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Professional art therapists

Sunday, March 11 at 12:00 AM

By Susan Sabini, Centennial

As the legislative liaison and former president of the Colorado Art Therapy Association, I was pleased to see our profession merited mention in a recent Rocky Mountain News editorial (“Regulatory overkill/Lawmakers flirt with several bad bills,” March 2). Unfortunately, the statements around the legislation that recently passed the House — the “Art Therapy Requirements” House Bill 1080 — were largely inaccurate. Art therapy is a masters-level mental health profession that utilizes the creation and interpretation of art to assess and treat individuals who might have difficulty expressing themselves verbally due to age, trauma or physical disability. There are more than 5,000 such professionals across the country who are trained by an accredited art therapy graduate program in traditional psychotherapy practices that includes the specific use of art therapy.

Art therapists treat a wide variety of patients who have suffered everything from sexual abuse to the trauma associated with natural disasters to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

When working with these populations and these difficult subjects, it is important that parents and adult consumers know that their therapist is properly trained and has completed substantial hours of supervised practice. One can easily imagine how a misinterpretation of a nonverbal expression could lead to inappropriate treatment. Contrary to the suggestions in the editorial, HB 1080 does not create a new license for art therapists. The bill is in fact a small change to the current licensed professional counselor’s statute to ensure that when consumers read that a person is an art therapist, the individual is actually qualified to be an art therapist. The Rocky mistakenly characterized the legislation as a “practice act,” like those laws that prevent people who don’t have a medical degree from performing surgery. HB 1080 is not that type of legislation, but simply gives consumers an authenticated choice when making a decision.

In addition, the use of national standards is not “regulatory overkill” as suggested, but just the opposite. By using these criteria, the state Department of Regulatory Agencies does not have to create a new bureaucracy to investigate programs or graduate schools. Additionally, nothing in this bill would prevent someone who is currently practicing art therapy from continuing his or her practice. It just makes sure that consumers know that someone who is titled as an art therapist has the proper training.

Our interest as mental health professionals and Coloradans is to ensure consumers have better information when they make decisions about health-care providers for themselves and their loved ones. Passing HB 1080 will be a small, but important step in achieving this goal.

Susan Sabini is the legislative liaison for The Art Therapy Association of Colorado.

READER COMMENTS

With the 20,000 wounded coming out of Iraq, why are art therapists not used to help those with physical and mental injuries, DOD and Veterans' facilities, or as outpatients?

Posted by Wm Brandom on March 11, 2007 06:01 PM