Art Therapy Certification and Licenses: What You Should Get
Art Therapy Certification and Licenses: What You Should Get
Maybe you’re contemplating getting the formal art therapy training (master’s) and having a license/certification in it. But you don’t know exactly WHAT to get. I talk with people about this in my carer consultations and it’s always very dependent on several factors like… what state do I live in? What is the regulation? And what do I want to do? (Nonclinical vs clinical etc).
And to find your specific answer, you have to do a little digging on the internet, and it can get confusing, so I’m here to help you out. *Please keep in mind that this is ONLY for people in the United States
I’m going to discuss 4 different scenarios — (1) You’re in a state where there is an art therapist license or title protection (2) You’re in a state where there is no license (3) You want to do clinical work, no matter where (4) You want to do nonclinical work (no matter where you are).
The scenarios are broken down into whether your state has regulation around art therapy AND whether you want to do “clinical” art therapy work or not.
(And please note, this blog, and anything on this website is not legal advice. Please seek a legal professional if you are looking for such advice).
Continue below to see the answer for each scenario.
(Or watch this video:)
Before we get into the scenarios, just know these 2 types of credentials you can have:
Registration / Board Certification — this is a credential given by the Art Therapy Credentials Board. It is shortened to ATR or ATR-BC so you will see these credentials after an art therapist’s names. Registration means that the person is a “registered art therapist,” who has completed the required master’s degree plus post-graduate supervised hours to be a qualified art therapist. You get Board Certification (BC) when you additionally pass an exam.
License - LCAT, LPC-AT, LCAT, LCPAT, LPCC, LPC, LCPC, LMFT, LCSW, etc — each state has a different art therapist license name, or it might not have a separate art therapist license, but categorize them under the counselor or marriage & family therapist license. This is an official state license to provide mental health treatment. (Some states do not have a license for art therapists).
Now that that’s covered, let’s get into the scenarios.
You’re in a state where there is an art therapist license or title protection
If you’re in a state with an art therapist license or title protection, you must get the license (could be counseling) — LPCC, LCPC, LPC, LMFT etc to do art therapy work or be hired as an art therapist.
Each state has its own license name and regulation so do check your state’s board or the AATA (American Art Therapy Association’s) website for general updates on this.
2. You’re in a state where there is no license
If you’re in a state without license nor title protection in regards to art therapy, your option is to get an ATR-BC (or any other related certification like REAT).
You don’t need a “license” per se because there is no license in your state (unless you want to do psychotherapy, then that is a different story — you would need a license for that). So as long as you’re providing strictly “art therapy” then you can simply obtain the ATR or ATR-BC for hiring purposes or for starting your own private practice / business.
3. You want to do clinical work
In this scenario, it doesn’t matter WHERE you’re going to live/work. This applies to all states. The scenario is… you want to be self-employed and work with people with insurance and work through managed care.
This means:
you want to be employed at organizations
you are open to doing non-art therapy work like counseling, verbal therapy, recreation therapy, case management, etc.
In this case, you are wanting to do “clinical” psychotherapy work. This means you would need another license (or degree) to practice (clinical) art therapy.
Your state may have an actual art therapist license, or something else like counselor license, marriage family therapist license, and/or clinical social worker license that allow you to provide psychotherapy. That is the one you would want to get.
Of course, which one you get depends on the specifics of what you want to study and in what capacity you would want to be hired in organizations. If there is an art therapist license, that may be good if you want to have a whole master’s in art therapy. However, many art therapists also say that they went for a different mental health provider license like counselor or LMFT because it opens up more employment opportunities and also reimbursement from insurance companies if you’re self-employed.
Now, what if you don’t want to do “clinical” work? If that’s the case, read carefully:
4. You want to do nonclinical work
This is for people who:
you don’t mind getting creative with your title or the name of your services;
you like to create a flexible business
you don’t like to take insurance, work with medical model, or take the traditional 9-5 path
In this case, then you would not need a license or certification. This is because you are not trying to do clinical art therapy — which is a psychotherapy service. You are trying to do nonclinical work — which is simply applying art to help people with their well-being, but not “treat” their mental health diagnosis or illness.
With nonclinical art therapy work, you will likely not be able to call yourself an art therapist per se (if you don’t have the credentials & clinical background) in many states because that title is reserved for only those with with certain license/certification.
If you’d like to have some sort of credential, you can go for ATR or ATR-BC. However, there are also shorter trainings available that you can take to prepare yourself for this type of work.
So…. How to make this easier you say?
The easiest way to decide is to know what you want! For example, who do you want to work with? Where do you want to work in? Do you want to have your own business? What type of art therapy service do you like? What would be your dream work?
If you do not have much experience or knowledge to make this decision, I recommend getting some experience first and explore yourself bit more (perhaps through art therapy :))
I also recommend to get help and talk to art therapists. Talking with them will give you more perspective than trying to figure things out on your own.
I have openings for career consultations as well, if you want to get tailored help figuring out what to do to do art therapy work. See here for details.
Hope that this was helpful! Bookmark this page or share with a friend who might need this!
x Youhjung
p.s. If you are curious about therapeutic art and want to learn how to facilitate it or incorporate it in your work, then I’ve got the ✨perfect✨ resource for you. My Therapeutic Art Facilitation School course is THE place where you can learn the foundation of nonclinical, therapeutic art work. I teach you my step by step signature method of using therapeutic art to help people, even if you’re just starting (no artist or therapist background needed). Want to learn how to do this? Check out my therapeutic art course here.
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