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From Spiritfold, Australian Spiritual Alliance: https://spiritfold.com/Art_therapy

Art therapy

From Spiritfold

Art therapy is a form of psychotherapy in which making art is the main means of expression, alongside talking with a trained art therapist.[1] It brings together the visual arts and psychology.[2] In Australia, art therapists belong to the wider field of creative arts therapies, whose peak professional body is the Australian, New Zealand and Asian Creative Arts Therapies Association (ANZACATA).[3]

Description

What happens in art therapy

ANZACATA describes creative arts therapists as mental health professionals who use art, media and the creative process, such as drawing, writing, sculpture, drama, clay, sand, dance and movement, to help clients explore their feelings, become more self-aware and feel less anxious. Making something can be a way to explore and express feelings that are hard to put into words, so a session is quite different from an art class: the focus is on the person and the process, not on producing a good picture. Creative arts therapy can be offered to individuals, families and groups.[4] For the same reason, people don't need to be skilled at art to take part.[1]

Two approaches

Art therapists differ over how much weight to give to talking. Two main schools of thought, both drawing on Freudian psychoanalysis, shaped the field. Following Margaret Naumburg, art psychotherapists treat images mainly as a non-verbal "symbolic speech", and use conversation to help the client explore what lies beneath awareness. Following Edith Kramer, other art therapists see the creative process itself as healing and rely little, if at all, on talking; Kramer argued that art therapists are not psychotherapists and should not try to be.[2]

Scope

What it includes

  • Making art, alongside talking with a trained therapist[1]
  • A range of creative media within the wider creative arts therapies, including drawing, writing, sculpture, drama, clay, sand, dance and movement[4]
  • Work with individuals, families and groups[4]

What it is not

  • It is not an art class or lesson.[4]
  • In Australia, art therapy is not a registered health profession. The professions registered by Ahpra and the National Boards include psychology, but not art therapy;[5] art and music therapy are developing professions that are not yet nationally regulated.[6] "Registration" with ANZACATA is membership of a self-regulating professional body, not registration under national law (see below).
  • It is not a proven treatment for every condition; the evidence is limited (see below).[7][8]

Research

  • A 2015 systematic review for the UK's National Institute for Health Research looked at art therapy for people with non-psychotic mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety and phobias. It found 15 randomised controlled trials (777 people); in 10 of them, art therapy was linked with significant improvement in mental health symptoms compared with the control group, but the trials were generally of low quality and too varied to combine.[7]
  • The National Disability Insurance Agency carried out a rapid review. It concluded that, across disability groups as a whole, the evidence does not clearly establish art and music therapy as evidence-based supports. It found some evidence of benefit from art therapy for children with autism, and limited or mixed evidence for other groups.[8]

Traditions and lineage

Older roots

Using images to express and make sense of the world is very old, and the arts have had a part in healing rituals in many cultures, such as Navajo sand painting. In the United States, art therapy as a field dates from the 1940s.[2]

The United States

In the United States, the artist and educator Margaret Naumburg, often called the "mother of art therapy", was the first, in 1940, to define art therapy as a separate mental health discipline. She began publishing clinical cases in the 1940s and named her approach "dynamically oriented art therapy" in 1943. The painter Edith Kramer, who reached New York in 1938 after fleeing Nazi Germany, set out the second major approach in her 1958 book Art Therapy in a Children's Community.[2]

Britain

In England the term "art therapy" was in use by the 1930s, and the artist Adrian Hill is credited with formally coining it in 1942. Hill used painting as therapy for himself while recovering from tuberculosis in a sanatorium, and introduced art to other patients. British art therapy drew largely on the ideas of Carl Jung, and art therapy later became part of the National Health Service.[2] Today the titles "art therapist" and "art psychotherapist" are protected by law in the UK, and practitioners there must be registered with the Health and Care Professions Council.[1]

Australia

In Australia, the Australian National Art Therapy Association was founded in 1987. It became the Australian and New Zealand Art Therapy Association (ANZATA) in 2006, and in 2018 it joined with the Australian Creative Art Therapies Association (ACATA) to form ANZACATA. Postgraduate courses in art therapy developed in Australia, New Zealand and Asia from the 1990s. In 2007 the profession gained an Australian award wage and was included in the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations.[3]

Context

Within Spiritualism

Spiritfold has found no published source linking art therapy with Spiritualism.

In Australian Spiritualism

Spiritfold has found no published source linking art therapy with Spiritualism in Australia.

A Spiritualist perspective

Art therapy is a professional discipline, practised by people trained in both creative and psychotherapeutic methods, and a Spiritualist teacher would respect that boundary. It is not part of Spiritualism. A church or centre may run a painting or craft session, and drawing can be a lovely way for people to express what they feel, but that should not be called art therapy, because the name belongs to qualified practitioners.

There is a more practical point too. People often come to a Spiritualist church carrying grief, and a message from the spirit world, however comforting, is not therapy. When someone is struggling, a caring teacher or medium would gently suggest they see their doctor, a counsellor or a qualified art therapist, and would never stir up strong feelings in a group without the skill and time to help people through them.

Art therapy in Australia

Professional body

ANZACATA describes itself as the peak professional body for creative arts therapists in Australia, New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region, and as a member-run, self-regulating, not-for-profit company. It advocates for the profession, sets training and practice standards for professional members, supports continuing professional development and publishes a peer-reviewed journal.[3]

Training

Professional members of ANZACATA must hold a two-year master's degree (Australian Qualifications Framework level 9) that includes 750 hours of supervised clinical placement.[9] From 1 July 2026, ANZACATA offers new membership only to master's graduates; members with earlier qualifications at AQF levels 6 to 8 have become transition members for a limited period. ANZACATA links the change to growing expectations that allied health professionals providing government-funded services such as the NDIS hold a master's degree, and says it aims to become a member of the National Alliance for Self-regulating Health Professionals (NASRHP).[10] Registered members must have regular supervision, follow a code of ethics and complete professional development every year.[11]

Relationship to registered and psychological practice

The word "registered" can mislead, so it helps to be precise. Art therapists in Australia are not registered by Ahpra, whereas psychologists are.[5] ANZACATA uses the word "registered" for its own professional members, and regulates the profession itself.[3][11] It describes its registered therapists as trained at university both in creative methods and in psychological and psychotherapeutic methods,[11] and in 2016 its predecessor bodies, ANZATA and ACATA, became affiliated organisations of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA).[3] In his review of art and music therapy for the NDIS, Dr Stephen Duckett recommended a price limit in line with the rate for counselling, describing all of these as developing professions that are not yet nationally regulated.[6]

NDIS

According to ANZACATA, art therapy has been a funded support since the National Disability Insurance Scheme began. In November 2024 the National Disability Insurance Agency told ANZACATA that art therapy would no longer be a therapy support after 2 December 2024, a decision ANZACATA publicly opposed.[12] An independent review led by Dr Stephen Duckett followed. On 10 September 2025 the NDIS announced that art and music therapies would remain available where there is evidence they will benefit the participant. They should be delivered by a qualified therapist registered with a recognised professional association; a new price limit of $156.16 an hour, in line with counselling, was to take effect from 24 November 2025; and NDIS funds can't pay for art or music activities themselves.[6]

Safety and good practice

Art therapy can bring up strong feelings, which is one reason training matters. The 2015 UK review found that the possible harms people reported in qualitative studies related to strong emotions being stirred up and left unresolved, therapists lacking skill, and therapy ending suddenly.[7]

ANZACATA keeps currency rules so that practising members stay up to date for the safety of clients, and asks people who have been out of practice to show recent supervision and professional development before they can rejoin as practising members.[10]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "What is art therapy?". British Association of Art Therapists (accessed 11 October 2026).
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Junge, Maxine Borowsky. "History of Art Therapy". In David E. Gussak and Marcia L. Rosal (eds), The Wiley Handbook of Art Therapy. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 2016. Chapter 1, publisher's excerpt (accessed 11 October 2026).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 "About ANZACATA". Australian, New Zealand and Asian Creative Arts Therapies Association. Last updated 1 June 2026 (accessed 11 October 2026).
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "About Creative Arts Therapies". Australian, New Zealand and Asian Creative Arts Therapies Association. Last updated 1 June 2026 (accessed 11 October 2026).
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Professions and Divisions". Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) (accessed 11 October 2026).
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Duckett review confirms art and music therapy to continue". National Disability Insurance Scheme, 10 September 2025 (accessed 11 October 2026).
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Uttley L, Scope A, Stevenson M, Rawdin A, Taylor Buck E, Sutton A, Stevens J, Kaltenthaler E, Dent-Brown K, Wood C. "Systematic review and economic modelling of the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of art therapy among people with non-psychotic mental health disorders". Health Technology Assessment, 2015; 19(18). doi:10.3310/hta19180. Abstract read via Europe PMC (accessed 11 October 2026).
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Evidence Summary: Art and music therapy". National Disability Insurance Agency. Page current as of 26 September 2025 (accessed 11 October 2026).
  9. ↑ "Recognised Qualifications". Australian, New Zealand and Asian Creative Arts Therapies Association. Last updated 26 August 2026 (accessed 11 October 2026).
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Categories and Requirements". Australian, New Zealand and Asian Creative Arts Therapies Association. Last updated 4 September 2026 (accessed 11 October 2026).
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "Funding Schemes". Australian, New Zealand and Asian Creative Arts Therapies Association. Last updated 1 June 2026 (accessed 11 October 2026).
  12. ↑ "Arts therapists concerned for vulnerable clients as NDIS funding changes without consultation". Media release, Australian, New Zealand and Asian Creative Arts Therapies Association, November 2024 (accessed 11 October 2026).

Further reading

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