If you’re looking for a career change, a job with more flexibility, or you simply want a career path that allows you to help others more, Art Therapy could be for you.
If you’ve been thinking you’d like to study counselling, but you’ve got a strong creative side – or would like to develop the artist within you – then art therapy is a great option. It’s a way of using your creative talents while also contributing to a happier, healthier world.
What is Art Therapy?
It’s a way of helping others through conflict or difficulties, helping people develop their communication skills, confidence and happiness levels through the use of the creative arts. It’s proven for its healing effects and ability to relieve pain and break through mental blockages.
Just about any art form can be used, whether it’s painting, drawing, sandplay, clay, sculpture and many others. Art Therapy isn’t about creating a masterpiece – it’s about the process of creation that helps a person work through issues and develop their inner worlds.
Art Therapy is particularly useful for helping children and working through trauma, even in a non-clinical setting.
What’s life like as an Art Therapist?
Art Therapists can find themselves in many different environments from schools to aged care facilities, and from hospitals to detention centres. Alternatively, they can work one-on-one with clients or be hired privately for groups.
As Art Therapy grows in popularity, work is becoming more readily available, with therapists delighted by the flexibility and conditions their roles offer – as well as the chance to help others heal. Many Art Therapists are also now starting up their own practices or incorporating their skills within other therapy roles.
Who can be an Art Therapist?
The idea that Art Therapists need to be skilled at art is actually incorrect. In fact, many Art Therapists haven’t practised art for a long time – but this doesn’t matter, as there isn’t a right or wrong way to go about creating things.
It’s more about expressing yourself and letting your inner feelings out than it is about creating a genuine masterpiece. On occasion, your images might be spectacular, but this is not a pre-requisite.
However, during training, prospective Art Therapists will be introduced to a range of media as well as psychological theories and counselling skills.
A prospective Art Therapist should be dedicated to making positive change on both an individual and societal level, and will emerge from training with the creative, interpersonal and therapeutic skills to do so.
A rewarding career awaits you, and we'd love to help you along the path.
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