Art therapy: meaning, effects, techniques and therapists

CareOps editorial team · October 28, 2026 · 10 min read

Mental wellness information and service guidance published by CareOps.

Some days it is hard to put feelings into words. When you try to explain what is wrong, the words get stuck, yet coloring on paper can loosen something. That is where art therapy begins. Here is what art therapy is, what research says about its effects, which techniques are used, what you can try at home and how to find an art therapist.

What is art therapy? #

The British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT) defines art therapy as a form of psychotherapy that uses art media as its primary mode of communication. The definition makes two things clear. People who come to art therapy need no experience or skill in art, and the art therapist is not mainly concerned with judging a picture's beauty or making a diagnosis from it. The aim is to help a person change and grow by using art materials in a safe setting.

That is why art therapy differs from drawing alone as a hobby. It involves making things with a trained therapist and talking together about what you made. In a review that gathered the experiences of people who had art therapy (Uttley et al., 2015), the helpful parts they named were the relationship with the therapist, a sense of personal achievement and a break from difficult thoughts.

Who is art therapy used with? From children to adults #

Art therapy is not only for children. A review of 27 outcome studies with adults published between 2000 and 2017 (Regev & Cohen-Yatziv, 2018) sorted them into seven groups: people with cancer, people living with various medical conditions, people with mental health problems, people who have experienced trauma, prison inmates, older adults, and people without a specific diagnosis facing everyday challenges. The same researchers reviewed studies with children separately in a systematic review (Cohen-Yatziv & Regev, 2019).

What are the effects of art therapy? What research says #

Here are the findings of systematic reviews on art therapy, grouped by who was studied. Even under the same name, the people and methods differ from study to study.

The rows come from the reviews by Uttley et al. (2015), Schouten et al. (2015), Abbing et al. (2018) and Deshmukh et al. (2018), in that order. In short, several studies found art therapy helpful, but studies are few, their methods differ too much to pool, and their quality is uneven. So how much it helps with which difficulties is a question where more research is needed. The Uttley review also noted points of caution: feelings that come up and are left unresolved, a therapist who lacks skill, and therapy that ends suddenly. Working with a trained therapist matters especially when heavy memories such as trauma are involved.

There is also research on art making itself, outside of therapy. In a study that measured the stress hormone cortisol in the saliva of 39 healthy adults before and after 45 minutes of art making (Kaimal et al., 2016), cortisol was statistically significantly lower afterward. Prior experience with art made no difference to the results. It is a small quasi-experimental study, so read it with care, but it hints that the time spent making something can help calm you down even if you are not good at art.

Art therapy techniques: free drawing, mandalas, collage and clay #

In a review of art therapy studies for anxiety in adults (Abbing et al., 2018), the techniques ranged from mandala design and collage to free painting, clay work and still-life drawing. Commonly used techniques include the following.

• Free drawing: use lines and colors as they come, with no set theme. Even choosing what to draw reveals something about how you feel.
• Mandalas: fill a circle with patterns and colors. The set frame makes it easier to start when a blank page feels daunting.
• Collage: cut out and paste pictures from magazines or photos to build a scene. It is low-pressure for people who feel unsure about drawing.
• Clay: knead, squeeze and flatten while paying attention to the feel of it in your hands. Your hands move before the words do.
• Talking about it afterward: whatever the technique, once it is done you talk with the therapist about what you made and how it felt to make it.

Five art activities to try at home #

These are not therapy, but time spent drawing and making things can be part of everyday self-care. The key is not trying to make it good.

1. Ten-minute doodle: set a timer for ten minutes and draw lines wherever your hand goes. Don't use an eraser.
2. Fill a circle: trace a circle around the base of a cup and fill it with patterns and colors. It is the simplest way to try a mandala.
3. Today's inner weather: draw how you feel right now as weather, such as sun, clouds, rain or thunder. Then pick one emotion word that fits.
4. A “me lately” collage: cut out pictures and words that catch your eye from magazines or flyers and paste them on one page. Think about why you reached for those pieces.
5. One line afterward: under your finished picture, write one line such as “While drawing, I felt ___.”

If you want to build on that last line, the four-line format in how to keep an emotion diary can help. If a painful memory suddenly comes up while drawing and feels like too much, stop there and use a grounding technique to come back to the present. Working through trauma memories is safer with a professional than alone, as described in PTSD symptoms and treatment.

How does art therapy differ from talk therapy? #

Which fits depends on your concerns and preferences. Talk-based approaches such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) are summarized in 7 types of psychotherapy. When you look for counseling, ask how it works and roughly how many sessions it takes; for costs, see how much counseling costs.

How to find a qualified art therapist #

In Korea, art therapy credentials are private qualifications issued by professional associations. For example, the Korean Art Therapy Association issues a “clinical art psychology counselor” credential at four levels (level 2, level 1, expert and supervisor), and also calls level 1 an “art therapist.” It is a private credential registered with the government but not officially accredited. The association's website lists credential holders, and you can look up whether a credential is a registered private qualification on the government-run Private Qualification Information Service.

• Which association issued the credential and what training it required
• Whether they currently receive supervision from a senior professional
• Whether they have worked with people like you, such as children, adults or people after trauma
• Session length, cost and roughly how many sessions they plan
• How your artwork is handled and stored

How stressed have you been lately? A stress check #

If you want to check in with yourself before starting art activities, the stress self-check (PSS-10) asks how overwhelming and hard to manage life has felt over the past month. You can take it right away with no login, and the score is a starting point for reflection, not a diagnosis.

If you also want to practice putting things into words #

Sometimes you want to carry what began in a drawing into words as well. CareOps Maeumi is an AI counseling app that runs sessions with approaches such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). Share the feeling in a picture you drew or a moment it brought back, and Maeumi explores the thoughts and emotions underneath with you, then remembers past sessions so the next one picks up where you left off. Get the app

This guide shares mental wellness information. If you are in immediate danger, contact emergency services where you are. Support and contact information.