When working with sex workers, mental health professionals should provide affirming and validating health care that does not further perpetuate victimization. This brief report introduces a community and open studio approach to art therapy as a potential means of increasing mental health accessibility for sex workers. Based on two case studies,…

This viewpoint highlights the author's personal lived experiences of having her family home damaged during the catastrophic events of the 2022 Queensland floods in Australia. Art therapy Open studio practices facilitated within disaster management emphasize supporting recovery, building resilience, and offering emotional safety and containment.…

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…

Reflections on 5 decades of art therapy experience continuously return to a focus on how art heals. This question is addressed along two lines of thought. The first acknowledges the simultaneous existence of transcultural, shared dimensions of art, together with infinite differences in people, communities, and artistic expressions. The second…

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…

Through everyday encounters, art therapists are continuously developing their own professional discourse. This professionally bound talk, forever evolving, both separates and binds art therapists with other mental health professionals. The purpose of this inquiry was to examine through an online survey how art therapists speak about their scope of…

Community art therapy studios promote individual and communal transformation outside of traditional health settings. In this qualitative study, 3 art therapists observed 6 sessions of a community art therapy studio by making art and writing observations. Synthesis of their findings indicated the importance of tending to healthy relationships.…

This quasi-experimental study investigated the impact of visual art making on the cortisol levels of 39 healthy adults. Participants provided saliva samples to assess cortisol levels before and after 45 minutes of art making. Participants also provided written responses about the experience at the end of the session. Results indicate that art…

This mixed methods research study examined the use of art-based teaching methods in master's level art therapy graduate education in North America. A survey of program directors yielded information regarding in which courses and how frequently art-based methods (individual in-class art making, dyad or group art making, student art projects as…

Art making offers the opportunity to reflect upon ineffable experiences, including those surrounding death and dying. This article examines the artwork of two research participants who each reported a near-death experience (NDE). A trans-personal model was used to elicit the narratives and artwork of two individuals: one who experienced a pleasant…

This article presents the results of a pilot study investigating the efficacy of art therapy to enhance cognitive performance in a sample of 24 elderly Hispanic/Latino members of a community center who participated in a weekly structured thematic therapeutic arts program. A 12-week, quasi-experimental, pretest/posttest, nonrandomized, controlled…

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…

The premise of this paper is that computer-generated art is a valid therapeutic modality for empowering clients and fostering the therapeutic alliance. The author presents traditional art making methods (drawing, painting, photography, collage, and sculpture) combined or enhanced with photopaint programs and 3D computer modeling and animation…

Discusses the use of art as a means of marking space and as evidence of existence, and presents a philosophy of art and art therapy. The making of marks, present in all human beings from an early developmental stage, is the source of the artmaking behavior. (JPS)

Discusses the studio as a therapeutic community of images where the therapist functions as keeper of the space. It is not the physical suitability that determines the suitability of the space; rather, distractions and imperfections in the space may more accurately mirror the state of psyche and so induce the passionate engagement that calls forth…