Art Therapy

Art therapy is a recognized mental-health profession in which a trained, credentialed therapist uses art-making — drawing, painting, collage, clay, and other media — as a way to help people process feelings, communicate, and cope with illness or distress. It is not a drawing class, and you do not need any artistic skill to benefit. The point is not the picture; it is what happens in the person making it, and in the relationship with the therapist who helps them make sense of it. This page explains what art therapy actually is, who it tends to help, and — honestly — how strong the evidence is. The short version: the research is genuinely encouraging in a few areas, especially cancer care, trauma support, and dementia, while still being mostly small, varied, and hard to blind. Alongside that, there is a simpler, well-supported truth: for most of us, the plain act of making something with our hands can lower stress and lift mood, whether or not a therapist is involved.

Table of Contents

  1. What Art Therapy Really Is
  2. How It Helps and Who It's For
  3. Trauma and PTSD
  4. Anxiety and Depression
  5. Cancer and Serious Illness
  6. Dementia
  7. Children and Adolescents
  8. The Everyday Stress Relief of Making Art
  9. How Art Therapy May Work
  10. Honest Caveats About the Evidence
  11. Getting Started, Safety, and the Bottom Line
  12. Research Papers
  13. Connections
  14. Featured Videos

What Art Therapy Really Is

Art therapy is a regulated clinical profession, not a hobby with a nice name. In most countries a practicing art therapist has completed a graduate degree, supervised clinical hours, and a credentialing or licensing process. In the United States the credential is the Registered Art Therapist (ATR) and, with an added exam, the Board Certified (ATR-BC) designation, overseen by the Art Therapy Credentials Board; in the United Kingdom, "art therapist" is a protected title regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council. These practitioners are trained in both psychology and studio art, and they use the art-making itself as part of the treatment.

The everyday tools are ordinary: pencils, paint, pastels, magazine collage, clay, sometimes digital drawing. What makes it therapy is not the material but the therapeutic relationship and the goals. A therapist might invite someone to draw "how your week felt," notice what appears on the page, and gently talk it through — using the image as a bridge to feelings that are hard to say out loud.

It helps to be clear about what art therapy is not. It is not an art class, where the goal is a good painting and skill matters. It is also distinct from simply doing crafts at home — though, as you will see below, that kind of self-directed creativity genuinely helps wellbeing too. Both things are real and both are covered on this page: clinical art therapy delivered by a credentialed professional for a specific difficulty, and the broader, gentler benefit of making art that almost anyone can reach on their own.

How It Helps and Who It's For

The core idea is simple and humane: some things are hard to put into words. A frightening memory, a grief that feels shapeless, a worry a child cannot yet name — these can sometimes be shown before they can be spoken. An image gives a person a way to externalize what is inside, to point at it, and to look at it together with someone safe. That is why art therapy is so often used exactly where words run out.

Common settings and groups include:

In nearly all of these cases, art therapy is used as an adjunct — a helpful addition alongside standard care such as medical treatment, talking therapy, or medication — rather than a replacement for them.

Trauma and PTSD

Trauma is one of the oldest and most intuitive uses of art therapy. When a memory is stored more as sensation and image than as an ordered story, a nonverbal medium can offer a way in. Art therapy has been used with combat veterans, survivors of abuse, refugees, and communities recovering from disasters.

The honest picture of the evidence is supportive but still limited. A systematic review by Schouten and colleagues found that art therapy was associated with reductions in trauma symptoms in several studies, but that the studies were small and varied enough that firm conclusions were not yet possible. A randomized controlled trial by Campbell and colleagues in service members with combat-related PTSD tested art therapy added to standard trauma-focused therapy; it found benefits for engagement and expression, illustrating both the promise and the difficulty of studying this work rigorously. In plain terms: many clinicians and patients find it valuable, early trials are encouraging, and the field still needs larger, better-controlled studies before anyone can claim it works as reliably as first-line trauma treatments.

Anxiety and Depression

For anxiety and depression, art therapy is best understood as a modest, adjunctive help — something that can add to standard care rather than stand in for it. Several trials and reviews report improvements, though the effects are generally moderate and the studies uneven.

On the anxiety side, a randomized controlled trial by Abbing and colleagues in adult women found that a course of art therapy reduced anxiety compared with a waitlist, and the same group's systematic review concluded that the existing trials point in a positive direction while calling the overall certainty low. For depression, a randomized controlled trial by Nan and Ho found that clay-based art therapy improved depressive symptoms and general wellbeing in outpatients with major depressive disorder more than a comparison activity. Broader reviews of art therapy for non-psychotic mental-health difficulties reach a familiar, balanced verdict: encouraging signals, real-world appeal, but a body of evidence that is not yet large or consistent enough to be definitive.

Cancer and Serious Illness

Supportive cancer care is arguably where art therapy has its strongest evidence base. Here the goal is not to treat the cancer — it is to help people live better while they go through treatment: less anxiety, less distress, and a better quality of life during a frightening time.

A systematic review by Wood and colleagues found that art therapy could help with a range of symptoms and emotional challenges in adults with cancer. A meta-analysis by Boehm and colleagues focused on breast cancer patients reported benefits for anxiety, depression, and quality of life. A more recent systematic review by Bosman and colleagues again found positive effects on anxiety, depression, and quality of life, while noting the usual limits in study quality. Earlier work, such as a study by Puig and colleagues in newly diagnosed breast cancer patients, pointed the same way on emotional expression and wellbeing. Taken together, this is a genuinely reassuring area: art therapy appears to be a safe, humane, and modestly effective part of cancer supportive care.

Dementia

In dementia, the value of art is easy to see even when the data are thin. As language and memory decline, the ability to enjoy color, texture, and the act of creating often persists. Art sessions can offer engagement, moments of pleasure, calmer mood, and sometimes reduced agitation — and, importantly, a way for a person to remain expressive and connected when conversation has become hard.

A Cochrane systematic review by Deshmukh and colleagues looked specifically at art therapy for people with dementia and found that the existing trials were too few and too small to draw firm conclusions about benefit or harm. This is a case where clinical experience and common sense run ahead of the formal evidence: the practice is widely used and well-regarded in dementia care, the risks are minimal, and researchers are candid that better studies are still needed. For families, art can be a gentle, low-pressure way to spend time together that does not depend on memory or words.

Children and Adolescents

Children often say through images what they cannot yet say in sentences. For that reason art therapy has long been used with young people facing trauma, loss, illness, behavioral difficulties, or the ordinary but real stresses of growing up. Drawing can feel like play rather than an interrogation, which lowers the pressure and lets feelings surface at the child's own pace.

A systematic review by Cohen-Yatziv and Regev examining art therapy with children reported encouraging results across a range of difficulties, while — as with the adult literature — pointing to the need for larger and more rigorous trials. The reasonable takeaway for parents and caregivers is that art therapy delivered by a qualified professional is a developmentally friendly, low-risk option that many children take to easily, especially when talking directly feels too hard.

The Everyday Stress Relief of Making Art

Set the clinic aside for a moment, because there is a simpler and very encouraging finding: making art appears to lower stress for ordinary people, regardless of talent. In a well-known study by Kaimal and colleagues, healthy adults spent just 45 minutes making art. Afterward, most had measurably lower levels of cortisol, the body's main stress hormone — and, strikingly, the drop did not depend on prior artistic experience. Beginners benefited as much as experienced makers.

That is a genuinely liberating result. It means the common worry — "but I can't draw" — misses the point entirely. The stress relief seems to come from the doing: focusing your hands and attention, entering a state of absorption, and producing something that is simply yours. You do not need a diagnosis, a therapist, or any skill to reach this benefit. A sketchbook, a coloring page, some clay, or a collage on a hard evening is a small, real, evidence-informed act of self-care. This is separate from clinical art therapy, and it is available to nearly everyone.

How Art Therapy May Work

No single mechanism explains the effects, but several plausible ideas overlap:

These mechanisms are complementary, and they help explain why the same activity can serve both a veteran processing trauma and a tired parent unwinding on a Sunday afternoon.

Honest Caveats About the Evidence

It would be misleading to present art therapy as a proven cure for anything, so here are the honest limits:

None of this means art therapy does not help — the pattern of gentle, consistent, positive signals is meaningful, and the safety is excellent. It means we should be truthful: this is a promising, humane, low-risk adjunct, not a substitute for medical or psychological treatment, and the science is still maturing.

Getting Started, Safety, and the Bottom Line

Finding the right kind of help

Match the tool to the need. For a clinical concern — trauma, significant depression or anxiety, a child struggling, coping with a serious diagnosis — look for a credentialed art therapist (in the U.S., an ATR or ATR-BC; elsewhere, a nationally registered art therapist). Professional associations keep searchable directories, and cancer centers, hospices, hospitals, and community mental-health services increasingly offer art therapy as part of supportive care. For everyday stress, you can simply start on your own: a cheap sketchbook, some pastels or clay, an adult coloring book, or collage from old magazines is enough. And to say it once more, plainly: you do not need to be "good at art." Skill is irrelevant to the benefit.

Safety

Art therapy is very safe — there are no drugs, no physical risks, and few ways for it to go wrong. The one real caution is emotional: deliberately revisiting a trauma or a raw grief through images can stir up strong, distressing feelings. That is exactly why serious trauma work is best done with a trained professional who can hold the space, pace the work, and help you come back to steady ground — rather than pushing hard into painful memories alone at home. For ordinary stress relief, there is essentially nothing to worry about.

The honest bottom line

Art therapy is a safe, humane, and evidence-promising adjunct to standard care. Its strongest support is in cancer and serious-illness care, with encouraging — if still limited — evidence in trauma and dementia, and modest, adjunctive benefit for anxiety and depression and with children. Layered on top of all that is a simpler, well-supported gift available to nearly everyone: the plain act of creating something can lower stress and lift the spirit, no talent required. Think of it not as a cure, but as a genuinely worthwhile companion — to good medicine, to talking therapy, and to an ordinary hard day.

Research Papers

  1. Kaimal G, Ray K, Muniz J. Reduction of Cortisol Levels and Participants' Responses Following Art Making. Art Therapy. 2016;33(2):74-80. doi:10.1080/07421656.2016.1166832 — 45 minutes of art-making lowered cortisol in most adults, regardless of prior artistic skill.
  2. Schouten KA, de Niet GJ, Knipscheer JW, Kleber RJ, Hutschemaekers GJM. The Effectiveness of Art Therapy in the Treatment of Traumatized Adults: A Systematic Review on Art Therapy and Trauma. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. 2015;16(2):220-228. doi:10.1177/1524838014555032 — found reductions in trauma symptoms across studies, but judged the evidence still limited and heterogeneous.
  3. Campbell M, Decker KP, Kruk K, Deaver SP. Art Therapy and Cognitive Processing Therapy for Combat-Related PTSD: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Art Therapy. 2016;33(4):169-177. doi:10.1080/07421656.2016.1226643 — art therapy added to standard trauma-focused therapy improved engagement in veterans with combat-related PTSD.
  4. Wood MJM, Molassiotis A, Payne S. What research evidence is there for the use of art therapy in the management of symptoms in adults with cancer? A systematic review. Psycho-Oncology. 2011;20(2):135-145. doi:10.1002/pon.1722 — a foundational review finding art therapy can ease a range of symptoms and emotional challenges in adults with cancer.
  5. Boehm K, Cramer H, Staroszynski T, Ostermann T. Arts Therapies for Anxiety, Depression, and Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 2014;2014:103297. doi:10.1155/2014/103297 — pooled trials showed benefits for anxiety, depression, and quality of life in breast cancer patients.
  6. Bosman JT, Bood ZM, Scherer-Rath M, et al. The effects of art therapy on anxiety, depression, and quality of life in adults with cancer: a systematic literature review. Supportive Care in Cancer. 2021;29(5):2289-2298. doi:10.1007/s00520-020-05869-0 — a recent review again finding positive effects, while noting limits in study quality.
  7. Nan JKM, Ho RTH. Effects of clay art therapy on adults outpatients with major depressive disorder: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Affective Disorders. 2017;217:237-245. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2017.04.013 — clay-based art therapy improved depressive symptoms and wellbeing more than a comparison activity.
  8. Abbing A, Baars EW, de Sonneville L, Ponstein AS, Swaab H. The Effectiveness of Art Therapy for Anxiety in Adult Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Frontiers in Psychology. 2019;10:1203. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01203 — a course of art therapy reduced anxiety compared with a waitlist control.
  9. Abbing A, Ponstein A, van Hooren S, de Sonneville L, Swaab H, Baars E. The effectiveness of art therapy for anxiety in adults: A systematic review of randomised and non-randomised controlled trials. PLoS ONE. 2018;13(12):e0208716. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0208716 — concluded trials point toward benefit for anxiety, while rating overall certainty as low.
  10. Deshmukh SR, Holmes J, Cardno A. Art therapy for people with dementia. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2018;9:CD011073. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD011073.pub2 — found too few, too small trials to draw firm conclusions, underscoring the evidence gap in dementia.
  11. Uttley L, Scope A, Stevenson M, et al. 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):1-120. doi:10.3310/hta19180 — a large HTA review finding promising but low-certainty evidence across mental-health conditions.
  12. Cohen-Yatziv L, Regev D. The effectiveness and contribution of art therapy work with children in 2018 — what progress has been made so far? A systematic review. International Journal of Art Therapy. 2019;24(3):100-112. doi:10.1080/17454832.2019.1574845 — encouraging results with children across varied difficulties, with a call for more rigorous trials.

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Connections

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