The Healing Arts

So, herein lies the problem of operating in a field that has two distinct approaches to its practice. The problem is that, while we all spend our time learning about how this field works, the rest of the world hasn't got a clue.

I have had this conversation before with a site supervisor who prefers to work as an art therapist doing art as therapy- I am choosing to follow art as psychotherapy as my path. She discusses displeasure about so many art therapists "taking counseling jobs where they don't even get to do any art therapy". However, most listings I have seen asking for art therapists have understood an art therapist to BE more like an activities therapist. And as an individual interested in art psychotherapy, it is extremely frustrating.

So... where does that leave us? Where it leaves me is finishing my degree and getting certifications to function as a counselor/therapist in a capacity where I can use my art therapy training. The unfortunate truth of it is that we need a greater title distinction. "Art Therapist" is far too general for our field. Though we are all art therapists, we practice in vastly different ways which cannot be compared to typical therapists that differ by the theories from which they base their practice (ie Freudian, Jungian, Gestalt). In those instances the counseling is still basically the same and it is COUNSELING.

In our case, art psychotherapists are using therapy and counseling and all too frequently the art-as-therapy art therapists are functioning in open studios much like an activities/ occupational/ recreational therapist. We just need to find a way make the distinction more commonly known to those outside of the field.

It's not to say in any way that Art as Therapy is not a viable, valuable, and useful approach to the practice, just that the work is different from art psychotherapy practice.

Back around 2003 to 2005 a plan was in place to establish title protection for "art therapist" within existing counseling license laws and based on the ATR-BC credential. In brief, there has been so much internal chaos within the field that all history, legislative efforts and continuity, in my opinion, have been lost. Perhaps also opportunity for title protection has been lost, too, since windows of opportunity and momentum exist for just so long.

Now the national organization in the US has placed art therapy next to a bachelor's level field in O*NET. Like neighborhoods in general, it does matter who your neighbors are. Being next to undergrad activity therapy does not bode well for how art therapists who have much more extensive education are perceived and paid.

I hope you are working to promote the distinction you clearly articulated. Right now, art therapy is in great jeopardy of becoming an approach in all other professions because a profession cannot be many things at once and remain a profession. Just an opinion after studying this situation for 25 years.

Cathy:
Thank you as always for providing a practical, succinct overview of the issues surrounding the pursuit of art therapy as a profession.

I've written to you before via other avenues about my frustrations , so I won't go on here (too much!).

It seems to me that we as a profession need to unite on who we are and what we are doing. We need a singular voice made up of the strength of the many.

I'm at a point now in my life where I am longing to return to the field (I started working in another profession - marketing & communications because there are no art therapy jobs or even an understanding of what art therapy is in the rural area I now live in), but am torn about how to do so and still make a living (and continue to pay off my student loans, 12 years after graduating).

I am really disappointed that getting the respect I deserve as a credentialed therapist with numerous hours of supervision, board certification and a solid masters degree under my belt is not forthcoming because no one understands what an art therapist is.

It is even more frustrating to watch colleagues who have gotten social work degrees get the therapy jobs in my area with sometimes much less experience or understanding of psychotherapy. For goodness sake, you can become a "life coach" and enter into a profession that has more recognizability and better options for
decent payment - and, frankly, more respect.

I do NOT want to have to go back and get another master's degree (and probably couldn't afford to do that anyway)
I do NOT want to go through another 1,000 hours or more to be licensed as a mental health counselor
I do NOT want to have to fight with insurance companies as to the value of the services I provide.

I am, however, willing to continue to work on educating people and to start my own practice part-time in the near future. I envision it being a building from the ground up, repeating myself over and over again (as I've done in the past in former positions) as to the value of art therapy.

Wake up AATA and ATCB. We need your support to get the respect we deserve. I know change takes time, but the haphazard confusion of defining our profession has been going on for too long.

I was thinking as I read your comments how so many art therapists have been what I define as "betrayed" by their educational programs of study and by the national organization to some extent. Most of us entered and undertook art therapy graduate study to become art therapists-- that is what art therapy graduate programs pitch and offer as the carrot. But wait-- once you get into program of study, the story then begins to unfold. You are encouraged to undertake the requirements for obtaining a counseling license [in CA it is an MFT hybrid, but the CA programs are upfront about the goals and agenda]. For some a counselor license is practical, value-added and useful-- but for many, it is not because it not what they undertook grad education to become. Those who become counselors sometimes give up the art therapy piece of their passion because of practicalities and limitations of counselor jobs.

There are a couple of generations of art therapists who are left unprotected in the job market when art therapy education decided to move the field into a marriage with counseling. These individuals may either ride it out on what is now a bumpy ride to retirement years-- if they have been able to retain an art therapy position that pays enough to live on. Or they are left either laid off, terminated or replaced by those with a social work, counseling or other mental licenses and often by those who took a little art therapy continuing education. It amazes me that neither art therapy educators or the national organization has made any effort to protect these professionals who paid tuition and paid dues to the organization to support the profession.

I do not fault ATCB [the credentials board] because they are not in the business of advocacy, but in the business of administering the credential. They have been actually following their mission fairly closely and seem to paying attention to developments in the field. But yes, if there were a way that they could become more active in promoting the profession, it would be very welcome right now.

So many dilemmas, but the most disappointing piece is the lack of acknowledgment of the problems and challenges that must be addressed-- or let's call the game and be honest about what new professionals have to look forward to in undertaking study [and excessive student loan debt] in our field.

I am an art therapist who works on an inpatient psych unit, I am the head of the activites and expressive therapies dept. on the unit, I added "expressive therapies" to the title when I was promoted, the position had previously been held by a recreation therapist. Despite educating other staff; myself and the other creative arts therapists are continually referred to as "activity people." I find this frustrating, although we do play that role on the unit, and are listed on the treatment plans as Therapeutic Activities. We run groups and do not have opportunities to do much, if any, individual work. We are creative arts therapists who are also activity therapists, we run art/drama/dance groups but also games groups, goals groups, and pet therapy and are responsible for ordering movies/pizza for the weekends. Two of us have full time positions and for it to stay that way we have to be versatile. I do many open art studio groups and few art psychotherapy groups because the level of functioning on the unit is often quite variable as is the range of diagnoses. This is not my dream job but I get paid fairly well, good health insurance, and vacation. I don't think my dream job exists unless I start my own practice but I am considering moving to a state with no art therapy license and may have to go back to school to get a counseling degree. I feel very confused about my identity as an art therapist. If I were to do it again, I think I would have chosen a more practical career path.

I am an art therapist who works on an inpatient psych unit, I am the head of the activites and expressive therapies dept. on the unit, I added "expressive therapies" to the title when I was promoted, the position had previously been held by a recreation therapist. Despite educating other staff; myself and the other creative arts therapists are continually referred to as "activity people." I find this frustrating, although we do play that role on the unit, and are listed on the treatment plans as Therapeutic Activities. We run groups and do not have opportunities to do much, if any, individual work. We are creative arts therapists who are also activity therapists, we run art/drama/dance groups but also games groups, goals groups, and pet therapy and are responsible for ordering movies/pizza for the weekends. Two of us have full time positions and for it to stay that way we have to be versatile. I do many open art studio groups and few art psychotherapy groups because the level of functioning on the unit is often quite variable as is the range of diagnoses. This is not my dream job but I get paid fairly well, good health insurance, and vacation. I don't think my dream job exists unless I start my own practice but I am considering moving to a state with no art therapy license and may have to go back to school to get a counseling degree. I feel very confused about my identity as an art therapist. If I were to do it again, I think I would have chosen a more practical career path.

I am studying art therapy right know and am wondering if this was the right choice - I'm getting more pessimistic each day. In the two internship placements I had so far (one a psych unit, one a nursing home) the art therapist worked either in the recreation or occupational therapy department. In both sites the staff had no idea what art therapy is and the art therapists would spent their time mostly doing other things - bingo, birthday parties, handing out food and painting patients nails.
I was interested in this field because it is a marriage of psychology and art but in reality it seems it is nowhere realized in this manner. What is left in the "real world" of art therapy is the art making, but art as recreation and in it's most un-genuine, infantile way. In most places (when I think of my internships and what I hear from my classmates about their internships) the art therapist does not have the opportunity to do more than a recreational therapist. The job descriptions I am reading usually ask for an art or recreation therapist - indeed for most employers there is no difference.
So now I spent $60.000 and 2 years of my life to "learn" a profession I will never have the chance to truly work in - this is depressing.
But why has art therapy not been able to establish itself in the last 60 years?
The problem must lay with the art therapists who never managed to establish themselves, who accepted the "fact" that they either got an additional degree or worked as activities people. The next issue might be that the faithful members of the AATA never demanded anything in return for their yearly fees - lobbying, educating the public etc.
And of course the fact that most art therapists are women who usually are to individualistic to get-together behind a common cause and support each other.
So where does that leave us? Some will complain on blogs like this, while either giving in to the demand of further education or telling themselves to be thankful for at least having a job, even if it is in activities and they waist their masters degrees on ordering pizza and others will do....what?

I totally agree with what you have observed. To me, there is a huge disconnection between the education and philosophy of art therapy [one of psychotherapy or at least counseling, psychotherapy's much younger cousin] and the reality in the work world [which may mimic recreation therapy].

You might want to check into a lively discussion on LinkedIn if you are a member of that network [or you can ask to join, it's free] under a group called Art Therapy Alliance. This is the largest social network dedicated to all things related to art therapy and a has a number of subgroups on specific topic areas. In the main Alliance area, there is a discussion I initiated about how art therapy education is renaming degree titles as "art therapy counseling" master's degrees. Our discussion [over 500 posts long now, so be prepared] examines the impact of this choice on the development of the field of art therapy. Many have echoed what you have reported here.

"Why hasn't art therapy not been able to establish itself in the last 60 years?" is a very good question. I keep hearing things like, "we're still a young profession." No, that is not the reason because music therapy and marriage and family therapy came along at about the same time and both have done a better job at establishing themselves than art therapy. If you live in the US, I encourage you to pose your question to national leadership and demand answers and also to demand answers from the educational program that you are now in $60,000 worth of student loan debt.

Thanks for sharing your experiences here; it is only by sharing these experiences that we who are passionate about the field of art therapy can begin to make changes that will increase recognition of the profession and art therapists.