The Person Picking an Apple from a Tree (PPAT) is an art therapy assessment task that is scored using the Formal Elements Art Therapy Scale (FEATS) to identify a client's mental health symptoms and progress in art therapy. Normative data are needed to empirically validate assumptions about the PPAT. This report summarizes a normative study of the…

The purpose of this single-subject experiment was to test whether a link exists between emotional state and color usage in a common art therapy technique. The researchers hypothesized that when coloring a pre-drawn mandala, participants would choose warm colors when they were anxious and cool colors when they were calm. The non-random sample…

How does arts activism relate to concepts of voice, issues of social justice, and ideas about sustainable change and transformative processes? Does arts activism imply a particular set of values? This article describes an arts activism course that is designed to raise critical discourse on these and other questions and to provide a structure for…

Creative-arts therapy groups offer university students powerful ways to address intrapersonal and interpersonal concerns. These groups combine the strengths of a traditional process group with the benefits of participation in the expressive arts. The creative process draws students in, invites insight and introspection, and facilitates outward…

There is a clear need for greater diversity in the field of art therapy with particular attention to increasing the representation of students of color in art therapy training programs. However, little to no data exists on how art therapy programs are actively recruiting for diversity. Diversity in the classroom can offer novel perspectives on…

All too often individuals with disabilities in the popular media are portrayed as people to be pitied or super humans to be admired. Film is one important resource that helps form the public's beliefs and dispositions about people with disabilities. With that in mind a film festival was designed to provide authentic representation of people with…

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…

This article discusses ethics in the context of the participatory culture of social media as it relates to art therapy. The authors present the view that social media formats are important venues for expression that contribute to interpersonal connections and social learning via the active participation of their members. To make informed ethical…

Students who enter a creative arts therapy program without prior exposure to a patient population experience a complex developmental journey towards creating their own identities as art therapists. In this study, 21 graduate students were asked to draw how they saw their patients and how their patients saw them. The directive was repeated 3 times…

The prevailing conception and practice of education perpetuates a civilization saturated with a deep sense of ontological disconnect and axiological crisis in all dimensions of human life. We examine the disconnect from body, senses, and world in the practice of education. We explore the possibilities in the burgeoning contemplative education…

Shrinky Dinks[R] are a plastic-sheet material that shrinks, hardens and thickens when heated in a traditional or toaster oven. The material was a favorite of generations, but many contemporary students and professionals in art have never had the opportunity to play with the unique media. This article discusses Shrinky Dinks and the importance of…

Head Start, a U.S. federally funded program, prepares children for school through early childhood intervention in social-emotional and cognitive arenas. This article describes program evaluation survey results from the past 5 years of an 18-year collaboration between a university graduate art therapy program and 8 Head Start centers. Graduate art…

Art therapists increasingly are turning to educational and presentation technology to expand awareness of their field and to inform others in mental health care. This trend supports inquiry into how art therapists interact with and emotionally respond to the demands of technology. This paper presents a qualitative study that used 3 art-based focus…

Image making is a common component of art therapy supervision but its use has not yet been formally evaluated. This article describes formative evaluation research used to investigate student responses to art-based supervision in which response art was used as a primary method to contain, explore, or express clinical work. Art-based supervision,…

In this outcomes study (N=40), changes in stress levels were compared across two participant conditions for a period of artistic activity with a cognitive focus on either a personally stressful or positive situation. Results indicated that participants in the positive-focus condition demonstrated a significant decrease in stress, whereas…