Art Therapy
Art Therapy is an expressive discipline rather than a single method, established in the United States from the 1940s through the divergent approaches of Margaret Naumburg and Edith Kramer. Its core mechanism: making an image gives the experience a form that can be looked at and altered before it has to be said, which is how the approach claims to get around verbal defenses; the object also holds sensory and pre-verbal material that talk would have to organize prematurely. This catalogue links it to PTSD, complex trauma and child and adolescent behavioral problems, typically in individual or group format, open-ended.
Related condition topics
These links support exploration. They do not establish that Art Therapy is effective or recommended for each condition.
How Art Therapy works
Making an image gives the experience a form that can be looked at and altered before it has to be said, which is how the approach claims to get around verbal defenses; the object also holds sensory and pre-verbal material that talk would have to organize prematurely
Ontology
Some experiences cannot be verbalized; creative media access pre-verbal, somatic, and symbolic dimensions of distress
Therapeutic Voice
"You don't have to talk about it. Can you show me what it looks like?"
View of the Person
A maker, not only a reporter. The session leaves behind a third thing that sits outside both people and can be looked at together, which changes what becomes sayable about it.
Epistemology
Evidence
2 condition assessments available
An overall effectiveness assessment has not been completed. Completed assessments for specific populations appear below.
Condition-specific assessments
Each conclusion applies to the population and use described. These source-based assessments do not certify the full entry or replace expert clinical review.
Dissociative Disorders
Population and scope: One middle-aged woman with SCID-D-diagnosed dissociative identity disorder; relational art therapy combined with DBR during ongoing multimodal psychotherapy.
Limited evidence
Gerge and colleagues (2025) describe reduced depersonalization and greater bodily connection in a single case. This uncontrolled, combined-treatment report cannot establish either component’s independent effect, comparative efficacy, remission, or generalization to other dissociative disorders.
Source assessment dated
PTSD & Acute Trauma
Population and scope: Veterans in residential treatment for combat-related PTSD receiving adjunctive individual art therapy plus CPT, versus CPT alone.
Randomized studies
Campbell and colleagues (2016) report random assignment by treatment-entry time: 15 assigned and 11 completed. Both arms improved without a significant between-group symptom difference. This small adjunctive study does not establish standalone art-therapy efficacy; allocation and attrition limit interpretation.
Source assessment dated
Guidelines and official sources (2)
2 clinical guideline checks
Read the recommendation and its scope. A source may discuss an approach without recommending it.
- Psychosis and schizophrenia in adults: prevention and management (CG178)
Discussed in the source
NICE says to consider the arts-therapy category, particularly for negative symptoms. This does not establish art-therapy recommendations for PTSD, dissociation or grief.
Scope: Arts therapies for adults with psychosis or schizophrenia.
- Clinical Practice Guideline for Management of PTSD and Acute Stress Disorder
Discussed in the source
VA/DoD gives creative arts therapies a neutral recommendation, naming art as an example. Specific protocols are not separately graded.
Scope: Creative arts therapies for adults with PTSD.
Recorded material under review
The existing notes below are retained separately from assessment records. These recorded claims await source checking, including study design, recommendations and numerical estimates.
Limited; some for trauma and dementia
Schouten et al. (2015) review
Some evidence for trauma and dementia. Methodological challenges.
Training and certification
Master's in art therapy from CAAHEP-accredited program. Specific graduate training required
ATCB: Registered Art Therapist (ATR); Board Certified (ATR-BC)
Master's (60+ credits) + 1,000+ supervised clinical hrs
Degree program costs
Find a trained therapist
Equity & Cultural Adaptations
Clinical cautions and blind spots
Assessment and precautions
Situations where art-making is used to avoid verbal processing of material that requires it, active psychosis where artistic expression reinforces delusional content, clients whose frustration with art materials outweighs therapeutic benefit
Blind spots
Limited controlled research; creative medium may not appeal to all clients; risk of interpretation without consent
Philosophical roots
Naumburg (art as window to unconscious: psychoanalytic); Kramer (creative process itself is healing); Winnicott (transitional space); Langer (symbolic forms); Dewey (art as experience)
Compared with other approaches
Test Yourself
Two art therapy traditions?
Show answer
Naumburg: art as psychotherapy (interpretive). Kramer: art as therapy (process is healing).