Art Therapy in Great Britain

This chapter provides an overview of art therapy in Great Britain, drawing together a background history of the development of the profession, which includes key figures, evolving trends and issues of current concern. It shows how art therapy, although relatively small and specialised, has become an established profession in this part of the world with its own particular character. Four periods of development are identified and show how art therapy emerged out of the recovery from WWII through the social change and growth of the 1960s and 70s, the psychotherapeutic professional consolidation of the 1980s and 90s to the present day where adaption, social engagement and diversity of practice sit alongside the paradigm of evidence-based practice and research. Consideration of art theory and socially engaged contemporary art is suggested as relevant in the dynamic evolution of the profession as it faces an era of neo-liberalism and austerity.