What are the pros and cons of being an art therapist?

The pros and cons of being an art therapist include working with others to create positive change, personal growth, flexibility, and getting paid to do something you love, but comes at a high educational cost, low pay, and poor job outlook.

How To Become An Art Therapy Specialist: What It Is and Career Path

What is an art therapy specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Ron Precht

If you have ever wanted to use your artistic talents as more than just a hobby, then a career as an art therapy specialist might be for you. Art therapy specialists have learned how to promote the process of self-expression to treat a wide range of physical, mental, and emotional health issues.

By integrating human development, visual arts, and the creative process, these specialists can help others resolve emotional conflicts, develop social skills, reduce anxiety, recover from substance abuse, and much more! They provide their therapeutic services in a variety of settings, including hospitals, rehabilitation care units, assisted living centers, psychiatric facilities, senior communities, and schools.

Since art therapy is a mental health profession, to get into this field, you'll be expected to have a thorough knowledge of human development, psychological and behavioral disorders, counseling theories, and therapeutic techniques. Becoming an art therapy specialist requires serious study.

The American Art Therapy Association has established the minimum education standards for this profession, requiring all entry-level practitioners of art therapy to have a master's degree from an institution of higher learning recognized by a regional accrediting body and approved by the Council for Higher Education Education (CHEA). If you're interested in this field, you must also have a strong understanding of a variety of art forms, such as sculpture, painting, and drawing.

What general advice would you give to an art therapy specialist?

Ron Precht

Senior Manager, American Massage Therapy Association

Generally, metropolitan areas have had more openings for massage therapists. This is a report from the end of 2019 that has the most recent data we have available. Report

ScoreArt Therapy SpecialistUS Average

Salary

3.7

Avg. Salary $47,464

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.3

Growth rate 4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

10.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.77%

Asian 3.27%

Black or African American 6.53%

Hispanic or Latino 10.21%

Unknown 4.49%

White 74.73%

Gender

female 82.51%

male 17.49%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

7.3

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

5.3

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.0

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an art therapy specialist

Explore art therapy specialist education requirements

Most common art therapy specialist degrees

Bachelor's

58.8 %

Master's

32.6 %

Associate

5.0 %

Start to develop specific art therapy specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	22.85%
Mental Health	13.06%
Art Therapy Sessions	8.74%
Rehabilitation	5.56%
Social Work	5.03%

Complete relevant art therapy specialist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New art therapy specialists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an art therapy specialist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real art therapy specialist resumes.

Research art therapy specialist duties and responsibilities

Manage Facebook account composing creative content for daily posts to increase audience engagement
Assist therapist with ADL retraining and training of patients while in the hospital.
Create and execute art therapy program in an extend care and rehabilitation facility.
Utilize twitter and Facebook to gather general information regarding professional use of social media such as LinkedIn.

Prepare your art therapy specialist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your art therapy specialist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an art therapy specialist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable art therapy specialist resume templates

Build a professional art therapy specialist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your art therapy specialist resume.