A Brief History of Art Therapy

 

A Brief History of Art Therapy

For centuries, art and drawing have been used all over the world as tools for communication, storytelling, self-expression, and social interaction.

As far back as there have been humans, there has been art. Just think of the original cave drawings.

Art as a therapy practice was only accepted more recently. The term ‘Art Therapy’ was coined in 1942 by Adrian Hill, a British artist, who attributed painting and drawing to his recovery from tuberculosis. However, the benefits of the practice of art for emotional health go back further than this.

In 1915, Margaret Naumburg, often referred to as the Mother of Art Therapy, established the Walden School in New York. Naumburg believed that children should be allowed creative freedom and that allowing them to pursue subjects that interested them would enable healthy development.

Naumburg wrote several influential books on the topic of art therapy, believing that when creative pursuits are seen as another form of expression, they can be used in conjunction with traditional communication to unearth repressed and unconscious memories and emotions.

Her work led others to begin exploring the field, building its reputation within the psychological community, including:

• Florence Cane, an art educator who began to use teaching methods that encouraged artistic expression and emotional creativity.
  
  
• Edith Kramer, who developed a more process-oriented art therapy approach based on psychotherapy ideas of the ego and that promoted the development of identity.
  
  
• Elnor Ulman established the first journal in the United States dedicated to art therapy, alongside one of the first training programs for psychologists wishing to train in art therapy.