The 25th anniversary of the American Art Therapy Association marked the introduction of a new ethics document for art therapists. The issue of what to do with client-made art is one of the most confusing and controversial. The new Ethical Standards for Art Therapists solve some problems, but not others. Encourages more professional discussion of…

This paper explores what art therapists can learn from career counseling and how to apply and adapt these strategies with recent art therapy graduates who are looking for a job postgraduation. Art therapists are a distinct group of career-counseling consumers because they face unique challenges in the job market, including changing health care…

A need exists within the profession of art therapy to address issues of managed care, licensure, and provider reimbursement. While the profession struggles on both the state and national level with issues of livelihood and recognition, there are still philosophical questions within the field which remain unexplored. This article addresses a theme…

Although many clinicians use drawing tasks to assess children who have been exposed to family violence, few professionals are aware of current research in this area. Professionals should be apprised of the graphic indicators of child abuse in drawings, reliable art-based assessment tools, and legal and ethical principles surrounding the use of…

Possibly one of the most confusing and controversial aspects of the practice of art therapy has been the maintenance, storage, and disposition of client art expressions. The AATA (American Art Therapy Association) Code of Ethics for Art Therapists and its 1994 revision, "Ethical Standards for Art Therapists," are critiqued. There has been…

Although art therapy has traditionally focused on the use of art expression in psychotherapy, the practice of medical art therapy has begun to grow rapidly. This paper provides a brief overview of the emerging specialty of medical art therapy and its importance as a counseling tool with people suffering from serious health problems. The paper…

Children's art not only provides a window to children's problems, it also gives them another language with which to share feelings and ideas. This book provides an overview of the multidimensional aspects of children's drawings, and is intended to assist therapists in working with children and their drawings. Chapter 1 discusses projective tests…