in New York City's justice system. To address the racial and economic oppression they confront, the project aimed to increase social bonds and create social power shifts within a collective community. Examples from two projects, "Good Art: Bad…

The words art therapists use to describe their work and the definition(s) of art therapy they provide to the public are forms of communication that not only inform those outside the field of art therapy, but also shape practitioners' thoughts, practices, and professional identities. It is asked to what extent the definitions of art therapy reflect…

Long-posed questions about art therapy's artistic and psychological polarity are revisited when the profession is introduced into a new country. In a symposium dedicated to the process of advancing the profession in Colombia, attendees who were unfamiliar with art therapy raised questions that resonated with the historical polarity of art versus…

From an opportunity to explore Cuba in a people-to-people exchange that included study of its history and society; discussions with members of the Cuban community, artists, guides, and a professor; and personal experiences while traveling, this viewpoint offers insights into the sociopolitical culture and creative engagement within which the Cuban…

This viewpoint appeared in its original form as the catalogue essay that accompanied the exhibition "Multiplicity and Self-Identity: Trauma and Integration in Shirley Mason's Art," curated by the author for Gallery 2110, Sacramento, CA, and the 2010 Annual Conference of the American Art Therapy Association. The exhibition featured 17 artworks by…

This article describes a community art therapy program that was designed to promote health and well-being in old age. Observations of diverse participant interactions in the nondirective therapy studio over the course of 6 years revealed the benefits of art making and how it may influence well-being during the process of advancing age. Program…

This article discusses ethical questions raised by an exhibition of work by an artist with a history of mental illness and the exhibition's relevance to art therapy and “outsider art” discourse on the subject. Considerations for how such an exhibit could be handled had the circumstances included an art therapist and art therapy client are…