Do Art Therapists Use Vernacular? How Art Therapists Communicate Their Scope of Practice

Abstract

Through everyday encounters, art therapists are continuously developing their own professional discourse. This professionally bound talk, forever evolving, both separates and binds art therapists with other mental health professionals. The purpose of this inquiry was to examine through an online survey how art therapists speak about their scope of practice. A total of 60 participants completed the survey and the findings were analyzed using discourse analysis. A conceptual framework was developed to visually communicate the relational and process-driven nature of the findings. Because this was a pilot study, many considerations for future research were generated to build on our findings and to enhance understanding of how we use language to shape and define us.