مفهوم استانداردهای آموزشی هنردرمانی بین المللی

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.

Art therapy education has taken on different forms throughout history and in various parts of the world. Early art therapist pioneers in the 1960s such as Adrian Hill, Edith Kramer, and many other artists, therapists, and art teachers discovered through experience the benefit of offering art materials to those in need of emotional healing and psychological growth (Hogan, 2001 and Rubin, 1999). They were self taught, bringing together their previous experiences and skill sets for a new purpose. As others learned of their work, they began offering trainings where professionals would gather to discuss this new way of combining the arts and therapy. As art therapy evolved from a discovery to a profession, the training became more standardized. To ensure that those who call themselves art therapists had a common foundation, workshops became formal programs often hosted at universities and accredited by national organizations. This progression that has been documented in the United Kingdom and the United States has also been noticed throughout the world. In Thailand, for example, Somjit Kraisiri has been working with mentally ill and mentally challenged individuals for over 20 years and calls herself an art therapist. She has no formal training in art therapy nor has she read any art therapy books. Reflecting on her art practice, Kraisiri discovered ways of working and in the process developed theories that resonate with those of Hill and Kramer. For some with excellent intuitive skills to enhance the healing aspects of art and with no access to training there are no other options. However, she now trains others to work alongside her. Even though there are independent examples of individuals using art for therapy and healing around the globe, interconnectivity and globalization demand that we carefully examine our terminology. Training programs around the world have a common need to respond to the challenge of how to provide knowledge in a way that is accessible, adheres to professional standards, and promotes the field. Given that there is a profession called art therapy, practitioners need to be sensitive to what it means to call themselves art therapists or to call their practice art therapy. At this point in history, when the term art therapy is used, it is branded with an expectation of a certain educational background, theoretical paradigm, and ethical stance. For that reason, formal trainings and education standards are more than a way to consolidate knowledge and ensure its appropriate distribution; it is a way to mark oneself as a profession. We were prompted to write this article when trying to conceptualize what format art therapy education should take in Hong Kong and India. In the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, educators can rely on the educational standards set by their national professional associations. In this process we asked ourselves many questions that perhaps others struggle with, as well. In parts of the world where there are no national associations or the ones that exist have not developed such standards, what course topics should be offered? Should we be beholden to standards set by associations beyond our borders? How do we integrate local cultural values? A challenge to the global education of art therapists is to define standards to determine minimally expected content areas of knowledge. In addition to the standards, there is a need to create a curriculum that functions within these standards, but that is culturally applicable and relevant. In this paper, we define what seems to be an educational standard in art therapy and our recommendations for how to ensure its adoption in a manner that is culturally relevant. To illustrate our ideas, we offer case examples in Hong Kong and India.

Although it may be impractical, unenforceable and culturally insensitive to demand one international standard for art therapy education, arriving at common ideas as to what should be included in art therapy training are important for the profession to grow on a global scale. In order to ensure world-wide sustainable art therapy training programs, we will need to find the careful balance between globalization of standards and the unique value of local traditions. A truly international standard cannot simply be a Western one imposed on the rest of the world, but rather one that has input from many different cultures. Given that the currently available standards are from the west, educators will need to reconsider the standards proposed in this article as art therapy takes shape across borders. It is important, however, for developing programs to examine existing programs and standards so that their graduates receive a comparable education. By learning from art therapy programs around the world, understanding the challenges to designing new programs and developing the profession, we can enhance the overall quality of art therapy education, which will ultimately benefit clients and professionals in every country.