Conceptualizing international art therapy education standards

Art therapy programs developing around the world need an educational framework to ensure that graduates have a knowledge base and set of skills consistent with peers in other countries. Currently there are many independent education standards offered by art therapy associations in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as well as two international associations. Synthesizing these requirements reveals 12 content areas that may constitute the core of art therapy education. Even within these standards, programs developing around the world need to consider local values related to health, art, therapy and education in order to establish globally relevant and locally meaningful art therapy training programs—Hong Kong and India are offered as examples of how to adapt education standards to cultural expectations.

► We review existing art therapy education standards.
► We propose standards that can serve to guide developing art therapy programs around the world.
► We offer four lenses (health, art, therapy, education) to ensure that international standards are country specific and culturally relevant.
► We compare Hong Kong and India as an example.