Art therapy and children: a review of past and current practice

Abstract

This paper explores how art therapy has been and is used to help children with emotional, developmental and behavioural problems. It reflects changes in the theoretical base of the discipline over the past 60 years from the 'child-centered' art education movement stemming from the work of Frank Cizek in Austria, through the contribution of D.W. Winnicott, child psychoanalyst in the UK. The bringing together of insights from art education and psychoanalysis resulted in a powerful intervention which has been refined as a result of postgraduate training and is now used in a range of public and private health and social care settings. (Socio-historical research)