How to Earn a Living as an Art Therapist (Different Income Sources Explained)
How to Earn a Living as an Art Therapist (Different Income Sources Explained)
Today I'm sharing how you can earn a living as an art therapist and the different income sources that you can have. Not many who start out in this path may know these facts!
Working in this field, I learned along the way that there are many different sources from which you can create an income stream.
You can also watch this video where I explain in detail:
* And pssst… if you’re curious what type of art therapist career path fits you the best, you can take my assessment/quiz here.
There are 2 paths to working as an art therapist: the employee vs. self-employed (watch my last video/blog post to see the exact 4 paths that fall under these two categories). So let’s break it down into those two categories:
Income Sources for Employed Art Therapists
If you're an employee, you'll be hired by an organization or agency to provide art therapy & related services. If you're self-employeed, you have many different ways you can earn in addition providing art therapy.
2. Income Sources for Self-Employed Art Therapists
As a self-employed art therapist, you can have different sources of income (this is something you won't learn anywhere else!) Here are some of the common and uncommon ways you can earn a living:
teaching - you can teach at schools, programs, and online with courses; you may also do public speaking as a part of your teaching work)
publish books - as an art therapist, you can write and publish a book. Selling books can become a part of your passive income as well.
selling artwork - since many art therapists are active as artists as well, you can also sell your own artwork. You may do this at shows, conventions, fairs, or online through your own website or a third party website.
consulting - because you have specialized training in art therapy, you can consult for organizations on how to incorporate art therapy or just share your professional knowledge to help other helping professionals. You may also offer career consultations to future art therapists as well.
providing supervision - art therapists can also become certified art therapist supervisors, providing guidance & support for other art therapists, especially art therapy trainees and early career art therapists.
digital products - you can have passive income from digital products like ebooks or courses or affiliate income (if you do online business) from blogging
The possibilities in this day and age is endless. You have to think big, and think outside the box. It is 2020, and art therapists may need to catch up to all the ways that we can work in this era.
But of course, this is IF you want to do these things (you have to think about what truly makes you happy). Sometimes we don’t want to do all these (strictly speaking) non-art therapy work. Maybe we want to just stick with art therapy work. Then how do we make sure that we’re earning a decent living?
How to make sure you’re earning enough
So if you are doing purely art therapy work, you have to understand 2 things in order to make sure you’re earning a living. And they are: (1) market and (2) mindset.
With market, I’m talking about demand for art therapy services. As an art therapist seeking a job or seeking clients to fill in your private practice, it’s smart to know where there is more demand vs where there is less demand for art therapy services.
When I say demand, it could be the number of people seeking your services, but it’s more about the value they put on your services or the degree of need they have for art therapy.
So think about where would there be more "demand" or need for your services. E.g., I find that usually "private" settings offer higher salary. Freelancing is the same. Big cities, compared to more rural areas, also offer more positions and higher pay. I also have seen that federal positions have better chances for higher pay as well. Essentially, you want to understand who or where art therapy is more valued or needed, and go to where that is.
The second part to making sure you earn a living is mindset. Many of us have certain beliefs and mindset around earning an income as an art therapist. Perhaps we have limiting beliefs that say we won’t earn enough, or we won’t find a good job, or be able to thrive.
It’s very common to hear how “scarce” everything is in this career field. Many of us believe that there’s a lack in jobs, employers, clients, or pay. Be aware what you are believing right now, because your belief affects the results you get within your career, including your income.
When we believe in the lack scarcity (of everything), we tend to stay stuck in the same dissatisfying situation, whether that is low pay or poor work conditions, etc. We may not let ourselves to think big and reach for what we truly want. And then we find ourselves still stuck in the same situation.
To break this cycle, it requires you to let go of limiting beliefs and scarcity mindset around jobs/income. It requires you to change them around so that you believe in more empowering beliefs.
Because the truth is that, as Henry Ford once said, no matter what you believe, you’re probably right. I used to have a lot of limiting beliefs around what art therapists can earn, and that’s when I used to be paid around $20/hr.
But I realized that I didn’t want this to stay the same. I wanted to feel like I was thriving, not just surviving. I began to work on my inner beliefs and change them around. And because of that, I was able to leave unfulfilling, low pay work and begin earning so much more doing what I love.
When you bust through your limiting beliefs and mindset, you bust through your income ceiling. It is all about inner work. You gotta do the inner work if you want to see results in your career, in your business.
Let me know, what limiting beliefs do you have around income or working as an art therapist? Share in the comments below.
I know art therapy work/business is confusing to navigate and there’s not a lot of information out there (I feel you!). If you want some real guidance for starting your own online art therapy business, I invite you to my Visionary Art Therapists Business course, a guide where you’ll get the strategy and the support you need to start your dream art therapy business & start seeing online clients faster.
With that said, I really hope that this was helpful for you to learn. Thanks and see you next time!
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